COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

Who needs Favre Watch? Let Manning Watch begin. Rumors have been swirling around the Jets training center for weeks that the club might be a possible destination for Colts superstar quarterback Peyton Manning if the future Hall of Famer were made available this spring. Back in late November, coach Rex Ryan shot the idea down after Mark Sanchez completed 40 percent of his passes in a victory over the Bills; now he is trying to extinguish the rumors again. Remember: where there is smoke there is fire. Ryan defended both Sanchez and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenhiemer on the Jets awful performance against the New York Giants Saturday, saying: " I have a huge amount of confidence in both guys; there is no doubt. I have stated it over and over, my feelings about Mark Sanchez. It wasn’t Mark’s best day by any stretch of the imagination, but we know he’s done it, and he's been doing it, and we have great confidence in him, and I I have great confidence in him. "...

GIANTS 29 JETS 14 The New York Giants got exactly what they wanted for Christmas, while the Jets suffered a nightmare before Christmas. I'll get to the Giants in a bit because they have everything in their control once again. But this game was more about how badly Mark Sanchez performed, how badly Brian Schottenheimer's play calling functioned, and how Coach Rex Ryan was forced to eat his own words. The Jets not only lost a game, they completely bobbled their chance at making the playoffs. They now have to beat the Dolphins and hope that the Bengal, Raiders and Titans lose next week in order for them to make the playoffs. Trust me; the Dolphins would love to TKO the Jets next week. Furthermore, if you need more evidence that Sanchez is not a true NFL franchise quarterback, look no further than today's game against the Giants; in sum, Sanchez was inaccurate, easily rattled, and made one bone-headed play after another. He threw two costly interceptions, fumbled a ball ...

JETS 17 COLTS 16 Rex Ryan said it was personal. He wanted desperately to beat Peyton Manning in a game, playoffs or regular season, having lost to him five times. Tonight in a game that combined some gritty play by the Jets offensive line and running game, combined with a bend but don't break play by the defense, and some really bizarre decisions by the Colts coaches, led to the Jets victory in the wild card round. Now the Jets head back to New England where they got pasted 45-3 over a month ago. Quarterback Mark Sanchez was not good. Even though he hit some big passes in the second half like the 18 yard pass to Braylon Edwards to set up the Nick Folk field goal with just 19 seconds to go, he played unevenly. He overthrew his receivers, threw a huge interception in the first half that killed a potential scoring drive, and was erratic all day completing 18 of 31 for 189 yards. Trailing the Colts 7-0, the Jets came out in the second half with a purpose to pound the football. with Sh...

Last summer, when the Jets were successful in ridding themselves of Chad Pennington in a trade that brought in Brett Favre, owner Woody Johnson professed that he would never again have a weak-armed quarterback start for his ballclub. That proclimation didn't last long. This afternoon, the Jets pulled off a Mike Ditka-like performance, trading all of their day one draft selections: highly touted prospect quarterback Brett Ratliff, defensive end Kenyon Coleman and saftey Abram Elam to the Cleveland Browns, in order to move from number 17 to number 5 to nab quarterback Mark Sanchez of USC. According to Randy Lange of New York Jets.com, Johnson " bounced out of the team's draft room, his face lit up as brightly as his green tie ... declaiming, "It's very exciting ." (Lange, NewYorkJets.com ). Yes, that's right the same guy who never ever, ever again wanted a quarterback who couldn't throw, tossed away his draft for another quarterback who can't throw...