By Tom Rock
I was going over the game on my DVR and couldn’t help noticing an orange-brown spot in the palm of Lions QB Jon Kitna. Those Detroit throwers are all about the pinetar!
Speaking of orange-brown spots, the Jets go to Cleveland on Sunday to wrap up the first half of their season. Things continue to fall into place for the Jets in terms of scheduling and opponents. They go against Jacksonville without Stroud (though it wasn’t much help), they beat Miami and second-string QB Joey Harrington, they were able to run through the Lions without Shaun Rogers, and now they go up against the Browns who just learned that cornerback Gary Baxter tore BOTH of his patellar tendons on the same play yesterday. Then they get the bye right smack in the middle of the season, probably the very best place it could come. Green is a lucky color this year.
Eric Mangini addressed Curtis Martin again today and continued the team-wide hedge on if Curtis will be back on the practice field. It’s not sounding too good. Mangini said the team would evaluate the situation after the Cleveland game and made no guarantee that Martin will be able to practice in the three-week window to come off the PUP list (which goes down to two weeks as of tomorrow). Basically, by 4 p.m. on Nov. 7, we’ll know Martin’s fate for this season.
The Jets named Leon Washington their offensive player of the week – no big shocker – and touted Dewayne Robertson as the defensive player. D-Rob had a sack and looked better shedding the double-teams, but I’m still not convinced he’s a true nosetackle. His sack came as a result of Bryan Thomas applying outside pressure, causing Kitna to step up in the pocket where Robertson was falling down at the time. But a sack’s a sack, and when you are D-Rob you have to take them when they come. Kerry Rhodes was special teams player of the week and Jamie Thompson was the practice player of the week.
The Jets were “off” today, but many were in the training room or weight room and attending various meetings to begin individual preparations for the Browns game. “I think that’s the way all days off should be,” joked Mangini.
Comments (2)
Tom,
Can we stop making excuses for the fact that Jets have a 'soft' schedule? Vaunted Patriots have EXACTLY the same schedule, with the exception of 2 games. (Pats were @ Indy, Home vs. Denver, Jets @ CLE, home vs. OAK) To date, the big differences in schedule is we had Indy at home (they had DEN) and we were @ JAX (they were at CIN). Pretty similar schedule to date if you ask me.
While I agree that these two games are very different, the Jets and Pats even play the same home/away combo as the Pats in the NFC North and AFC South. That's 14 games that are exactly the same... except that we have to play the Patriots twice, who are 'more talented' than the Jets! The Pats – well they don’t have to play themselves, do they? Please make sure you bring this up next time you talk about the 'soft' schedule. It seems to get lost on most sportswriters when they give their annual homage to Belichick, Brady, and co. around this time of year.
So, if you’re a team from another conference, and you had to play: DEN, @ CIN, NYJ, @NYJ or OAK, @CLE, NE, @ NE, which do you take? Probably option 2, but not by as big a margin as you would think as I read every sportswriter out there today.
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