You know this look. You get it when you are asked questions you either can't or would rather not answer.
We know what Mark Sanchez might have been thinking when this picture was taken. How do the New York Jets keep making it to the conference championships with 'one-and-done' stats? Is it heart? Is it determination? Are they feeding off of Rex's fat reserves? Or are they just playing bums and getting by?
Lets take a look.
The Jets offense, despite two top wide receivers and one explosive gadget man, posted middle-of-the-road numbers for their passing offense. And as football history shows, you can't consistently compete for championships with a mediocre passing attack.
Our Quality Stats show that the 2010 Jets offense ranked 16th on the
Scoreability Index (15.30 YPPS), 22nd in
Passing Yards Per Attempt (5.86 YPA) and 24th in
Offensive Passer Rating (76.53). Not eye popping by any stretch of the imagination.
Perhaps more importantly, the Jets ranked a humble 14th in
Passer Rating Differential (-0.52), despite the fact they fielded one of the best pass defenses in football (
No. 6 in Defensive Passer Rating).
That is simply not a championship-winning number. Just two NFL champions since 1940
were negative in Passer Rating Differential (1957 Lions, 2007 Giants). And only one, the 2007 Giants, ranked lower than 14th in Passer Rating Differential (24th at -10.4). That other New York team reamains one of the great statistical anomalies in all of NFL history, maybe the greatest. And lightning does not strike twice.
Typically, champions dominate Passer Rating Differential: as
we reported a few weeks ago, 40 of 71 NFL champions (56%) were No. 1 or No. 2 in Passer Rating Differential. Each of the last two champs, the 2009 Saints and 2010 Packers, were No. 1 in PRD.
The Jets simply are not in that statistical league right now.
As a second year QB, Sanchez led his team to 5,616 yards and 366 points last season, good enough for 11th in total offense and 13th in scoring offense. Those are OK numbers. But if the Jets wanted OK, they would have intercepted Vinny Testaverde's social security checks and forced him to come back to the field.
The Jets defense slipped 5 spots (No. 1 to No. 6) in
Defensive Passer Rating from 2009 to 2010. But it's obvious that the defensive unit is still the glue holding together the Lombardi Trophy dreams for the team. That
wasn't enough against Quality Teams in 2010 however, as the Jets went 2-4 in the regular season against the big boys, outscored by an average of 22.2 PPG to 16.0 PPG. That pretty much makes them bottom feeders.
They may have a few more years to win a championship, but the "glamour boys" window will close on them if they don't at least make it to the Super Bowl this year. Then again, do they really want to win it all during a dismantled lockout season? Can Rex out bite an Everglades croc? Stay tuned!
By Kennedy Ross
