Good to Have the Jets
Sunday’s Jets/Colts game was a pretty low moment for NFL fans….not to mention those that have Denver, Baltimore, Houston, or Pittsburgh in their JHB Sports leagues. If you don’t already know, the Jets were down 15-10 midway through the 3rd quarter when Colts coach Jim Caldwell pulled most of his starters and basically fielded an entire team of 2nd stringers. Naturally, the Colts were outscored the rest of the way 19-0 (ironically that’s the exact win/loss record they should have been striving for this year and actually had a chance to achieve).
Of course Indy’s position on the whole thing was to preserve the health of their players and the ultimate goal is a Super Bowl win, not a perfect season. Ok, fine. But let me ask Jim Caldwell these 4 questions…in this order please - 1. How many starts has Peyton Manning missed in his entire career starting with college in Tennessee? (answer = none), 2. How many times in the history of the NFL has their been a Super Bowl winner? (answer = 43), 3. What is the end result of a perfect 19-0 season? (answer = a Super Bowl win), and 4. How many 19-0 perfect seasons have their been in the history of the NFL? (answer = none). It’s really that simple. If the Colts were 13-1 then all of the above is moot but I say screw the risk of injury when you have a legitimate shot at creating history. You can tell by the look on the players’ faces not to mention the fans that had to watch (and pay for) that debacle on their home field that everybody thought they should “go for it”.
The domino effect here is that the Jets have to play Cincinnati in the regular season finale. The Bengals, like the Colts, already have their playoff ticket punched and are locked into a #3 or #4 seeding. One might argue the #3 vs. #4 seeding gives Cincy something to play for - but that’s not really true and here’s why. If they get the #3 seed that means they beat the Jets and the Pats lose at Houston. All sounds great, except that means the Texans are likely to get that playoff spot and they crushed Cincy this year AT CINCY. And if it’s not Houston that gets the spot it would likely be Pittsburgh and although the Bengals beat the Steelers twice this year, they probably don’t like their odds of winning 3X against the defending champs in a single year.
What makes perfect sense for the Bengals is to literally play 2nd stringers for the whole game. Have the Jets show you their game plan with their starters at New York, then use what you learn about the Jets on Sunday and apply that to the playoff game the following week against the Jets in Cincy. If that’s not reason enough to sit his starters all Marvin Lewis has to do is think back to the last time they won their division (2005 season). That year they played the Steelers in the Wild Card round. Carson Palmer got knocked out in the 1st half thus ending their post season. There is almost no circumstance whatsoever for Lewis to play a single one of his players against the Jets on Sunday night. In fact, he shouldn’t even try to win the game with his 2nd stringers (rather they should try to LOSE the game) because if they happen to win it increases the chances of Houston and Denver making it to the playoffs and both of those teams already beat Cincy at home.
What makes this even worse is that the NFL moved the Cincy/Jets game to Sunday night so the afternoon game results will be in. The Bengals will know exactly who they’d play the following week in the playoffs (and it likely will be those same New York Jets). Having Marvin Lewis field a team of no-names is not going to make NBC very happy. If I’m NBC I’m pretty pissed at the NFL right now.
Bottom line, the only people happy about this situation are those that drafted the Jets in their JHB Sports leagues and die hard J!E!T!S!, JETS!, JETS!, JETS! fans.
Anyway, here is a good link for playoff scenarios. If you have Denver, Pittsburgh, Houston, or Baltimore you are probably not too happy with Jim Caldwell right now…
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8147d1c0&template=no-right-rail-with-comments&confirm=true
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