E-Boland & Gang Green

I just sailed through traffic this morning from Long Island so I arrived at Fort Florham at just after 7 a.m., which even beat Jets interns Matt Hintz, Christie Upton and Jeanette Owusu to the facility.

Shocking.

Anyway, that leaves me with lots O’ time, not that you’ll benefit any.

Wednesdays, as you know, means Favre Day out here, which always draws a larger-than-usual media gathering. In addition to Favre, we’ll hear from Eric Mangini, players in the locker room, 49ers interim coach Mike Singletary and a 49ers player to be named.

This is an interesting week for a variety of reasons, with storylines abound.

Can the Jets play a decent game on the West Coast? How will they respond to getting spanked at home last week? Will the Jets be able to mount a pass rush against a team that has allowed 43 sacks this season?

We’ll do more dissection later in the week but here’s a few numbers on the 49ers:

On defense they’re ranked 23rd in the league (347 ypg), including 28th against the pass (239.8). The 49ers rank tied for 27th in scoring defense, giving up 26.1 ppg. On offense, the 49ers are ranked 26th in total offense (304.4) and 21st in scoring (21.8).

49ers quarterback Shaun Hill doesn’t have a cannon, but he’s played pretty well since replacing the turnover-prone J.T. O'Sullivan. Hill this season is 84-for-139 for 1,067 yards with eight TDs and three INTs.

Is this a team stocked with talent? Not really, but any team has to be considered dangerous considering the way the Jets played last week. I think players will approach it that way. The handful of players we saw in the locker room Monday were a bit ticked with how things went against the Broncos, which is the way many of them were after the last time the Jets lost, Oct. 19 in Oakland. The Jets won five straight after that defeat so who knows…

* By the way, the picture to the right of the programs from Super Bowl III and the AFL Championship that preceded it was emailed to me by Richard Kaufman, a throwback DJ if there ever was one. Check out his site if you’re a fan of 60’s radio, or even if you’re not. Pretty good stuff. Fox News even did a feature on him.

Kaufman lives in Texas, but grew up in Livingston, N.J., is a Jets fanatic and, most germane to me, has been a fan of this blog since training camp. The first, to my knowledge, celebrity reader of the blog. I heard Larry David checks things out here on occasion, but I haven’t been able to confirm it. I might have just made that last part up, but I can't confirm that either.

But back to Kaufman. He apparently collects memorabilia of all kinds and possesses – among other things – those programs from Super Bowl III and that season's AFL Championship. I, being obsessed with old things [hence the frequent mentions of Bob Glauber], enjoyed the photo and decided to share. Kaufman tells me there will be more.

* Some random stuff, but only because there’s time:

* Throughout the Favre-to-the-Jets rumors and ultimate completion of the deal – with all the long hours and circus-like elements surrounding the story, which was fun to cover for the most part – I occasionally received rather humorous emails from colleagues like Glauber and Giants beat guy Tom Rock, and even the great Judy Battista from the Times. The tenor of the emails was basically “having fun yet?” which is a reporter’s parlance for “hahahahahahaha.”

Not sure why this week I thought of that…

* 80's song of the morning heard while driving in: "Take on me" by A-ha.

* Maybe I don’t fully understand the whole “conduct detrimental to the league thing,” but Sean Avery getting suspended for what amounts to stupid speech is absurd to me. The comments were tasteless and classless, yes, but that’s a mighty steep slippery slope the NHL just put itself on.

And with that, check back here later for a report on the day and video from Favre’s press conference.

Erik Boland answers your Jets questions today in a live chat at 11 a.m.

In no particular order…

One Denver player all but admitted the Broncos fudged a bit on their “injuries” that seemed to take place at opportune times – for Denver – to disrupt the Jets’ no-huddle offense.

You’ll remember that third quarter stretch when the Broncos’ Spencer Larsen, Ebenezer Ekuban and Dre Bly stayed down on three straight plays.

“Just a bruise on my shin,” Bly said, according to the Rocky Mountain News. “You know (Jets quarterback) Brett (Favre), him being a savvy vet, when he sees somebody down, he likes to do a no-huddle, catch a defense off balance. I knew that, so I just laid on the ground and let the pain go away. . . . But that’s one thing you have to do - you have injuries, anything that’s bothering you, stay on the ground, don’t try to be Superman and rush back up because it can hurt your defense.”

Rules say a player who is tended to on the field must sit out one play. Ekuban and Bly returned; Larsen did not.

“It seemed like every time we had a little momentum or something like that, one of those guys was going down,” linebacker David Bowens said today.

This is a gray area in the rule book because if a guy is down, what’s the litmus test in that moment to test if he’s really faking it? There isn't one.

* Eric Mangini said Sunday that he wasn’t thrilled with the week of practice leading up to the game.

But…

“We had a decent week of practice and things like that,” tight end Chris Baker said today. “It just didn’t click for us yesterday. Sometimes that happens, you go out and sometimes it’s not your day and that was one of those days.”

Baker said while the New England loss benefited the Jets in terms of keeping them one game ahead in the division, Sunday’s loss stung a bit more with the knowledge that a Jets victory would have given then a two-game lead over the Patriots with four to go.

“Obviously looking back and seeing they lost as well…to have a two game lead at this point of the season would have been big but at the same time we just have to worry about what we can control,” Baker said. “We have four games coming up and we’re in control of that. If we take care of business there, we’ll be fine.”

“I’ll tell you what, it’s a wakeup call,” said Laveranues Coles, using the phrase Bowens uttered after the loss in Oakland. “Anytime you get in a situation like this where you lose a ballgame, you’re all hurting. You get on a roll and you finally get something going and…from top to bottom, again, the coaches are going to take a look at themselves and what they’re doing, the players need to take a look at what they’ve been doing and the approach they’ve been taking into the ballgame.”

* Eric Mangini has sometimes, to the point of strained credibility, gone to great lengths to laud the progress of Vernon Gholston this season. Not today.

“He had a significant shot yesterday,” said Mangini, asked if Gholston maybe could have gotten some more playing time against the Broncos. “You know, there were plays to be made. You know, his opportunities were based on his ability to make those plays.”

And how did he do with that “significant shot” a reporter asked.

“I think he needs to continue to improve,” Mangini said through what appeared to be semi-clenched teeth.

It was honest.

* Mangini also could barely contain his irritation [disgust might be a better word] when asked what his film showed of the blown call by officials that led to Denver’s first touchdown, when replays showed Jerricho Cotchery had recovered his own fumble but was ruled not to have had control.

“He was laying on the ground,” Mangini said. “Looked like he had possession of the ball. Defender came in, rammed into him, lost possession of the ball. That’s what it looks like to the untrained eye.”

That last sentence came with the proper amount of dry, dry sarcasm always appreciated in this space.

* Mangini on the defense Sunday:

“What made it difficult yesterday is we weren’t very effective against the run. And when you can run the ball effectively, that then changes things in terms of what you have to do defensively, which now opens up even more things in the passing game.”

And with that, Live Chat XIV coming up tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 11 a.m.

Our NFL person Bob Glauber has used this old Bill Parcells line a couple of times this year, but given the last week with the Jets, the quote really captures things perfectly.

In New York, Parcells said, it’s either “euphoria or disaster.”

After blowing out the Titans in their fifth straight victory, the Jets were Super Bowl caliber. After yesterday’s hideous defeat at home to the Broncos, they're leaking major oil.

The reality of what the Jets are rests somewhere in between those two extremes and I still think this year’s Jets team is closer to the positive one rather than the negative. Big picture-wise, the Jets are a more than respectable 8-4, they lead the AFC East by one game and have a relatively soft schedule the rest of the way. On paper their toughest remaining game is Miami, and that’s at home. There was talk of running the table after the Tennessee game, but finishing the season on a 10-game winning streak was probably a bit much to ask. Especially in this year’s NFL where the “any given Sunday” thing has never seemed more apt.

There are real problems, of course, not the least of which is a pass defense that I question has the personnel to get appreciably better. I’m not sure there’s a magic formula to be found in the final four games, other than the Jets, at all costs, have to find a way to get more pressure on the quarterback. It’s basically a two-man secondary with Rhodes and Revis, but at least those other weak spots can get covered up to a degree with a fierce rush. There, obviously, was not a fierce rush yesterday. On another note, there’s a long way to go in this season and much that can still be accomplished, so I’m not starting Draft Day hype quite yet…but secondary help ought to be high on the “needs” board, as should some assistance at linebacker.

* There was an element of yesterday’s game that can be thrown out to “it was just one of those days.” The tackling was atrocious, but the Jets have shown themselves to be a pretty good tackling team overall. Missed tackles are among the “correctable errors” that players talk about after watching film. I don’t think you’ll see another tackling performance like that out of the Jets.

* Eric Mangini made it clear, publicly, that yesterday was unacceptable. That was the first time he’s called out his team since the second week of training camp when he was irritated with an afternoon practice at Hofstra.

"I think that we've established a certain way to play football around here, we've established a certain identity, and it was nothing close to that today,” Mangini said yesterday. “I don't think we played well in any of three phases. I don't think we coached very well and I think when you have that, this is what you get."

Even after bad losses to Oakland and San Diego, Mangini found something positive to say. Not yesterday.

“I'm not really looking for a motivator or a silver lining here," Mangini said. "I'm looking for good football."

* Driving in I heard some criticism of Brett Favre [there was some in writing as well] for saying he would rather play in the snow than the rain. Here’s my problem with the media on this one: we, meaning the press, just kill guys for giving cliché, boring answers that shed much light on anything. But we’ve trained them to do so. Favre gives an honest answer – in which he wasn’t excusing his poor play, by the way – and he gets hammered for it. It’s a lose-lose scenario that causes athletes – and coaches, too – to err on the side of saying nothing. And it’s hard to blame them.

* Now, to today’s schedule. For the first time in over a month there will be player availability in the locker room. On Victory Mondays, players are off and we get a few of them on a conference call. So that will be upcoming after Mangini’s 2:35 p.m. press conference.

* A reminder: Live Chat XIV is coming up tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.

* Oh, and a last thing regarding several season ticket holders who emailed me about this last week: the Jets just sent out invoices for the playoffs in which they requested money for three games when the most the Jets could host is two games. I’ve seen a copy of the invoice and there’s not much in the way of ambiguity: it’s pretty much asking for money for three games. So the team was made aware of the error and on Nov. 25 season ticket holders received a clarification email.

“It has come to our attention that there is some confusion with this year’s Playoff invoices,” the email states. “This week you will be receiving Playoff invoices in the mail. The invoice is also available online. The invoice will contain prices for the Wildcard, Divisional and Championship games. As a season ticket holder you should ONLY play for the Divisional and Championship events. ”

And on it goes in repeating the firm due date for payment and acceptable payment methods.

Nice non-apology and total abdication of responsibility from the organization.

“It has come to our attention that there is some confusion with this year’s Playoff invoices,” is arrogant.

The team caused the confusion, not the fans. So open the damn email by saying, “Our wording was incorrect in the playoff invoices we sent to you, our valued season ticket holders, recently and for that we apologize. What the invoices should have said was…”

C’mon, it’s not that hard.

Back in a bit.

FirstNameOnly Stephen here (remember me?) to chat with you.

It’s natural in sports fandom. With every win, expectations raise and so does greed. With each checkpoint and benchmark reached and surpassed, the focus becomes the next. Right now, with the Jets on a five-game winning streak, nothing less than everything will be enough.

Before the season, if you’d told the Jets fans the team would win 10 games and make the playoffs, coming off that dreadful 2007 season (deliberately avoided reminding ya’ll of the record), they’d have taken it. If you’d told them the Jets would win the division (and slap the Patriots in overtime along the way), they’d have been ecstatic. But now that they're in position to do that, it’s not enough for them to just do that. After the last two wins, you guys caught a whiff of elite. I’d assume it smells something like potpourri or “Lilac Spring” Glade. Those are some good scents.

Going toe-to-toe with New England and having the Jets step on the Pats’ little piggies, then embarrassing the previously undefeated and power rankings-leading Titans in Tennessee, the Jets have sipped the Armand de Brignac. So now, anything short of the second seed in the AFC will be the equivalent of Korbel. They want the whole shebang.

At 8-3, the Jets currently hold the three seed. They’re behind the Steelers because of the difference in conference record. Still, that No. 2 is attainable (via the difficulty of the teams’ respective remaining schedules), and though unlikely, the Jets have an iota of a slither of an outside chance to catch the Titans for the top spot. Rewind your minds to Oct. 19, around 5 p.m., a little after the overtime loss to the Raiders. Who’d have thunk this? I don't even think Ira (who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting), was too optimistic after that one.

But here they are. And here they are, with a relatively "soft" schedule remaining and everything within reach.

Of course, with each win, each foot advanced towards the mountain’s summit, the next game becomes more important. At least if you’re thinking about quenching that near-insatiable thirst for great. So the Broncos game, in that sense, is almost a must-win. They’re probably the weakest division leader in the NFL. They’re 6-5, but 2-3 in their last five games and -44 in net points. The only reason they’re in first place is because the West is weak and the Chargers, the early favorites to take it, have managed to trip over their feet at every turn.

The Jets, without getting real technical, should win this game. Let's see how it goes...

1st Quarter
- Touchdown Broncos. Vernon Fox recovered a Jets fumble (from the Wildcat formation) and returned it 23 yards for the score at 8:40. Brad Smith missed on the flip to Jerricho Cotchery, fumbling the wet ball at the Jets 39. It deflected back to the 23, where Cotchery covered it up, but the ball was ripped away from him while on the ground and taken back for the touchdown. The Jets tried to challenge that Cotchery had recovered the loose ball, but the call, according to the referee, could not be challenged.
7-0, Broncos.
- Touchdown Jets. Thomas Jones broke a 59-yarder off right tackle (similar to Washington's long run against the Titans last week) and ran up the right sideline untouched for the answer-back score at 8:32. The drive was that play alone. With the run, Jones goes over 1,000 yards for the season. Right now he's at 1,014 with 10 rushing touchdowns. 7-7.
- Touchdown Broncos. Jay Cutler hit Eddie Royal along the right sideline on a go route and the receiver shook off a tackle and eluded Ty Law, kept his feet inbounds along the sideline, and raced in for the 59-yard answer-back to the answer-back score at 6:44. The Jets challenged that he stepped out of bounds, but the call was upheld. 14-7, Broncos
- Field goal Broncos. Matt Prater hit a 25-yarder, capping the eight-play, 52-yard drive. 17-7, Broncos

2nd Quarter
- Touchdown Jets. Jones scored from 29 yards out on a run up the middle. He was tackled, but he landed on a Bronco's back (therefore, wasn't down) and rolled off, landed on his feet and sprinted into the end zone. The Broncos, thinking he was down, gave up on the play. Denver challenged, but the call was upheld. His run capped a 7-play, 76-yard drive. 17-14, Broncos
- Touchdown Broncos. Peyton Hillis (10 carries, 85 yards) scores from a yard out at 4:29 to cap a 7-play, 68-yard drive. The drive was setup by Dre Bly's interception of Favre and the big play was a 22-yard pass to Tony Scheffler that got the Broncos to the 1. 24-14, Broncos
- Field goal Broncos. Prater hit from 35 yards out with 0:08 left in the half. The big plays on the drive (67 yards on 12 plays) were catches of 16 and 20 yards by Brandon Marshall. His 20-yarder (Cutler scrambled right then threw across the field to Marshall over the middle) put the Broncos at the 17 and set up the field goal. 27-14, Broncos.

Halftime: 27-14, Broncos
It was an ominous begining for the Jets, with the Broncos scoring on defense after a fumble, and except for a couple bright spots (Thomas Jones, pretty much), it has been a horrible half. The offense has turned it over twice, leading to two Broncos touchdowns, and the defense has been ripped for 316 yards in a half. Brett Favre is just 6-for-12 with 66 yards and an interception while Cutler is 18 of 28 for 230 yards and a touchdown to Eddie Royal. Rookie RB/FB Peyton Hillis has 12 carries for 86 yards and scored on a 1-yard plunge. The Jets have gotten no pressure on Cutler. The lone standout for the Jets has been Jones, with 108 yards and two touchdowns (105 of those and both scores came in the first quarter). Captain Obvious says: The Jets have to make some adjustments for the second half.

3rd Quarter
Field goal Jets. Jay Feely hit from 30 yards, capping the 10-play, 68-yard drive. Leon Washington was key on that drive, catching three consecutive passes for a total of 60 yards. The Jets reached the Broncos' 7, but stalled. A sack and strip of Favre (recovered by Brandon Moore) on third down forced the field goal attempt. 27-17, Broncos.

4th Quarter
Touchdown Broncos. Brandon Stokley scored from 36 yards at 9:37. Stokley snuck behind the secondary and was left wide open on a go route. The drive went 61 yards on 5 plays. 34-17, Broncos.

Final: 34-17, Broncos
Consider it the back-to-earth loss for the Jets. Their five-game winning streak has been snapped and, most likely, the Super Bowl talk in the media will be 86'd after this horrible loss to the inferior Broncos. And, with this loss, the Jets fall to 8-4. They're still #1 in the AFC East, but they missed an opportunity to put two games distance between themselves and the Patriots (lost, 33-10, to the Steelers). The Jets are now a full game + tiebreakers behind the Steelers for the second seed in the conference, tied for third with the Ravens and Colts.

Jay Cutler threw for 357 yards, 2 TDs and an INT... Favre threw for 247 yards (on 23-for-43) and an interception... Jones was the game's leading rusher with 138 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Washington had just four yards on two carries, but he caught three passes for 60 yards on one drive.... Hillis ran for 129 yards and a TD for the Broncos... The tight ends were the game's leading receivers. Tony Scheffler caught seven passes for 90 yards and Dustin Keller had 7 for 77.... Abram Elam led the Jets with 12 tackles and Dwight Lowery had an interception... Dre' Bly had three tackles and an interception of Favre that set up a touchdown; Elvis Dumervil had three tackles, a sack and a fumble forced that forced the Jets to settle for a red zone field goal in the third quarter.

Time for my favorite part of game day - and yours, too - the inactives.

No surprises for the Jets:

Mike Nugent
Brett Ratliff (3rd QB)
David Clowney
Marcus Mason
Drew Coleman
Eric Smith
David Harris
Bubba Franks

The Broncos, meanwhile, will be without CB Champ Bailey for the fifth straight week.

The rest:
S Marlon McCree
RB Selvin Young
FB Andrew Pinnock
LB D.J. Williams
LB Nate Webster
DT Nic Clemons
DE Tim Crowder

We’ll have a live-blogger in this space in a bit.

It is still raining rather firmly here at the Meadowlands. Enjoy the afternoon.

“He conquers twice who restrains himself in victory.”
- Syrus

And the Jets have been nothing but restrained during this five-game winnings streak, utterly unimpressed with their elevation from a 3-3 also-ran after the loss to Oakland, to being talked about as a legitimate Super Bowl contender after the road back-to-backs over the Patriots and Titans improved them to 8-3.

Those two games behind, the Jets schedule does soften somewhat, starting with Denver Sunday at the Meadowlands, but it’s not a steady dose of the Bengals the rest of the way, either.

But players just don’t seem to be getting full of themselves. Yes, there’s a confidence in the locker room, but that’s where it ends. As Rod Boone, who was nice enough to fill in for me Friday at The Fort and commandeer the blog, quoted Thomas Jones earlier today:

“We've got a lot of football left and we've got a lot of leadership on this team,” Jones said. “Where we were last year at 4-12 at the end of the season, we are in no place to look ahead, we're are in no position to look past anybody. We are thankful for the season that we are having so far and we are just going to continue our success and take it one game at a time."

I asked Kris Jenkins on Wednesday why, after each game during this winning streak, he has uttered the same phrase: “I’m never satisfied.”

“I think what a lot of folks don't understand is that in this job it doesn't matter what you do in a season unless you're the Super Bowl champions and that's it," Jenkins said. "You have to be mindful of that. You can do a lot of good things during the season, but if you don't win, [if] you're not a champion, it doesn't matter. You're going to be as good as your last game. And that's the reason I say what I say."

Jenkins also talked about the message he, and other veteran players, have given to the younger players.

“I think the past has shown a lot of good teams let a season go because they started feeling themselves a little bit too much,” Jenkins said. “As veterans, that’s all we are trying to tell the (young players). Just make sure you take every game seriously. Every game gets bigger and bigger so you’re going to have that much more pressure on yourself to go out and perform at this level. That is what we have to be mindful of.”

And so, on players’ minds this week has been the Broncos, who are just brutal on defense and while I know I’ve used this old John McKay line before – “We can’t stop the run or the pass” – it fits for Denver, too.

Look at these numbers for the Denver D:

- Total yards per game: 380.4 (ranked 28th)
- Rushing yards per game: 144.5 (27th)
- Rushing yards per attempt: 4.8 (27th)
- Passing yards per game: 235.9 (25th)
- Sacks: 20 (tied for 22nd)
- Third-down efficiency: 44.6% (28th)
- Points: 27.5 (28th)

* For more on the Broncos, check out this scouting report on thejetsblog.com, courtesy of contributor-in-chief R in CT, whom we only pick on occasionally here. But he always gives an excellent breakdown of each week’s opponent and this week is no different.

Now, the Broncos offense is very good and the Jets’ issues stopping the pass are well documented, so the forecast for water and wind Sunday can only benefit the Jets. But I can’t make predictions based on weather predictions (?), so I’ll anticipate a typically cool late November afternoon. I see some problems against Jay Cutler and his quality stable of receivers, but the Broncos, quite simply, remind me of the Lions on defense.

Hi, Dewayne Robertson. Welcome back to New York.

Jets 34, Broncos 26.

To the rest of the league.

* A 9-7 effort last week left me at 90-82-4 for the season against the number, tied with esteemed NFL columnist Bob Glauber (?), with both of us three games behind Tom Rock. But in the “best bet” department, let’s just say I have a better chance of scoring a date with a member of the Flight Crew than I do hitting a best bet, as last week we dropped to 2-9-1 in that department. But failure is NOT getting back on the horse, so here are this week’s picks, with the best bet in CAPS:

Giants, Vikings, Packers, COLTS, Texans, Bills, Rams, Chargers, Patriots, Bucs, Bengals, Chiefs.

* An Interjection Part I: I know this will come off unintentionally coarse and I don’t mean to sound cold to some of my colleagues. But I really, really don’t care about your fantasy team.

* An Interjection Part II: Having previously been Newsday’s college football writer, I’m still on various mailing lists, and this pamphlet arrived today from the Football Bowl Association: “College Bowl Games…Where Everybody Wins.”

In the pamphlet – aided by the deep thinkers who run college football – the group pushes the notion that the current bowl system is just wonderful and, gee whiz, there were 34 champions last year! Everyone plays! Everyone’s a winner! The literature, of course, contains various maddening quotes and the long-told and sold lie that “the regular season is the playoff.”

For the last (not really) time: if the regular season is the playoff, then why isn’t anyone talking about some combination of Ball State/Utah/ Boise State in the title game? When the many BCS defenders – and that includes an embarrassing number in the media – can answer that, then I’ll buy the “regular season is the playoff” stuff. When the argument is about which one-loss teams is most deserving of a spot in the championship game, then the regular season, by definition, can’t be a considered a playoff. So stop.

Now, to Saturday’s picks.

* Last week was my best weekend of the year with the college selections and we’ll start with my favorite line of the weekend: 32 for USC over Notre Dame, which has to have Irish fans – at least this year – regretting that Mrs. Rockne talked her husband into agreeing to the home-and-home thing starting in 1926. Now, it would be easy to take potshots at the Irish but we try not to do cheap shots here and, let’s be honest, college football is more interesting when Notre Dame is good. But Notre Dame isn’t good, decent or average this season. All those Top 10 recruiting classes I’ve been reading about the last decade has to kick in any year now and maybe it will be Saturday. The USC defense is a machine and while I see it being bad, I just don’t see it that bad. It might just myself and Lou Holtz on this but…the pick: Notre Dame (but just to cover. Lou will actually pick the Irish to win).

For the others, I’m not a believer that Florida State is anywhere close to being what it once was, but a blowout road victory at Maryland tells me they can keep it close (or closer than the big spread) against loaded Florida at home. And in the game of the weekend, at least of ranked teams, I’m going with Oklahoma to win – big enough – on the road, at Oklahoma State.

And with that, we adjourn until Sunday afternoon at the Meadowlands.