Remember the good old days, April 2010, to be exact? The Jets had just pulled off a steal of a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers for wide receiver Santonio Holmes, the MVP of Super Bowl XLIII, for a fifth-round draft choice. Despite Holmes’ off-field baggage, lots of Jets fans were excited at the prospect of quarterback Mark Sanchez having a game-breaker to throw passes to. Yes, Holmes was a great addition to the Jets passing attack. Yes, we’ll fondly recall his spectacular game-breaking and game-winning plays in 2010 against the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and the New England Patriots, especially that touchdown catch in Foxborough during the Jets 28-21 AFC divisional playoff win. Yes, having Holmes back this year with a new five-year contract gave us all reason for hope of bigger and better things.
Well, so far this season, the only thing bigger seems to be Holmes’ mouth, quite possibly in direct proportion to his paycheck, and the only thing better seems to be that Jets fans will have Holmes for a full 16-game season, as opposed to 12 games last year (he was suspended for the first four games of 2010 for violating the NFL conduct policy).
Here we are, entering just the sixth game of the season, and Holmes has not once, but twice, shot off his big mouth to the press, complaining about how the Jets offense is not playing up to his standards as one of the team captains. More specifically, he has called out his quarterback and the offensive line as not doing their jobs well enough to give him the opportunities he apparently deserves in order to shine as a star and playmaker. In other words, if the line blocked better, Sanchez would be passing better, and Holmes would not only have better personal statistics but more highlight appearances on SportsCenter... Oh, and the Jets wouldn’t be a mediocre 2-3 going into Monday night’s home game against the 0-4 Miami Dolphins.
Twice, Holmes has been rebuked, first by the legendary Joe Namath, and now by Pro Bowl caliber right guard Brandon Moore. Namath called out Holmes for potentially creating a schism in the locker room. Moore made it unequivocally clear that Holmes is indeed creating division and dissention within the Jets locker room, and that’s not how a team captain is supposed to operate. Namath and Moore are absolutely right in scolding Holmes. Two of the many unwritten rules of professionalism in sports are: Dirty laundry stays inside the locker room, and Don’t throw teammates under the bus when the team is struggling. Holmes is definitely guilty of both and deserving of a court-marshal as one of the Jets team captains.
I’ve read as much as everyone else and listened to as much as everyone else on this nonsense, and don’t need any more newspapers, radio shows and television shows to tell me the Jets are in a funk, and nobody in Jets Nation needed Santonio Holmes’ yammering about it. In the grand scheme of things, perhaps Holmes’ yammering will end up being an insignificant blip of white noise, but at the present time, six weeks into a season already shaped by a lockout, truncated training camp and preseason, and salary-cap restrictions, Holmes’ big mouth has added to considerable stress and aggravation within the Jets locker room. To say Holmes’ comments to the media have been extremely unhelpful for the team is the season’s biggest understatement so far.
Yes, the Jets are 2-3. Yes, the Jets are riding a three-game losing streak, going 0-3 on a road trip through Oakland, Baltimore, and New England. Yes, the Jets are struggling on both offense and defense, giving up big plays, making too many mistakes, and committing too many penalties. Yes, the offense has yet to find its rushing attack, rushing-passing balance, and consistency with its passing game. Yes, the offensive line has been banged-up and isn’t blocking up to its usual level. Yes, Mark Sanchez has been very inconsistent connecting with his receivers. Yes, playmakers like Holmes have yet to put up big statistics so far.
But we’re only entering the sixth week of the season, the Raiders, Ravens and Patriots are hardly pushovers (the Ravens and Patriots are considered by many as preseason Super Bowl favorites), three-game losing streaks aren’t necessarily impossible to overcome, and there really isn’t any crime in losing on the road. If one objectively looked at the Jets regular season schedule once the lockout ended, one really shouldn’t be shocked the Jets are only 2-3. In fact, an objective Jets fan would’ve expected 3-2 to be a reasonably decent start, given their recent three-game road trip. More importantly, only the most cockeyed of Jets fans would’ve expected Gang Green to have a 2011 record of 13-3 or better. Most experts and realists figured the Jets to be 11-5 (same as last season) or possibly 12-4, so somewhere along the season we all expected the Jets to lose three games. Well, those three losses are now on the books. Perhaps it’s better those three losses come in September and October, rather than in November and December?
Should we completely disregard those three losses and not worry about what we saw over the past three weeks? No, of course not. The Jets lost three games against AFC opponents, three teams all potentially battling the Jets for playoff spots in December, when tiebreakers could be critical. The Jets looked flat and a step behind against the Raiders, reminding us that speed is important and the Jets don’t have as much speed on their roster as desired. The Jets offense looked entirely overmatched against the Ravens (then again, so did the Steelers in the season opener, and Pittsburgh played in last year’s Super Bowl), reminding us that a healthy offensive line is paramount when going against an aggressive defense. The Jets offense struggled on first and third downs against the Patriots suspect defense, reminding us that if you can’t keep Tom Brady off the field, eventually he and his offensive mates will wear down and kill any defense. There were lots of little things not to like about the Jets three-game losing streak and how it transpired. However, there were no major things taking place to hint at a team completely incapable of being in the hunt for a playoff spot and that elusive Super Bowl berth. There are things to fix, and fixed these things will eventually be, because head coach Rex Ryan, and his entire coaching staff, have found ways to fix things en route to the previous two AFC championship games and one step short of the Super Bowl.
And how “bad” is the offense doing — i.e., how much is Mark Sanchez holding back the offense with his regressive play? Let’s get something straight: Sanchez’s stats are not much different than many other AFC quarterbacks. Sanchez has completed 97 of 173 passes, a 56 percent completion percentage. Granted, this isn’t exactly the 68 percent by Tom Brady, but it’s better than the 49.3 percent by Baltimore’s Joe Flacco and not far behind the 59.8 percent by Houston’s Matt Schaub. By the way, the Ravens are 3-1 and the Texans are 3-2, the Texans play at Baltimore this afternoon, and neither team is running away from the AFC pack so far.
After five games, Sanchez has thrown 8 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Only Brady, Schaub, the Buffalo Bills Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Matt Hasselbeck of the Tennessee Titans have passed for more TDs. The Patriots and Bills are both 4-1, and the Titans are 3-2. Let it also be stated that Brady has already thrown 6 picks after five games, Schaub has thrown 5, as has Matt Cassel of the Kansas City Chiefs. Supposed elite AFC quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers and Phillip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers have thrown seven and six interceptions, respectively, already. The Steelers are 3-2; the Chargers are 4-1. The bottom line is that Sanchez’s statistics aren’t glaringly different from many other AFC quarterbacks, quarterbacks held in higher regard and for teams considered more successful than the Jets so far. In fact, it looks like even the best of the best are having their off-moments, not too surprising for a season where everyone started out of synch after the lockout ended.
In fact, going into this weekend, 14 of 32 NFL teams are either 2-3, 2-2, or 3-2. In other words, almost half the league is within a game of .500 at the one-third mark of the season. This means at least half the league’s teams are still considered “in the hunt” for the playoffs with 10 or 11 games left to play. The Jets are among those “in the hunt” teams. However, given the annual hype since Rex Ryan became head coach, the Jets are expected to dominate, not simply be in the hunt. Well, if being in the hunt is below par, I can think of worse positions to be in after five weeks. Yes, the Jets could and perhaps should be playing better at this stage of the season, but they could be doing worse, and there are indeed a handful of teams who are playing considerably worse than the Jets. Maybe we should all count the Jets blessings instead of their omissions from the SportsCenter highlights list. It’s a shame Santonio Holmes can’t keep things in perspective, but then again, who knows how many times he has himself starting on his NFL fantasy team?
It’s bad enough inflated expectations have Jets fans flying off the handle and calling into radio stations as if the sky is falling during this recent losing streak, but to have players like Holmes sounding off rubs salt into everyone’s wounds. Holmes exacerbated a difficult situation and helps create more pressure than necessary when a bumbling team like the Dolphins come to town. The Dolphins are exactly what a struggling team needs to feel better and right the ship, but when fans and players are going off the wagon and losing perspective, the 0-4 team ends up having an artificial advantage because now the Jets run the risk of pressing harder to score 10-point touchdowns every time the offense takes the field. There’s no need to panic. Just work on correcting the mistakes, improving the physicality at the line of scrimmage, playing smarter and score your touchdowns seven points at a time. Consider yourselves lucky you get to fix what ails you against an 0-4 team rather than a 4-0 team. In other words, relax and play Jets football against a team that has no business challenging the Jets when playing to their potential.
Did Holmes say anything we don’t already know regarding what ails the Jets? No, but there was no value or benefit to him saying what he said, except to make himself absolvable of the team’s 2-3 start and struggles. Anyone who truly understands football and the team concept knows Holmes is full of baloney and chutzpah. If Holmes truly was worthy of being a team captain, if he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, he could have and should have said: “we’re all struggling on offense to play up to our potential. As a playmaker, I need to find ways to get open quicker for my quarterback to successfully pass the ball to me and place less stress on our offensive linemen.”
Holmes, a team captain and playmaker, should be talking about how he can help Sanchez, as well as the offensive line: Moore, Mangold, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Matt Slausen and Wayne Hunter. But Holmes isn’t about helping his teammates as much as himself. After all, charity begins at home, and apparently yards-per-catch average, touchdowns, and SportsCenter highlight catches mean more to Holmes than fighting for the ball and the tough yards. Right now, no Jets receiver has the luxury of gliding downfield for four or five seconds to catch rainbow bombs from Sanchez, so everyone needs to buckle up their chin straps and dig underneath opposing coverages to find open spots where Sanchez can reach them for modest but positive gains. Homeruns will have to take a back seat to “small ball” as the offense grinds four or five yards at a time to covert series of first downs en route to the end zone. If this is what it takes this season, so be it. If it’s simply a matter of time before jabbing away leads to bigger plays, then Holmes needs to bite his tongue, as Moore advised, and be part of the jabbing attack until the offense finally breaks through.
I was among those fans a year ago who wondered if Holmes presence might blow up on Ryan and the Jets organization. Keep in mind, Holmes wore out his welcome so much in Pittsburgh that they gave him away for a fifth-round choice only two years after being a Super Bowl MVP. When times are tough and your head coach has either enough faith or naïveté to name you one of the team captains, perhaps you should have the wisdom and humility to support your teammates like someone who was traded for peanuts, not someone who won an MVP on the basis of a SportsCenter highlight catch. It’s time Holmes finally bought into the tune “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way...” instead of constantly humming Da-da-da! Da-da-da! to himself.
As I advised Jets fans during the past week via Twitter, it’s still a long season to go, anything can happen, so try to keep the pessimism balanced a little longer. Quit griping and start encouraging your team to straighten up and play real Jets football. As for the Jets, it’s time for everyone to stop popping off to the media and figure out how to play smarter. You may not have the talent, speed, power, strength, health or depth to dominate like you expected to, but championship-caliber teams find ways to overcome challenges and struggles by using their heads better than any opponent. As I wrote in Philosophy of “Packer” pedagogy, Vince Lombardi and his teams found ways to win games when opponents had the physical advantage. There’s no reason why Rex Ryan’s Jets can’t do the same. The time has come for Gang Green to show itself and everyone else that talking a good game is one thing, thinking a good game is another.
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Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy:
Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/DavePushkin_PackerPedagogy
