The Swaggerlicious Bart Scott salutes Jets fans.

The Jets won a football game yesterday. They didn’t look very good doing it. They probably played the worst game they’ve played so far this season, but they won.

Yet, if you were to read some Jets message boards or listen to sports talk radio or just run into a Jets fan on the street, you’d think somebody just kicked our dogs.

We as a fan base suffer from a psychosis that can only be understood by few: Cubs fans, Saints fans, fans of the Italian Military.

We question whatever success we have because we are not accustomed to it. We don’t seem to understand that even the best teams get lucky sometimes. I keep hearing how the Jets would be 2-1 today if Ryan Mouton hadn’t fumbled a kickoff and a punt yesterday. That may very well be true, but the 2007 New England Patriots would have been 15-1 if it had not been for our very own Rex Ryan calling a very poorly timed time-out. Yet I never hear Pats fans questioning that team’s greatness (despite their inability to finish the job in the Super Bowl against the Giants. (You really think I’d miss a chance to rub it in?))

The Titans exposed some weaknesses yesterday that the Jets absolutely need to work on:

-          Mark Sanchez needs to learn to protect the ball better.

-          Our backs need to do a better job of picking up the blitz.

-          Our o-line needs to do a better job run blocking.

-          Our starting tailback needs to start hitting the hole with some authority.

So yes, yesterday wasn’t pretty, but we won. We won a game that we normally lose. The Jets were riding an emotional high after talking trash and backing it up against the Pats and facing a desperate team. The Jets normally lose in this situation but didn’t yesterday.

The Jets jumped out to a 14-point lead and then gave it up and found themselves trailing in the second half. The Jets normally fold in those situations but they didn’t yesterday.

Why?

Swaggerliciousness, that’s why.

These are not the “same ol’ Jets.” If Rex Ryan has done anything so far he has already changed the sad sack culture around the locker room. If only he could do so with the fan base.

These Jets didn’t hang their heads after losing the lead. These Jets kept fighting and believing and working to make something happen. Sure Mouton muffed the punt. But he didn’t place the ball in the end zone for the Jets to fall on for seven. Mark Sanchez and the offense took advantage of the opportunity and took the lead back.

If only the fans would stop acting the like the sky is getting ready to fall.

Already I’ve heard fans say the Jets shouldn’t talk so much, Ryan shouldn’t say his team is great. What the hell is Jerricho Cotchery thinking saying the Jets are the best team in football?

They are being themselves. They are reflecting their coach. Their culture has changed.

Now, if we as fans can just let ourselves believe…..

David Harris viciously throws Matt Shaub to the ground for the Jets first sack of the season.

Yesterday, I was repeatedly told the Jets were going to get smoked by the Houston Texans.

Yesterday, I was told the Jets defense couldn’t pressure Matt Shaub without Calvin Pace and Shaun Ellis, both of whom would miss this game due to suspension.

Yesterday, I was told Mark Sanchez would struggle mightily in the face of a relentless Houston pass rush led by Mario Williams.

Yesterday, the Jets were picked to lose by just about every “expert” on the planet.

That was yesterday.

Today, the Jets punched the Texans right in the mouth. The Jets dominated the Texans in every aspect of the game. The offense moved the ball at will, combining quick-strike, big play scores with back breaking, soul crushing drives, scoring in each quarter while racking up 462 total yards and 22 first downs. The defense was even more impressive, allowing a miniscule 38 rushing yards, 11 first downs and only allowing Houston’s offense to cross midfield twice all day, both times ending their drives with takeaways.

Today, the Jets defense sacked Matt Shaub twice and hit him with vicious intent just about every time he dropped back to pass. Starting with his first pass play, when Bart Scott absolutely unloaded on Shaub just after he released the ball, to his final significant pass play of the day, when three Jets came loose on a blitz and dive bombed Shaub as he tossed a desperation heave that ended up in Lito Sheppard’s hands for an interception, Shaub was violently abused, primarily by Scott and David Harris who both played like they were mad at the world.

Today, Mark Sanchez played with veteran poise; seemingly improving snap to snap as he personally torched the Texans defense for 272 yards. Sanchez was particularly impressive when it mattered most, going 13 of 15 for 190 yards and a touchdown – on third down. At one point it seemed that Sanchez preferred facing 3^rd and 12 to 1^st and 10. He followed up his one significant mistake, a poorly thrown pick that led to Houston’s only score by completing his longest pass play of the day – a 40-yard strike to Dustin Keller that set up a 38-yard Thomas Jones touchdown run.

Today, a lot of experts don’t look very smart and man, does it feel good or what?

But then came 2^nd and 8, 8:05 to go in the first half, ball at the Jets 40. The Giants call a jailbreak blitz; Osi Umenyiora was ridiculously off sides. Sanchez felt the pressure, slid to his right, then rolled out to the left and found a wide open Chansi Stuckey for a 29-yard gain.

Two plays later, on 2^nd and 10, 7:02 to go from the Giants’ 31. Three Giants come loose on blitz into Sanchez’s face and Sanchez and Stuckey catch the Giants secondary admiring the Giants’ pass rush and BOOM!!! 31-yard touchdown pass.

Sanchez threw off his back foot with accuracy and confirmed the decision the Jets made to trade up and take him with the fifth pick in this year’s draft.

Normally one wouldn’t get overly excited by a preseason TD pass and they’d be right not to. But this isn’t the first time Sanchez has impressed us this preseason. After a very shaky start against Baltimore he rebounded to finish with a nice drive capped by a TD pass to Leon Washington.

In week one he started with a 43-yard strike to David Clowney, which included a perfect pump fake to freeze the safety and isolate his man in one-on-one coverage. But even that wasn’t the start of Sanchez impressing Jets fans.

The kid has said and done all the right things from the moment they drafted him: He talked about how much he wanted to be drafted by the Jets after meeting with Jets owner Woody Johnson, GM Mike Tannenbaum and Head Coach Rex Ryan. He signed before camp and was humble, saying that he was going to have to work hard to justify the money.

But besides saying and doing to all the right things and performing up to, even exceeding expectations on the field, Mark Sanchez seems to have “it.”

You all know what I’m talking about. Joe Namath had “it.” Joe Montana had “it.” Tom Brady has “it.” Peyton Manning has “it.” Big Ben Roethlisberger has “it.” All of the great ones have “it.”

There’s just something that tells you that they made the right choice, that Mark Sanchez is that once in a generation guy.

Franchise QBs don’t come around very often. The Jets haven’t had one since Namath. The Steelers went 25 years between Terry Bradshaw and Roethlisberger. The Colts went 30 between Johnny Unitas and Manning. The Patriots never had one in forty years before Brady. The Lions, who drafted Matt Stafford 1^st overall have been looking for on since Bobby Layne in the 50s.

And some teams have been desperately looking since having a couple: The Dolphins had Bob Griese and Dan Marino fairly close together and how many guys have started games for them in the decade since Marino’s retirement? The 49ers had two back-to-back with Montana and Young and then had a very good Jeff Garcia for half a decade and now they are starting Shaun Hill over former number one overall pick Alex Smith. The Cowboys and their fans still aren’t 100% convinced they have one in Tony Romo after have Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman.

So what makes me sure that Sanchez is the real deal? Nothing. It’s just a feeling. And right now, it’s a good one.

But if things keep moving in this direction, watch out!

Rex Ryan brings a breath of fresh air after three years of Eric “I wanna be Bill Belichick so bad I will bore the crap out you just like him” Mangini’s inconsistent approach to professional football. Ryan is funny and engaging with the press and that is all fine and good. But more importantly, he brings something that Mangini couldn’t in a million years – an attitude and intensity the likes of which we haven’t seen around here since, well…. ever.

Bart Scott calls it “swaggerlicious,” the media calls it crazy, the fans eat it up. If this guy has this much fight in OTA season, what’s he going to be like come Thanksgiving? And how often is Papa Buddy going to make a guest appearance and talk trash with whoever we are playing that week?

All you really need to know about the Ryan family and their bottom-line approach to football is to know what Buddy told his son Rex after he was told that Rex was offered his first head coaching job and that it was with the New York Jets – “that’s my team son, don’t f**k it up!” The ultimate goal is to win, not simply entertain. The entertainment provided by a Ryan press conference is simply designed as a bonus.

Buddy Ryan, who along with Walt Michaels (who should have never been fired after the Mud Bowl but that is a blog for another time,) ran a precursor to his 46 defense with the Super Bowl III Champion New York Jets, kind of gets a chance to come full circle. He probably should have been offered the Jets head coaching job when Weeb Ewbank retired but Weeb hired his son-in-law, the ironically named Charlie Winner as his successor instead. Buddy moved on to Minnesota as DC at that time, then Chicago, where he “invented” the 46 and won the most lopsided Super Bowl in history and ultimately to the Eagles, where he finally became a head coach. Now he gets to come home by unleashing his son Rex on the NFL and the New York media.

As far as the son is concerned, the rest of the NFL better be on notice. Based on what we’ve heard in interviews, Rex definitely inherited Buddy’s sense of vengeance. This man has a major chip on his shoulder. Passed over for several head coaching jobs, Rex is looking to extract some revenge at the expense of everybody.

And that just might be the attitude that this organization really needs.

This is season number 50 for the New York Football Jets. And for those who haven’t noticed, the first 49 seasons weren’t exactly…. hmmm…. what’s the word I’m looking for…. oh, successful.

The Jets are probably the most popular losing franchise in sports outside of the Chicago Cubs. But by comparison, the Cubs get about 1000 times more respect.

But the Jets have rarely played with that chip on their shoulder. They did once, it was in January 1969 and the result was enormously successful.

Ryan brings with him a significant sea change in attitude that might be the best thing that ever happened to the Jets. He also brings with him Bart Scott, who shares his feeling of disrespect and who looks to get out of Ray Lewis’ shadow by leading his own defense to intimidation levels not even dreamed of by the Baltimore Ravens. Ryan also brings Jim Leonhard with him.

Leonhard may well turn out to be the single most significant addition of this offseason, at least as far as the defense is concerned. Leonhard started last season on the Ravens’ bench and finished it as not only the starting strong safety but also the Ravens’ green dot guy. That is the guy with the headset in his helmet who gets the defensive signals from the sideline and relays them in the huddle. Keep in mind that this was on an established defense that included ProBowl level talent with huge personalities like Ray Lewis, Bart Scott, Ed Reed, Samari Rolle, Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs. With all those guys on their defense, Jim Leonhard is the one Rex Ryan and Mike Pettine trusted to call the plays in the huddle. Yet very few people know who the hell Jim Leonhard is.  Can anyone say “chip on shoulder?”

The leaders of this team all feel like they have a lot to prove and a coach who encourages guys to play with emotion, which is something that has been sorely lacking the last three years under Mangini. Mangini has a good football mind but is too analytical and not emotional enough. He replaced Herman Edwards who was all emotion with very little analysis. Could it be that we finally got the right balance in Rex Ryan? A football man with the attitude of a professional wrestler?

This oddly enough brings me to the other thing Ryan brings with him – a new face for the franchise. Ryan, for all his bluster and comedy, is not going to be the face of the New York Jets. That role belongs to one Mr. Mark Travis John Sanchez.

Sanchez represents something the Jets haven’t had since Joe Willie Namath chose them over the then St. Louis Cardinals in 1965 – a true franchise QB. This guy comes in highly touted and most importantly, excited to be a New York Jet.

Think about that for a second fellow Jets fans – Mark Sanchez said BEFORE the draft that he wanted to be a New York Jet. He didn’t start saying the right things after draft day, he acted the right way too. Going so far as to make sure he signed his deal and didn’t hold out like so many high profile, highly drafted QBs.

All reports on Sanchez are that he is a sponge who works hard and studies like crazy because he really has a desire to be “the guy.” If this guy turns out to be what the Jets hope he is….. Wow, I just got the chills.

I don’t know if this is all going to work out. I don’t know if the Jets have finally picked the right guys at coach and QB. I obviously hope they did and plan on rooting like hell for it to be true.

But it is going to be entertaining as hell in the meantime.

Get ready for a media frenzy.

While I am personally on the fence about the Mark Sanchez pick from a football sense (as a lifelong Notre Dame fan it’s very hard for me to get excited about a Trojan QB) I am intrigued by how this kid is going to be marketed to the world.

Extend the finger Mark, that's how Joe Willie did it!

Before Mark Sanchez ever throws a pass for the New York Jets, before he ever gives us a clue as to whether or not he will be a successful football player, he will be marketed as a superstar and sold as, dare I say it, the next Joe Namath.

Sanchez has that “it” factor. Its hard not like him when you see him interviewed. I mean, as a Jets fan, how can you not get excited and start to fall in love with this kid when you hear statements like this:

“God, it’s awesome,” Sanchez said, smiling profusely. “I’ve wanted this for so long, ever since I met the people in their organization, especially the coaches. Since then it’s been this quiet little flame burning for New York. I’m so excited.

“I’m just really thankful that they’d make that move up to get me. That means the world to me. The whole thing is storybook. I couldn’t have written it any better. I’m very excited about the big-city atmosphere. They’ve got a brand-new facility and they’re moving into a new stadium in 2010. So it’s the right time. This is so special.”

I mean, I don’t think I ever heard a kid expressing that kind of excitement to be a New York Jet on draft day.

And for those that don’t think Sanchez will be marketed like a star right off the bat, think about this: Brady Quinn, who has had all of three starts in two years for the Cleveland Browns, is Myoplex’s national spokesman.

Sanchez is the perfect QB for this generation of marketing execs: he’s a good looking latino kid who will be playing for a New York team. That is an advertiser’s fantasy. The perfect confluence of personality and place and time coming together to create a near certain media star. If he actually turns out to be a good quarterback – its icing on the cake.

I’ve long had a theory that the New York media has had an overwhelming desire for the Jets to find the new Namath. Think about it, despite the fact that Ken O’Brien was a moderately successful QB for us, because he didn’t have the out-sized personality and the gaudy stats of Dan Marino, he was never embraced. Maybe that’s unfair to Kenny because Marino turned out to be an all time great but in all fairness, they both finished their careers with the same number of championships and there’s no guarantee that anything would be different if their draft status was reversed and Marino wound up a Jet. One thing is for sure though, Marino would have been an even bigger star than he is had he played his home games in New York and not Miami.

Then came Chad Pennington, who arguably was the most successful QB the Jets ever had. Hell, he led the Jets to three playoff appearances (Namath won the SB but he only went to the postseason that one time.) But Pennington didn’t have
“it.” No big arm, no easy charm. If Namath had chastised the NY media the way Pennington did that time (“it’s a privilege”) they would have praised him for his honesty.

Sanchez has the chance to be “that guy.” I can almost guarantee you that the reviews for this pick will be overwhelmingly positive. Gary Myers of the Daily News will praise the Jets for finally doing what it took to get a franchise QB. His News colleague Rich Cimini is pinching himself over the prospect of covering Sanchez and will write a column expressing that feeling in embarrassing detail. The Post’s Steve Serby will write a column comparing Sanchez to Namath as potential cultural icon.

My only hope is that he lives up to the hype. In fact I don’t Sanchez to be Namath at all. I want him to be the first Mark Sanchez. Four or five big rings will make this kid prettier to Jets fans than he is to the media.

Here’s to hoping Mark Sanchez is even better than advertised.

Why, you ask? Because based on computer rankings, the outcome of that game could very well determine who will play for the national championship (I don’t have time to go into specifics, but trust me. I know it sounds weird, but it’s true.)

Because of nonsense like this, this year the cry for a big time college football playoff has grown louder than ever.

However, I have yet to hear a really good plan for a playoff.

Some say to take the top eight BCS teams. Well, how is that fair when this year that plan would shut out a 12-0 Boise State team that is currently ranked ninth in the BCS?

So, should we take the top 16?

No, that still doesn’t work because we still really don’t know if the silly BCS rankings are all that accurate even going that far down.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports recently came up with a pretty good plan for a playoff that you can read here:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-playoff120208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

But even Wetzel’s plan doesn’t take into consideration the fact that the alleged top conferences really don’t prove that on the field by playing teams like Boise State on a regular basis. (Don’t take Boise State all that seriously? Ask Oklahoma if you should.)

While Wetzel’s plan is a good start, I think this needs to be taken a step further.

If college football would ever be willing to do something as radical as scrapping the bowls and starting a playoff system, they should be willing to do the following because it would address the other issues as far as determining a true national champion.

First, eliminate a bunch of the smaller, noncompetitive schools.

Let’s face it, some teams should have never made the jump to Division I-A (or the BCS Non-Playoff Division as the NCAA currently calls it.)

What college football should really have is nine 12-team conferences: the Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, Big East, SEC, ACC, Mountain West, WAC and Conference USA.

Yes, Notre Dame should be forced to join a conference. They already play at least three games against the Big 10 every year (Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue,) sometimes its four like in years when they play Penn State as well. Would it really kill them to play a full Big 10 schedule? I think not.

So now we have our conferences, next we have to address the schedule.

Currently, the big BCS conference schools play six conference games. That works perfectly. If every conference has 12 teams, they can all have two 6-team divisions, play every team in their division plus a rival from the opposite division and have a conference championship game.

For the other six games, we set up a rotation where each team plays one home game and one road game against three of the other conferences on a rotating basis based on order of finish from the previous year. Sound familar? That’s what the NFL does.

For example: every SEC school will play two games each against the Big 12, Pac 10 and Mountain West in a given year. The following year, they play the Big 10, Big East and WAC.

You see, that way the best play the best more often so we get a better idea of which conferences are really dominant.

It would also give the so called “small” conferences a chance to really compete against the so called “big” conferences. Maybe we’d find out that the Mountain West is better than the Big East and ACC. Maybe those teams would get a boost in recruiting because they would get more national exposure. Either way, it would be more fair and more entertaining than watching the Alabamas of the world beat up on a couple of directional schools every year.

After every conference holds its championship game the first Saturday in December, we have our NCAA Football Playoff Selection Special on ESPN where we find out the seeds.

The nine conference champions and seven at-large teams would open the postseason two weeks later, giving the teams and fans the ability to make the necessary travel arrangements.

Two weeks after that, on the first Saturday in January, we have college football’s Elite Eight, the following week: the Final Four.

And then, two weeks later, the week before the Super Bowl in the same stadium as the Super Bowl would be the National Championship Game.

Can you imagine the hype of a fair playoff system following a fairly designed regular season?

If we’re gonna have a playoff, we should do it the right way. This is the right way.

Now? Now the Jets are the most dangerous team in football.

Now? Now the Jets are coming off back to back road wins over their nemesis Patriots and the NFL’s last remaining undefeated team.

Now? Now the Jets are a team that has “set a standard to maintain” in the words of Kerry Rhodes.

Now? Now the Jets are the hottest team in football.

Now? Now the Jets are in control of our own destiny with road wins over all of our division foes and the head to head tiebreaker with the Titans in our favor.

Now? Now the Jets are just plain good.

Something has clicked with this team. Mangini told these guys after the Chiefs game that nobody’s job was safe and made damn sure they got it.

In the last four weeks we have seen the Jets go up to Buffalo and convincingly beat the Bills, absolutely crush the Rams at home, exorcise the demons in New England and now destroy a 10-0 Titans team in their own building.

Four weeks ago, Brett Favre was coming off a three game stretch in which he tossed seven picks and only three TDs. In the last four? Five TDs and only two picks.

Mangini told Favre to protect the ball better and he has obliged. The man just seems to get better with age. He is completing an astonishing 70.1% of his passes and has a passer rating that is currently tied for the third best of his career.

He is using all of his weapons and the Jets have developed a rhythm on offense the likes of which we’ve never seen around here.

The Jets have scored on their first possession in five straight games. The Jets had three drives that lasted more than five minutes on Sunday, giving them 27 such drives for the season – most in the NFL.

The Jets can’t just score – they expect to score. 323 points from a team that only scored 268 all of last season, that is good for second in the league and only six total points behind the league leading Giants.

The defense is also getting more impressive each week. As of right now the Jets are giving up only 78 rushing yards per game, with a lowly 3.4 yards per carry. In fact, the Jets have gotten so good at stopping the run that teams just don’t try to do it all that much against them. They have faced only 252 rushing attempts this season, fourth fewest in the league.

Sure, teams are racking up some passing yards but that’s because they have to throw as they are usually trailing and are taking what the Jets are giving them. Upon closer inspection, the Jets pass defense is much better than the numbers suggest as they are third in the league in sacks and have allowed opposing QBs to put up a passer rating of only 87.7, which puts them in the top half of the league. They have had to defend more pass attempts than everyone but the Bears and Chargers.

But the most impressive thing this team has done won’t show up in the stats at all.

In four weeks the Jets have totally changed the perception of them by not only their fans, but the league as a whole.

The Jets have gone from a team that was struggling to beat bad teams and playing out of sync to a team that executes like clockwork and has more heart and intensity than anybody thought they ever had.

What a difference a month makes.

So what do you think of now?

Now it pretty damn nice.

“Men, we won today. We won our football game. But we don’t have much to be proud of.

We almost gave today’s game away to one of the worst teams in this league because of our lack of consistent focus and intensity. I am not going to single anyone out because I believe we are truly all guilty of what transpired on that football field.

Next week, we will be going to Buffalo to start what will be the most difficult part of our schedule. After Buffalo, we will be playing the St. Louis Rams, a team that has suddenly found itself and gave the Patriots everything they could handle today. The week after that, we go play those same Patriots in their building and the week after that, we have what may be the best team in this league in the Tennessee Titans.

If we play that same way in those four games the way we played most of this game, we will lose all four of those games. If we play like the offense did in our final drive, with that same emotion and intensity, we will win all four.

It really is that simple.

Play with intensity, emotion and focus and we have the talent and ability to beat anybody. Play with a lack of attitude and execution and we can be beaten by anybody.

Now, some of you may be wondering who earned game balls today and there is only one. The game ball goes to Leon Washington, because he is the only guy who played today with the level of intensity, emotion and focus from beginning to end that we need to be successful.

Its time for all of us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what we want out of this season. If we play the way we are capable of, we really have the opportunity to do something special, I really believe that. If we play like we did today, we are going to be sitting at home in January thinking of what might have been.

So ask yourselves, what do you want to do? If you want to be successful, be at practice Tuesday morning ready to work. If not, tell me before then so I can find somebody who wants to be successful. It’s your call gentlemen.

That is all.”

I am sitting here absolutely stunned. I have never seen this before in my life. I never thought a guy could play QB like that. I have never seen a Jets team look as dominant as they did today in the first half.

My only regret is that the game was not televised locally so I could Tivo it and pleasure myself to it later.

Six touchdown passes! SIX!?!?!?!?!? Six friggin’ touchdown passes?

Are you kidding me? I never thought I’d live to see the day that a Jet QB would throw six touchdown passes in a game.

What’s even more amazing is that it came off a short week after an embarrassing Monday night loss.

After Monday night, the Jets were a team licking it’s wounds with their tails between their legs. At least that’s what the local media and some players would have us believe. Kerry Rhodes certainly didn’t seem all that fired up about his team the other day. He did say they weren’t worried, but that hardly inspired confidence.

Either Mr. Rhodes and his teammates did an amazing acting job or Eric Manginifound some way to fire these guys up and get them believing again quick or a little bit of both.

Whatever kind of Kool-Aid Mr. Manginiwhipped up, give me a big ol’ sip because Sunday’s performance was stunning.

Not only did the Jets absolutely just punch the Cards in the face en route to a 34-0 halftime lead, they kept their composure after the Cards delivered a gut shot with a 21-0 third and put up 21 more in the fourth, including two fourth down TD passes by Brett Favre for the knockout punch.

And to think, some people thought Mangini was coaching scared and overly conservative!

Maybe he was and maybe he finally realized that his QB is Brett Mother****ing Favre,

Whatever it was, I want more!!!

I am almost upset that we have a bye next week because I don’t want to wait to see these guys again.

Who thought we’d be saying that six hours ago?

Our strategy against the Patriots was, well, it was… ummmm, well we just thought without Tom Brady, they wouldn’t bother to show up.