Geno Smith gets the start again for Week 13 against the
Dolphins... are you kidding me? I cannot
figure out what is going on inside of Rex Ryan's head right now. Here is a coach who was supposedly a dead man
walking before the season began and the football gods decided to take pity on
by practically gift-wrapping him a playoff berth before heading into the bye
week only to have him give it right back to them and saying "It's the
wrong color, I don't want it." This
upcoming Dolphins game is do-or-die for the Jets right now since a loss means
that they would have to run the table to make the playoffs which is about the
only thing that can save Rex Ryan's job at this point. Knowing that, what kind of coach stubbornly
refuses to bench a quarterback who has thrown for 1 TD in his last 6 games to
go along with 10 interceptions (maybe the same kind of guy who takes his team
out to Dave & Buster's to relax and have a few beers right before the most
important game of the season)?
Let's not kid ourselves.
Despite the Jets surprisingly good start to the season (surprise only to
the NFL pundits, not by me since I predicted an 8-8 record before the
season began), Geno Smith has NOT been very good with the exception of 2-3
games and the Jets were largely winning games in spite of him and not because
of him. Still, I had hope that he might
turn things around after the bye week when the schedule softened up and he had
a full two weeks to study plays and improve his football IQ, but instead he's
been in an absolute freefall ever since.
I don't know if it's because of the giant shot to the chest he took
during that last Buffalo game, but he's had a different look to him ever since. Do you remember that "eye of the
tiger" that Apollo talked about in Rocky 3? Well Geno sort of has the opposite of that
right now and I'm afraid that if he botches up this upcoming Miami game, our
season will be over.
For all of his athletic gifts and playmaking ability, Geno
is looking remarkably like Sanchize 2.0 (with better arm and legs). Like Sanchize, Geno has not looked any better
in Weeks 11-12 of his career than he has in Weeks 1-2, which I am taking as an
ominous sign. Like Sanchize, he still struggles
a LOT with his reads, can't hold onto the ball, and has a propensity to crumble
badly when things aren't going his way. Let's
give Matt Simms a shot (what do we possibly have to lose?). If Simms catches fire and plays like Nick
Foles, the Jets can ride him all the way into the playoffs and have a
Cinderella type season -- and if he doesn't, Geno can always reclaim his
starting spot after a couple of weeks and continue along his developmental
journey if management still believes that he's the answer. I'm sick to death of hearing that 1-2 weeks
on the bench will destroy Geno's confidence (this was the same argument made in
support of Sanchez). If Geno is so
mentally fragile that sitting two weeks on the bench will ruin him, then I do
NOT want him to be my guy in a big spot.
Rex Ryan is basically coaching for his job next week, and he's placing
his trust in Geno, who has been so bad in the last two games that he's not even
being allowed to THROW out of fear that he might turn the ball over? If I were Rex Ryan, I'd throw everything but
the kitchen sink at the quarterback position right now (Simms, a warm-body, maybe
even Cribbs) and if John Idzik told me to do otherwise, I'd give him the
finger.
