It has been a week now since the Jets lost the AFC Championship game. It took a few days but I’m starting to gain some rational perspective on the loss.
With a 17-6 lead, I couldn’t help but imagine the Jets in Miami, in Super Bowl XLIV. It was a good feeling.
Then, with two throws, Peyton Manning made me feel a whole lot less comfortable. Then Jay Feely missed another field goal, Shonn Greene left the game with an injury and my hope slipped away.
There were some sheer exhilarating moments: Sanchez’s 80-yard bomb to Braylon Edwards, Brad Smith’s completion to Jerricho Cotchery and the Jets’ fumble recovery in Colts territory.
Those moments gave me a jolt of excitement that makes me love sports.
Then like cops crashing a high school party, reality entered the building. The fun was over.
Post-loss it was disappointing, no doubt. You don’t get to the final four every year. It hurt to watch the highlights, to see that the Jets had a chance to beat the regular season’s best but just did not have enough. It was not the most heart-breaking loss; in my heart of hearts, I never truly expected the Jets to go to Indy and beat one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. But it was still hard to watch those final minutes tick off the clock. In fact, I just left the TV with the Colts leading 27-17 and time waning. The result was inevitable.
A few days later, though, I can step back and put this loss in perspective. Because not only did I not think the 2009 Jets would be a game away from the Super Bowl; I spent a lot of the season thinking they wouldn’t even make the playoffs.
When, after a 3-1 start, the defense fell apart on MNF in Miami, I thought this was the Same Old Jets. When they fell to 4-6 in a “pseudo-playoff” game, I thought the playoffs would be impossible. When they lost to Buffalo and Miami at home in complete unit collapses, I thought this team was toast. Then when they lost to Atlanta Week 15 and were 7-7, I thought the rollercoaster ride was finally over for good. Even Rex Ryan thought so too.
But somehow these Jets got some luck, took care of business and reached the playoffs. And once they got there, it came full circle. In the two playoff wins, the defense looked like that of the first three weeks of the season. The run game was strong and Mark Sanchez was showing moxie.
Yes, it all came to a halt one game away from what I wanted so badly as a fan. But looking back, I got a whole lot more Jets football than I usually do. And as many ups and downs as this season had, I cannot think of a more memorable one.
Coach Ryan proved his defense is for real. Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington both suffered season ending injuries that the Jets overcame. They played with five defensive linemen for much of the campaign. Shonn Greene emerged as a cog of the future.
And finally, most importantly, Mark Sanchez looked like a potential future franchise quarterback. There were games in 2009 that the Jets lost at the hands of Sanchez. There were none of those in the do-or-die games of 2010. We learned a lot about these Jets in this fairytale run; the most promising bit…the future looks brighter than it has in a while for this franchise.
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