New York Jets 2010-2011 Season In Review

After a seemingly indelible season, one for the history books, the New York Jets head into the uncertainty of a lock-out post 2010-2011 NFL season. With so many memorable moments from this past season I thought of no better way to recap this bodacious season then with a series of events starting back in late July with HBO's Hard Knocks previewing the New York Jets training camp.

JULY/AUGUST: Training Camp- HBO's Hard Knocks is visiting the New York Jets this season and right off the bat the persona of Rex Ryan takes over with F-bombs amongst other curses that only a trucker could be envious of. Bart Scott also chimes in from time to time, even getting told to shut up by his teammates. Former Coach and NBC analyst Tony Dungy calls out Rex Ryan, even going so far to say "I wouldn't hire someone like that." This is ironic seeing that Tony Dungy was an assistant under Dennis Green who is notorious for his foul language.

The popular talk being tossed around frequently is the hold-out of shut down cornerback Darrelle Revis. Mentioned often, coach Ryan tells his team to prepare like Revis will not be coming back. In early August Rex Ryan creates yet another attention grabbing headline when he writes on the ESPN tour bus "Soon to be Champs." As if it wasn't evident before it's quite clear Rex Ryan has the assiduity to grab every headline out there. The next week New England Patriots Wes Welker would write on the same bus "One game at a time." This would foreshadow events that would take place later in the season.

As the pre-season comes to a close and the start of the regular season days ahead the Jets sign hold-out cornerback Darrelle Revis. Ending a tumultuous hold-out, the Jets finally seemed primed to make deep run everyone in Jets nation is expecting. Finishing up 2-2 in pre-season, the Jets take their act to Monday Night Football and the first game for the Jets at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER: Kicking off the regular season at their new home the New York Jets play a hard fought defensive game against the aforementioned Baltimore Ravens, unfortunately losing with a score of 10-9. Although they lose their first big test of the season, this doesn't become a hinderance as the Jets reel off five consecutive wins in a row to go into the bye-week at 5-1.

Winning three games against division foes, the Jets now are in control of their own destiny. LaDanian Tomlinson appears to regain his old form, as well, with a nice resurgence the Jets have arguably the best 1-2 run game in the league to this point. The Jets also get a win against the Denver Broncos that was highly controversial as a late pass interference call would set the Jets up at the goal line that LaDanian Tomlinson would score on sealing the game. This would be the start of some serendipity as the Jets would start winning games almost seemingly by good fortune rather than their actual play on the field.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: A horrible shut out loss to the Green Bay Packers to the tune of 9-0 would be the first game following the bye-week for the Jets. Back to back overtime wins would ensue after their shut out loss., becoming the first team to ever win back-to-back road overtime games. Winning the first overtime game, the Jets down 10 with 4 minutes to play would end up tying the game after the Lions inexplicably threw on a 3rd down play that could have ran off another 40 seconds off the clock.

Either way the Jets got out of Detroit with a win. The next overtime game was against the Cleveland Browns. Prior to the game, Rex Ryan and his brother Rob Ryan, would exchange friendly jabs leading up to the game, most notably Rex dressing up with some wig work to look like his twin brother Rob. The Browns appeared as if they were going to win the game when all of a sudden Chansi Stuckey fumbled at the Jets 32 yard line towards the end of regulation. Again the Jets would escape with a win that they probably should have lost.

The rest of the season would shape up to be an up and down ride as the Jets once again would rally to score a touchdown against the Houston Texans with less than a minute to go for the win. A bad blowout loss against the Patriots 45-3 would occur setting up further tension in the future that lie ahead. Following an uplifting victory against the Steelers in Pittsburgh the Jets would play yet another close game, coming up short against the Chicago Bears. The Jets would end on a high note, destroying the Buffalo Bills 38-7 to close out the season at 11-5.

Another notable incident took place towards the end of the season when Deadspin.com released a video appearing to be Rex Ryan taping his wife’s feet. This would lead to speculation and subtle jabs from opposing journalists and peers.

PLAYOFFS: The first round of the playoffs featured the Jets going to Indianapolis to play Peyton Manning and the rest of the Colts. Leading up to the game Rex Ryan would yet again make headlines, this time calling it "personal" playing against Peyton Manning. An exciting game would occur as the Jets would get the ball back down two with less then a minute to go and drive down the field for the game winning 32 yard field goal. Helped out by a Jim Caldwell timeout the Jets actually improved their chances with an 18 yard hook-up with Braylon Edwards to set up Nick Folks heroics.

Moving on to probably the most notable game of the playoffs other than the Super Bowl, the Jets would make huge headlines trash talking the conservative, business like New England Patriots. Rex Ryan once again would say this game would be personal. Antonio Cromartie also chimed in with some interesting comments calling Tom Brady an "a-- h---."

The words would not stop as Wes Welker would make some cryptic remarks on Rex Ryan's foot fetish that was displayed a few weeks earlier. This would lead to Welker's benching of the first series as he broke team rules of engaging into the trash talk the Patriots don't partake in. The game featured the Jets jumping out to a 14-3 lead pressuring Brady into mistakes. The Pat's would cut it to 11-14 and that would be the closest they would get as the Jets would answer and score to make it 21-11.

Following a Patriots field goal the Jets would score yet again to make it 28-14. After the Victory a memorable Bart Scott interview took place with ESPN's Sal Palatonio. Scott would yelp and scream in joy as the Jets being big underdogs and written off would pull the upset against its fierce rivals. Braylon Edwards would do a flip on the field that would lead to criticism from Patriot players. Following the Game Rex Ryan and the Jets would take their act to Pittsburgh once again. They would have another crack at getting to the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year.

The AFC Championship game featured two of the years favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. The Jets had beaten the Steelers already prior to this game in Pittsburgh towards the end of the regular season. With confidence and swagger that led them to victories against the Colts, and Patriots it seemed like destiny had taken over this team.

The Jets would find themselves in a huge 24-3 hole before rallying to almost pull off one of the most improbable comebacks the NFL has ever seen in an AFC Championship game. Mark Sanchez would show that he has the testicular fortitude to be a Super Bowl winning quarterback in this league cutting the deficit to 19-24. The Jets however could not get the ball back as Ben Roethlisburger would complete two third down plays at the end of the game sealing the Jets fate.

Some quirky play calling by offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer when the Jets were at the 1 yard line and down two scores took place. Opting to throw on second and third down instead of pounding the ball in the endzone would set up one of best defensive stands in playoff history. On fourth down LaDanian Tomlinson would get stuffed at the one yard line leading to the turn over on downs.

Moving forward the Jets have key players set to become free agents. Notably Antonio Cromartie, Santonio Holmes and David Harris. Also with some aging players the team has to make some choices heading into the offseason. This season should be a precipice for future greatness as this team continues to grow. Look out NFL, next year the New York Jets should be even more vocal as this team looks like it's primed to be future Super Bowl champs!

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