Week One1. If ESPN, NBC, the New York Post, and other major media outlets are to be believed, Jets fans cheered (and/or booed - whatever sells the bogus story) yesterday when Chad Pennington sustained what appears to be a serious ankle injury after being sacked in the 3rd quarter.
If any further evidence of the media's inability to get things right were needed, the coverage of the fans' response to Pennington should more than suffice.
I was in my seat in section 119. Here's what happened:
When Pennington was sacked, there was a feeling of deep frustration at Giants Stadium. The Jets were down 21-7, Chad had engineered a nice drive, and now it was going to stall at around the New England 40 yard line.
When Chad initially did not get up and it was clear that he was hurt, there was silence. When he hobbled off the field, some fans cheered him. Then, as Chad threw off his helmet in deep frustration and a second or two later Kellen Clemens entered the game, some fans - a vocal minority - cheered Clemens.
As I told my friend next to me at the time, the cheers for Clemens were highly inappropriate considering that Pennington had just gotten hurt.
But the fans were not cheering the injury. And there was no booing of Chad at all, contrary to what others who were not at the game keep insisting.
The false media coverage of this story is indicative of how the media will too often twist reality to suit their own purposes of obtaining better ratings, creating more controversy and selling more papers. Today, Jets fans are being defamed. Last month, CNN contrived nonsense about "God's Jewish Warriors." In July, the New York Times Magazine featured Noah Feldman's insidious rant against modern Orthodoxy.
2. As for the game itself, there is much blame to go around. beginning with the defensive game plan. Tom Brady was given way too much time, with the Jets settling for three man rushes and refusing to take necessary risks by blitzing Kerry Rhodes, instead relying on their weak secondary. David Barrett and Justin Miller were predictably terrible at corner.
3. The run blocking was bad too, as a result of which Thomas Jones' performance looked identical to what we saw last season from Kevan Barlow. The pass protection was no better, with D'Brickashaw Ferguson looking like a huge bust for a #4 pick. Ferguson and left guard Adrian Clarke were beaten on the play on which Pennington was sacked and injured.
4. Needless to say, the 108 yard kickoff return to start the second half was a huge special teams failure. The good news going forward is that Mike Nugent seems to have improved his kickoffs.
5. Coming off last season's 10-6 performance, it's too early to rip GM Mike Tannenbaum, but his off-season moves - or lack thereof - were highly dubious. The fact that the offensive line actually got worse is particularly indefensible.
6. Week 1 also looks like it will be a bad one for Jets fans in The Zionist Conspiracy's fantasy football league. Pending tonight's games, my team, Elster and jetsphan appear headed to defeat at the hands of Akiva, MoC and superfeldman, respectively.
posted on 9/10/2007
