For Jets, Clamors of Doubt Are Familiar

After the Jets’ 45-3 loss to the Patriots last December, I wrote that no matter how successful the Jets were, the team’s doubters would never be far behind.

Welcome to the first such chapter of the 2011 season.

No one is questioning that the Jets’ 34-24 defeat at Oakland on Sunday qualifies as a bad loss. When you allow 234 rushing yards, no matter how the yards were accumulated, nothing positive can be drawn from it. The reasons behind how the big plays happened need to be addressed.

But the notion that the Jets are going to look at the schedule on the wall as if it were a bogeyman in the room? I wouldn’t count on that.

Worried about the Baltimore-New England 1-2 punch on the schedule in the next two weeks? Well, the Jets have been there and done that.

They opened the 2010 season with the same schedule under far more ominous circumstances. A bad loss by the Jets to Washington in the third preseason game in 2010 — the starters’ final preparation for the regular season — had many doubters saying that the Jets were not going to be ready for their tough early schedule. And Darrelle Revis was still a question mark because of his contract dispute. The Jets’ victory over the Patriots in Week 2 righted the ship and pushed the doubters aside until later in the season.

For the Jets, sometimes going back to the drawing board is as simple as going back to basics. For a reminder of what that means, here is another look at what Rex Ryan laid out as his plan when he was introduced as the coach in January 2009.

So what are the Jets’ concerns? Here is a short list:

1) Sunday’s loss to Oakland was the Jets’ second straight defeat to a team whose stated goal was to out-physical them. The other was to Pittsburgh in last season’s A.F.C. championship game. For the Jets to get back on track, that cannot stand.

2) Avoid the mistakes on the road that serve to energize the home crowd and the home team. Against the Raiders, two such instances stood out. The first was Mark Sanchez’s ill-advised throw into the end zone at a well-covered Derrick Mason. The throw was intercepted, and it came one play after Jeremy Kerley’s electric 53-yard punt return. The other was the decision to go for the first down on 4th-and-2 at the Oakland 37 late in the third quarter. The Raiders had been playing on a long field the entire game — 7 of their 9 possessions had started from their 20-yard line or worse — and their fourth-down stop charged up the stadium. The Raiders followed with a four-play, 63-yard drive that gave them the lead for good.

Are the Jets overrated? Will their doubters have the final say? The Jets have been down this road before and lived to tell about it. Fifth Down readers can join the discussion on this and other topics with George Bretherton and Bret Leuthner tonight from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Listen in or call in at  609-910-0687.