Brett Favre has jumped the shark, but he was playing the Jets, so his act was not wanted this week anyways. The flawed greatness aspect of the game also included new Vikings, Randy Moss, who was not likely to have know enough plays yet to have a complete role. A resurgent Jets team, the defense continuing to shine, was helped early on by heavy rain. Well, somewhat. Including right before (and after, when the rain cleared up) the end of the First Half, the Jets repeatedly only scored field goals. Minnesota has a pretty good defense too.
It was 9-0 at the Half, and 12-0 mid-Third Quarter. And, it took only one good drive (and nearly forty yard pass) to make it 12-7. This was follow-up by ... another field goal. 15-7. Those field goals and that defense did matter, all the same, even when the Vikings again scored ... but missed the two point conversion try. Holding on to a thin 15-13 lead now, the Jets eventually finally scored a touchdown. Nine point lead, 4:30 left. Then, the Jets really made it interesting. First, a special teams f-up led to a return to nearly mid-field. Next, they allowed the Viks to score in less than a minute and a half.
Finally, after getting a First Down at 2:47 with the Viks having one time out, showing how even a few more seconds on the Viks drive would have been important, poor clock management led to a Fourth Down at the Two Minute Warning. So, a perfect storm of bad special teams play, what looked to me pretty lax defense to allow a quick score and poor clock management (after a promising start), gave BF nearly two minutes to get into field goal range. This really should have been enough time with a Jets penalty helping on the first series. But, the Jets D this time held -- many Jets fans surely were nervous with all those second half points -- and the Old Man made one of his now infamous picks.
This made it 29-20. The fact is that the player should have simply took a knee or went out of bounds at the goal line. All scoring did was result in one more mostly garbage time drive (but, hey, who knows) that was unnecessary because the Viks were out of time outs. Oh well. Though the Jets late game slip-ups could have been fatal against a better team, the end result was sweet. There is even the amusing tidbit that "some mild tendinitis in his throwing elbow" might have affected his game. The Jets remember him playing hurt. And, though four of five of them were mid-range or short, five field goals is a good sign.
Next up: Rangers v. Rays. Almost sounds like a cheap movie on whatever they call the sci-fi channel these days. I think the Rays have an edge, since it's their ballpark, they have the momentum and David Price wants to pitch like an ace this time around. He already dueled the Yanks ace to a draw, so why not do the same with Cliff Lee? But, it can go either way, helping the Yanks with the teams wearing each other out and using their aces. We will see how that and lay-off time will affect things, including when the Phils play the Giants.
It was 9-0 at the Half, and 12-0 mid-Third Quarter. And, it took only one good drive (and nearly forty yard pass) to make it 12-7. This was follow-up by ... another field goal. 15-7. Those field goals and that defense did matter, all the same, even when the Vikings again scored ... but missed the two point conversion try. Holding on to a thin 15-13 lead now, the Jets eventually finally scored a touchdown. Nine point lead, 4:30 left. Then, the Jets really made it interesting. First, a special teams f-up led to a return to nearly mid-field. Next, they allowed the Viks to score in less than a minute and a half.
Finally, after getting a First Down at 2:47 with the Viks having one time out, showing how even a few more seconds on the Viks drive would have been important, poor clock management led to a Fourth Down at the Two Minute Warning. So, a perfect storm of bad special teams play, what looked to me pretty lax defense to allow a quick score and poor clock management (after a promising start), gave BF nearly two minutes to get into field goal range. This really should have been enough time with a Jets penalty helping on the first series. But, the Jets D this time held -- many Jets fans surely were nervous with all those second half points -- and the Old Man made one of his now infamous picks.
This made it 29-20. The fact is that the player should have simply took a knee or went out of bounds at the goal line. All scoring did was result in one more mostly garbage time drive (but, hey, who knows) that was unnecessary because the Viks were out of time outs. Oh well. Though the Jets late game slip-ups could have been fatal against a better team, the end result was sweet. There is even the amusing tidbit that "some mild tendinitis in his throwing elbow" might have affected his game. The Jets remember him playing hurt. And, though four of five of them were mid-range or short, five field goals is a good sign.
Next up: Rangers v. Rays. Almost sounds like a cheap movie on whatever they call the sci-fi channel these days. I think the Rays have an edge, since it's their ballpark, they have the momentum and David Price wants to pitch like an ace this time around. He already dueled the Yanks ace to a draw, so why not do the same with Cliff Lee? But, it can go either way, helping the Yanks with the teams wearing each other out and using their aces. We will see how that and lay-off time will affect things, including when the Phils play the Giants.