Week 191. Today's Jets victory was their biggest upset win since Super Bowl III.
2. Shonn Greene is displaying an ability to hit holes fast, break tackles and run for long touchdowns.
3. There was a feeling of elation when Greene scored with 7:17 left, but from then until the Jets put the game away by converting on 4th and 1 with 1:09 left, Jets fans in the crowd were extremely anxious.
4. I could think only about the Jets loss to the Browns in the second round of the '86 playoffs (I heard the shabbos game on the radio in a Brooklyn park) and their second round loss to Pittsburgh 5 years ago.
5. Chargers fans were shocked and devastated. This was a terrible loss for their franchise.
6. The go-ahead TD pass to Dustin Keller looked great (though I have not yet seen a replay). It looked like a broken play but Mark Sanchez stayed patient.
7. I thought the Jets were too conservative on offense in the 1st quarter and also late in the 4th.
8. The defense made a number of really nice one-on-one tackles.
9. I don't know if the CBS crew liked the onside kick call. I think it was the right move. Had the Chargers recovered, they probably would have driven for the winning TD.
10. Steve Weatherford was one great punt but too terrible punts.
11. Some of the kickoffs were intentionally very short. I can understand trying to contain Sproles, but giving the Chargers the ball near midfield is not good strategy.
12. Terrible waste of a timeout before the 3rd quarter field goal.
13. My Blackberry is partially broken so I cannot post comments. Thanks to Bob Miller for his welcoming invite to Indy.
14. I will be in LA next Sunday. I promised I'd take my boys to the LA Zoo and the Travel Town train museum, and feel bad about reneging - but the AFC Championship starts at noon here. Hopefully my wife will agree to brave the LA freeways alone for our final day in CA.
15. I don't think the Jets will win.
16. Five guys wearing Jets jerseys and caps got onto the airplane; it was immediately obvious that they are frum.
17. One was an old friend of mine, who took the morning flight out of JFK, is flying back on the red eye tonight, and will be in his office tomorrow morning. That's a hard core fan.
18. The flight landed early, the luggage came out quickly, I got a taxi right away for my wife and children, my friend was waiting for me at the airport, we took a longer route I got from another friend who's a Chargers season ticket holder, and as planned found parking around a mile from Qualcomm.
19. As I entered Qualcomm an hour before kickoff, and the lyrics, 'I Got A Feeling That Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night' played outside the stadium, I wondered for a fleeting moment if something special would happen. But I never expected the Jets to win - not until Greene's TD - and even then I felt really anxious.
20. There were a very large number of Jets fans in my section (View 9) and early on there was some harmless banter.
21. I met some really cool Jets and Chargers fans. Unfortunately, things started getting ugly at halftime, likely the result of alcohol.
22. One Jets fan - a leader of the large group in our section - and a big guy with a Mangold jersey - acted as a peacemaker to avoid some skirmishes for getting out of control.
23. I don't know exactly what happened, but in the 3rd quarter, he and a Chargers fan were both handcuffed and led away by police.
24. It made me sad - still does a few hours later - that a big Jets fan flew to San Diego and ended in a jail cell instead of enjoying this win.
25. I cheered wildly, participated in J-E-T-S chants, but didn't provoke anybody or trash talk. I tried to act like a guest in someone else's house. And some Chargers fans seemed to appreciate that as we schmoozed about football and about our teams' painful histories.
26. Qualcomm's bathroom situation is horrible. The lines are enormous.
27. Thanks to Chad Pennington I who led the Jets to a 2004 playoff victory and Qualcomm - in honor of which today I wore his jersey.
28. The sounds of "J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets" were just heard here on Pacific Beach. My wife reports that hours ago, the bars here were full of boisterous Chargers fans.
posted on 1/17/2010
