MANGINI NEARLY ALLOWED CHAD TO GET HIS REVENGE
Posted: 4:47 am
September 8, 2008
MIAMI - We had seen this same picture so many times before: the sad eyes, the soft voice, the dress shirt (sans tie) and the pleated trousers and the baseball cap perched on his drip-drying hair, a Dolphins logo on the front this time instead of the JetsNew York Jets .
"My heart hurts," Chad PenningtonChad Pennington said. "I hate losing that much."
A half hour had passed since Pennington's final pass of the afternoon - a familiar floater with more zest than zip on it - settled in Darrelle RevisDarrelle Revis ' arms instead of Ted Ginn Jr.'s, wrapping up a 20-14 Jets victory.
He talked about Friday's practice, about how he had guaranteed his teammates this game would come down to a two-minute drill.
"And wouldn't you know it," Pennington said. "Last play of practice, we scored."And wouldn't you know it, the Jets would do everything in their power to allow Pennington to have a crack at the one thing he always did so well, moving a team without a huddle, freed to push the Dolphins toward the goal unburdened by anything but a savvy that has served him so well for so long.
Terrifying every Jets fan in existence along the way.
That he didn't repeat his Friday finish is only a small part of the story from where the Jets sit this morning. That he was allowed to push green disciples everywhere to their medicine cabinets to start mainlining Maalox is a big part.
Because there seemed to be one person at Dolphins Stadium who forgot that it wasn't Pennington, wearing No. 10, lining up behind center for the Jets yesterday, but a fellow in a No. 4 jersey named Favre.
That was Eric Mangini. And he coached the last 9½ minutes of this game as if he were still living in mortal fear of his quarterback, rather than remembering who, between coach and quarterback, has already assembled Hall of Fame credentials.
Pinned near the shadow of their own goal, up 13 points, Mangini called a running play on third-and-3 with just over seven minutes left. Leon Washington lost a yard.
You want to say it's not a terrible idea to try to bleed the clock there up two scores, to play it safe? Fine. We'll cede that one.
But 3½ minutes later, after Pennington had delivered an eight-play, 53-yard scoring drive to slice the lead ever so precariously to 20-14, there was no excuse for the three plays that followed after the Jets took over with 3:27 left and the Dolphins carrying only one time-out:
Thomas Jones up the middle for 4 yards.
Thomas Jones up the middle for 4 yards.
Then, after a false start penalty set up third-and-7: Thomas Jones right tackle for 3 yards.
You have Brett Favre on your team, you are one first down away from salting the game away, and you hand the ball off? Really? You don't think about seizing the day there, clinching the game, the way we've seen the Patriots (with their own Hall of Fame quarterback) do it about 50 times the past few years? Really?
"There's no guarantee a pass is going to work there," Favre would say, taking his coach off the griddle the way a Hall of Famer will. "The way our offensive line was blocking we could very easily have gotten it done there."
Forget the result, then. Think of the message that was sent, a familiar old Jets memorandum that has lingered for as long as the Jets' title-free malaise has: rather than put the game in his own team's hands, Mangini let the other guys have a crack.
And there is a roster of villains from Bernie Kosar to Dan Marino to Tom Brady and a dozen in between who have grate fully accepted such Jets largesse through the years.
"When we got the ball back," Pen nington said, "I thought we were gonna win the game."
He wasn't alone. The fact that it didn't happen doesn't cool the ulcers festering in Jets-land, and it doesn't lessen the concern that a Hall of Fame quarterback's precious time with the team can be so swiftly undermined by a ham-handed head coach who still thinks he has to make his quarterback look better than he is, instead of the other way around.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09082008/sports/jets/mangini_nearly_allowed_chad_to_get_his_r_128059.htm
Great Article. This is the exact reason why I fear for this season even with the talent we have on this team. Where the heck is our killer instinct??
Please discuss. I'm interested in other JET fans opinions inspite we won the game.
