POLL: Jets QB Controversy

It was a question that was asked as soon as third-string QB Greg McElroy was warming up on the sidelines on Sunday in the Jets game against Arizona.  McElroy got the call, as Sanchez was benched after going 10-for-21 with 97 yards and 3 interceptions.  McElroy engineered the only touchdown drive of the game in the 7-6 Jets' win and ran out the clock on a long drive that stopped short of a score on purpose.  McElroy was 5-for-7 for only 29 yards, but had the all-important 1-yard touchdown toss to TE Jeff Cumberland.

Would Tim Tebow have gotten the call if he was healthy enough to play?  Who knows and no one probably will ever know.  McElroy made the most of his chance and he is definitely in the running to start next week at Jacksonville.  Why?  Because Rex Ryan refused to name a starter for next week, so as long as the door is open, it is an open competition.

So, the question to ask is: who gets the call next week?  Vote here on our Sports With The StatMan Facebook page and add your comment.

Should the Jets start third-string Greg McElroy at QB next week against Jacksonville?

Yes, McElroy is the future...or at least better than the alternative.
No, Sanchez is in a slump and Jacksonville is the cure for what ails him.
No, when is it going to be Tebow Time? If Tebow is healthy, he should start.

Random Musings: Building Something

Nothing is more fun than being a fan of an overachieving team not expected to do much. A team that is fun to watch, surprises the national media, and sticks around much longer than just about anyone expected. A team that has some surprise stories of players not expected to contribute as much as they have contributed.  A team that has been a downtrodden franchise whose glory years were a long time ago.  But, I am not talking about the New York Jets.  I am talking, of course, about the New York Islanders.  


The Jets are another example of this and having two overachieving teams in the same town during the same year do not happen often.  The story of the Jets is well-heralded, reaching the AFC conference title game when just about everyone expected them not to qualify for the playoffs.  The Islanders started 2010 almost as hot as the Jets, starting the calendar year 6-1, and they are right in the thick of a playoff race that involves just about everyone.  Sound familiar?


Between Weeks 12 and 17 of the NFL season, the Jets were tied in the standings with at least three other teams.  Their low point was after Week 11, when the Jets were 4-6 and tied for 11th place in the 16-team AFC with Tennessee.  If you divide the games evenly across the NHL season, the Islanders would be at the same spot in their schedule after 53 games.  In the Islanders’ 53rd game, they were crushed by the Washington Capitals, 7-2, to fall to 23-22-8.  The 54 points were good for 12th place in the East out of 15 teams, but only one point behind sixth-place Philadelphia and the seventh-place New York Rangers.


After the Jets season, those that wear the uniform and the most positive fans said they saw this coming and they knew all along they would shock the world.  I am sure the Islanders and the most positive Islanders fans feel the Islanders will shock the world and make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  They have a long way to go, but no longer than the Jets.  Two more teams make the playoffs in the NHL than in the NFL.  The Islanders will have two built-in bye weeks in February, as only one player, Mark Streit, will be participating in the Olympics.  Streit’s Swiss team is not expected to medal, so he will still probably have a week off.  The Islanders will have time to practice and time to re-focus on the last six weeks of the season.


The playoffs were not necessarily in the plans for the Islanders this season.  They are building from within and a prized rookie, John Tavares, and the young nucleus, including Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey, are learning on the job.  This leads to surprising victories and demoralizing losses and the Islanders have had their share of both this season.  These types of teams are reliant on how quickly they learn from their mistakes.  The Islanders have proved resilient, but still have issues with back-to-back games and taking care of business against teams they should beat.  But, according to most pundits, the Islanders were supposed to be at the bottom of the standings with no teams they “should” beat.


No matter what they do this season, it is clear the Islanders, like the Jets, are building something.  Besides their roster, their coach and general manager are on the same page.  Their owner, Charles Wang, is still committed to keep the team on Long Island.  (What is going on with that, anyway?)  Their roster almost fits Coach Scott Gordon’s system.  There is still some players that do not and most of them were holdovers from Ted Nolan’s time as head coach.  The future looks brighter than it did two years ago.  It looks brighter than any time since 2002-03, the season after a narrow playoff loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round.  In that 2002 playoff appearance, there was a lot of hope for Islander fans that their first appearance in the playoffs in eight years would be the start of a return to prosperity for the franchise.  


That hope waned in 2003 and 2004, losing in the first round and, after the lockout, the Islanders have been inconsistent and slow to adapt to the new NHL.  Consistently, the Islanders were among the teams shorthanded most often.  But, over the last couple of years, the Islanders have gotten younger.  They have instituted a system they can believe in and, after a lot of growing pains last year and some more this year, they will be in good position to have success in the new NHL.


New York is not a likely landing spot for overachieving teams.  The hype in this city makes it impossible to sneak up on anyone.  But, the Jets and Islanders are decidedly second-fiddle teams in a crowded New York market.  The money available to teams to spend in this town is unparalleled.  But, football and hockey have a playing field that is more even than ever with a salary cap.  Just look at the Super Bowl this year, where small markets like Indianapolis and New Orleans are the top teams in the league.  Edmonton was in the Stanley Cup Finals just four years ago.  New York does not have the advantage it used to have, but over the years, not to many underdogs have called New York home.


The Jets moved from 11th place after Week 12 to ninth the next week, seventh the following week, and into playoff position after Week 14.  In fact, there was enough time for the Jets to lose, fall out of playoff position, and still finish fifth when the season came to a close.  There is still plenty of time for the underachieving Islanders.  Plenty of time to sneak up on everyone and plenty to come out of nowhere to qualify for the playoffs and make some noise once they get there.  When you are building something, the sky really is the limit until the rest of the world catches up with you.

Random Musings: House Money

With the success of the New York Jets in the AFC Playoffs, the phone lines and radio waves have been burning with their hopes for this weekend’s AFC Championship Game against the mighty Indianapolis Colts. The Twitter streams and blog entries of Jet fans have crowed about how the Jets won their games, took care of business against teams that had very little to gain by suiting up and giving their all. The Jets defeated the Colts on their field, but MVP Peyton Manning only played for 2-1/2 quarters. The Jets embarrassed a Bengals team in the last game in the history of Giants Stadium, but the Bengals saw everything in the Jets’ bag of tricks.

Standing at 4-6, right before Thanksgiving, one thing Jet fans were not thankful for was the brash outspoken Jets, fresh from losing six of seven, their head coach, or their General Manager. Mark Sanchez? He is not ready to lead an offense, let alone manage an offense. Shonn Greene? He repeatedly fumbles the football. Kerry Rhodes? He was benched and, by the way, he has been a starter for the Jets since Day One and maybe he should not have had that job handed to him.

Then, the Jets beat Carolina, took care of Buffalo north of the border, and slapped Tampa Bay. After the Jet loss to Atlanta in Week 15 on a last-minute Falcons drive, the most depressing loss of the season, the fate of the Jets looked sealed. Coach Rex Ryan even admitted it.

But, just as the Shea Stadium scoreboard briefly flashed “Congratulations Red Sox” in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the fat lady may have warmed up, the curtain may have even been raised, but she had not starting singing yet. A key loss by the Denver Broncos to the Oakland Raiders put the Jets back into playoff contention and the final two opponents were already preparing the playoffs and overlooking the Jets.

I had picked the Jets to go 6-10 this season, noting the rookie head coach and rookie quarterback would learn many lessons from this season that would be applied next season. I even expected the team to start 3-0 and lose 10 of their last 13. At 4-6, the Jets were exactly where I expected them to be. But, they learned quicker than I expected.

The offensive play-calling was better. The coach become more of a Head Coach instead of just a defensive coach by getting involved in the offense. The Jets bought in to Rex Ryan’s bravado. And, consequently, they started winning. Yes, they finished the regular season winning five of six. No matter how they won those games, they won those games. The Broncos, Texans, Steelers, Dolphins, and Jaguars need only blame themselves. The Jets earned their playoff berth.

There is saying that when a team outperforms its expectations for a year, anything more is “house money”. For any football team that makes the playoffs when they were not expected to make the playoffs, they are playing with house money. The Jets were not supposed to do much this year. You could say this is the first year of a rebuild or the first year of a three- or five-year plan. That is why the fact the Jets even qualified for the postseason meant they were playing with house money.

But, fans have a way of taking preseason expectations and changing them when good or bad things happen. It is true that the easy predictions that seem all too apparent get derailed by unforeseen circumstances. It is also true that each year, there are a bunch of teams that play better than advertised and those teams sometimes move way beyond any pundit’s expectations. A big trade or a key injury could turn seasons around, for better or worse.

The Jets have had their share of ups and downs. Braylon Edwards was traded to the Jets before Week 5, but Kris Jenkins, noted run stopper, was lost for the season in Week 6. The streakiness of the wins and losses have taken Jet fans for a rollercoaster ride and the fans are worried that the heights they are reaching now will only be equaled or surpassed by a crushing low.

Jet fans may have agreed that simply earning a playoff berth meant they were playing with house money. After a win against the Bengals in the Wild Card round, not only did the Jets vindicate their entry into the postseason, but it also vindicated part of how they got there by trampling the Bengals in Week 17, 37-0. Now, even the most hardened Jet detractors understood this was a successful season by any measure and house money was still on the table.

But, how can a win over San Diego in the Divisional Playoff suddenly squander that house money? Shouldn’t the Jets performance in the playoffs just be gravy? This week, hearing how the Jets have to beat to Colts and reach the Super Bowl, I wonder where all of that house money went. I think Jet fans are confusing the complete vindication for the Jets playoff run that a win over the Colts would bring with the house money that they should know they already have, no matter what happens on Sunday.

Jet fans are an emotional lot and this may only be an issue for fans of teams that have gone so long without winning a championship. The endless parade of quarterbacks to match Joe Namath’s 1968-69 guaranteed victory in Super Bowl III has been long and arduous. Most Jet fans are numb to the failures, which makes this year that much sweeter. But, suddenly, anything but a championship would constitute that crushing low most Jet fans know they will experience.

Take your house money, Jet fans, and enjoy the ride because next year, those expectations will make it much tougher to cash out. The combination of low expectations and high performance is a gateway to more expectations and more scrutiny in the next few years. But, that gateway is a path to glory. Seasons like this one for the Jets do not come along very often.

What to expect from Random Musings...?

Hello and thanks for stopping by. Well, what can you expect from this blog? Mainly, it is a blog about sports, specifically, baseball, hockey, and football. But, if it catches my eye, ear, or, if something smells fishy, my nose, I will offer my two cents.

I am a 31-year-old computer consultant who would love to transition to sportswriting. But, knowing how much that job pays, I am looking to win the lottery first. I am from New Jersey and my rooting interests are with some New York teams, while other New York teams make my blood boil. My family is from Long Island, so I root for teams that play, or used to play, east of Manhattan: Mets, Islanders, Jets. I also have brothers (and sisters) in arms in Boston, so I also hold the Red Sox, Bruins, and Patriots dear. I also like the Devils for the same reason I like the Sox: we have a common enemy (Rangers and Yankees, respectively).

Essentially, my goals are to root my team to victory, stick around through good times and bad, and take solace in the little victories in life because, hey, anyone can root for a perennially good team, but what is the use if you cannot appreciate the journey? The Yankees? They are good just about every year, but the expectations are so high that they have to win just to satisfy the fans. But, for my Mets, the memories from those relatively fewer victories keep me coming back for more punishment, er, more hope.

Unlike Mark McGwire, I like talking about the past and give current stories an historical perspective. I have watched sports intently for over 20 years and I have researched quite a bit of what I missed before that. But, like McGwire, I like to keep it positive and upbeat, just minus the blinders.

Opinions and (clean) spirited debate are welcome. Also, I would love to make this blog interactive. If there is something going on in the world of sports that you want me to chime in on, please ask (gstatman@gmail.com).