As Chad Pennington looms, Brett Favre

As Chad Pennington looms, Brett Favre
December 18
New York Daily News columnist Gary Myers
"It's never easy with the Jets, but they will beat the Seahawks, a three-win team with their bags packed since Halloween, then take care of the Dolphins, a nice story if not a very good team, and win the AFC East.

Two days after the Jets acquired Brett Favre in August, I said they would be a 10-6 wild-card team. Then Tom Brady went down and expectations went up. Although the Jets have flopped since winning those back-to-back games in New England and Tennessee when they looked like the class of the AFC, they are in prime position to finish this off and win the division.

The Favre of old is just the old Favre now, and by the time he gets into the Hall of Fame, his time with the Jets will be just a footnote to his career, but a piece of his legacy is still at stake.

The losses to the Broncos and 49ers were dreadful, and the Jets should vote Dick Jauron a playoff share for that insane decision Sunday that cost the Bills the game Sunday. But I can't see Favre losing to Seneca Wallace in front of his former coach, Mike Holmgren, who has been having a lousy lame-duck season, and then certainly not to Chad Pennington with the reputation of the organization on the line with what will likely be a winner-take-all, dramatic ending to the regular season.

"How confident am I that we'll be in the playoffs?" Favre said Wednesday. "I think that I have to be honest and tell you that I am really confident, as I should be."

Fear is sometimes the greatest motivation. The Jets know blowing a playoff spot after winning eight of their first 11 and holding a one-game lead is completely unacceptable.

"It can be disastrous," Kerry Rhodes said. "We were sitting pretty. To draw a comparison, it would be like the Mets of a couple years ago where they had the big lead and then didn't get it done. There were changes made. We don't want it to be that way."

Eric Mangini was trying to convince his players Wednesday that they should pay attention to tapes of the Seahawks over the last month and not the numbers. But there is only one number that matters: Seattle is 3-11. Two of those victories came against the Rams and the other against the 49ers.

If Mangini loses two weeks apart to the 49ers and Seahawks after having already lost to the Raiders, then what is the point of keeping him around? If he can't get his players ready against teams already booking their January vacations, then it may be time for Woody Johnson to move on. And forget about the West Coast travel argument. These games are in the continental United States, after all."
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