The San Diego Chargers became the third team with serious playoff aspirations to avoid starting 0-3 after their 48-29 thrashing of the New York Jets on Monday night football. San Diego (1-2) recovered quite nicely a week after having a win at Denver taken away from them on a blown call. The Jets meanwhile look about the same with Brett Favre (right) as they did without him the last few years — a team that can play well in spurts but has trouble putting together a total game.
Favre is playing OK for New York from a statistical standpoint, but he threw two killer interceptions against the Chargers — one returned for a touchdown and the other in the end zone as the Jets were mounting a comeback. He is clearly not yet comfortable in the Jets offensive system, but at 1-2 the Jets are far from panicking.
The Chargers joined Minnesota, Jacksonville and Seattle as 0-2 teams that played inspired this weekend to avoid an 0-3 start. In a season where no team looks dominant, staying in the thick of the race is all that matters. I still see San Diego winning their division. Denver is 3-0 but that comes with a huge asterisk, courtesy of their Week 2 officiating gift against the Chargers. The Broncos also allowed 502 yards to the Saints and had to survive a missed 43-yard field goal to hold on in that game.
on Sep 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 AM
It looks as if the Jets got the 2005-2006 Brett Favre instead of the 2007 version. He threw two interceptions yesterday and the Chargers dropped two other wide open interceptions right in the DBs hands. One of those drops would have gone for a sure TD return.
What about the coaching? One can only conclude that Jets coach Eric Mangini did not believe his team could line up and beat the Chargers straight up. Otherwise why would any coach go for an on-sides kick in the 2nd quarter. Desperation is the only explanation that comes to mind.
Jets fans have been set-up for a long, disappointing season – yet again.
on Sep 23rd, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Favre has looked bad in each of his three starts for the Jets. Ron Jaworski made excuse after excuse for him, but at some point the guy has to play well. His QB rating was 56.25 late in the third quarter before he started throwing 5-yard slants against deep coverage because the game was over.
People said this was a playoff team even before he got there. They get the Bengals, Cardinals and Raiders the next three weeks, two of them at home; They better win those.