Will Miami game be Mangini's last?
December 23
Bergen Record columnist Tara Sullivan
"Eric Mangini had a lengthy runway delay and a cross-country plane ride to think about his Jets' latest collapse, which meant he had plenty of time to dissect and digest their 13-3 loss in Seattle. He used that long flight home Sunday night to watch a tape of the game, the first step in the search to find out what went wrong.
Weary Jets' fans are desperate for a ray of hope, dying for a sign that Mangini has found an answer to the team's dramatic decline and searching for a flicker of reassurance the coach has the leadership quality to rally the team from the brink of oblivion.
Unfortunately for them, the Monday afternoon rehash brought only more despair.
Same old Jets.
Same old Mangini.
A tired-eyed, pale-faced Mangini offered nothing more than the same litany of excuses and explanations for his team's dreary game. Stop us if you've heard these before: His players practiced well all week and he had no problem with their effort or intensity. The opportunities were there to win the game, but his players didn't execute when the chances arose. There is nothing else to do now except put the past behind them and prepare for the next game.
Well, there's only one game left. And the big question now is whether Sunday's finale against Miami will be Mangini's last for the Jets.
Without an inspired effort, it should be.
If Mangini can't rally his team to play better in a last, desperate attempt to justify that $152 million off-season spending spree, then he should be fired and the Jets should move on. A third loss in four games puts that kind of heat on a coach.
Mangini was asked Monday if he had received any votes of confidence from either owner Woody Johnson or general manager Mike Tannenbaum across these past painful weeks, but he avoided a direct answer by describing his regular, almost-daily team-related communication with his bosses. Asked if was looking for a vote of confidence, Mangini was more specific.
"No," he said. "What I'm looking for is to give the players a good plan to beat Miami. That's what I'm looking for. That's what I want to do. That's what our focus is going to be. That isn't a focal point for me."
This low point for the Jets is difficult to believe. It feels like yesterday they were 8-3 with dramatic road victories over New England and then-unbeaten Tennessee. The ensuing predictions of a Super Bowl appearance look ridiculous now, just as so many of Mangini's coaching decisions in the Seattle game seem ridiculous under the scrutiny of hindsight.
The fourth-and-1 field goal on the game's opening drive? In what turned out to be the best Jets' drive of the day, Mangini should have gone for a touchdown and shown the three-win Seahawks he was going to be aggressive from the start.
The fourth-quarter decision to punt rather than attempt a 50-yard field goal, even though Jay Feely had just nailed his penalty-erased 45-yarder with ease? Mangini should have let F
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