Black Monday Musings

I have to say, it doesn’t look like it could’ve turned out much better for the Patriots. Rex Ryan has lost his job, Joe Philbin has kept his and the Bills don’t have a 1^st round pick in 2015, having traded that pick away to draft the third or fourth best wide receiver in the 2014 draft. The Jets will be rebuilding, we can pencil the Dolphins in for another 8-8-0 season and the Bills will be hoping their defense can carry Kyle Orton EJ Manuel to the Super Bowl.

EJ Manuel.

Jay Cutler, anyone?

 

Jets’ owner Woody Johnson has hit the big red re-set button with a cartoonishly large wooden mallet. Rex Ryan’s firing was hardly a shock given the three weeks of rumors that led up to this “I think we should see other people” moment. I suppose the firing of GM John Idzik wasn’t too much of a surprise, either. Let’s just say I don’t think the Jets are one of those “there’s lots of good young talent on that roster” scenarios. Whoever takes the GM/HC jobs won’t have a lot to work with, aside from the defensive line.

I won’t lie; I’m not going to miss Rex. Perhaps more deviously clever than smart, he was still the second smartest coach in the division. His teams played with passion and outplayed the “on paper” talent on the roster more times than not. Just look at his final game as HC of the NYJ. The Jets had just used every last drop of gas in the tank the week before in their one-point loss to the Patriots. They were on the road. They were playing for nothing but pride. And they won. That’s what the coach who got fired did. The coach who kept his job couldn’t even keep his players interested enough to play the second half.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins are still the Dolphins. The Mike Wallace melodrama is so Miami. They overpaid for a wide receiver the Steelers didn’t want to keep (see Plaxico Burress, Santonio Holmes and proceed at your own risk) and who was a poor fit for their offense and their quarterback. Dissatisfied with how he was being used in the first half against the Jets, Wallace quit on his teammates. That he is still on the Miami roster today tells me all I need to know about Joe Philbin and the Miami Dolphins.

The Bills have got everything nailed except for the most important position on the field. I respect HC Doug Marrone’s decision to start Kyle Orton over EJ Manuel as it gave his team the best chance to win. It should also tell us everything we need to know about EJ Manuel’s future with the Bills. (Spoiler alert: It involves anti-matter.) Now that Orton has notified the Bill’s he’s retiring, Buffalo needs to seriously consider making a move on Jay Cutler. Yes, he’s still Jay Cutler but he’d be playing behind a better offensive line and with a much better defense that might actually be able to bail him out when he does Jay Cutler things. You’d rather have Brian Hoyer? Colt McCoy? Kirk Cousins might be available but have you seen his numbers? Okay, the numbers argument hardly works in Cutler’s favor, but he does have the arm strength to deal with winter in western New York. If Sammy Watkins is going to look like he was worth mortgaging 2015 the Bills are going to need a quarterback who can get him the football.

Winning while losing…

So, I’ll agree with the consensus amongst pigskin pundits and bobbleheads that there’s little we can take away from the Patriots’ 17-9 season-ending loss to the Bills other than nagging concerns regarding Nate Solder’s knee (and what was that thing on Bill Belichick’s lip?). Belichick did everyone in New England with a family history of heart disease, with borderline high blood pressure and borderline high cholesterol (yes, me) a huge favor and held Rob Gronkowski out of the game; El Gronko will be rested and ready to go in two weeks when the Pats host a divisional round playoff game.

Getting Dan Connolly, Sebastian Vollmer, Julian Edelman, Brandon Browner, Dont’a Hightower, et al. as close to 100% as possible will also be helpful.

We’ll be hearing a lot about momentum over the next few weeks. I don’t know if there’s a football correlative to baseball’s “Momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher” and while the Patriots have not been sharp on offense lately but I still wouldn’t want to be (let’s say) the Indianapolis Colts coming into Foxborough to face Tom Brady when he’s wearing his angry eyes. New England has two weeks to get ready; to heal wounds, to practice, to game plan. Momentum is a healthy Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman. Momentum is a focused Tom Brady. Momentum is a Top 10 Scoring Defense led by Darrelle Revis and incipient superstar Jamie Collins. Momentum is what happens next, not what happened last Sunday.