Thanks to a duck and a couple of zebras the Csarcells’ era began with a home loss to the arch rival Jets on Sunday. The zebras, those creatures in striped shirts, made 2 pass interference calls that proved fatal to the Fins’ valiant effort for a season-opening win. The duck, a pass that Brett Favre lamely threw up for grabs in the second quarter, resulted in a lucky Jets’ touchdown in a 6-point loss.
There were 2 tough pass interference calls in the game, either one could have made the difference. The first prolonged a Jet’s drive that was otherwise stopped en route to a Jets’ touchdown that was scored shortly after the questionable call. The second was at the end of the game with Chad Pennington throwing to Ted Ginn in the end zone for a potential winning touchdown on a fourth down play. The Jets defender backed into Ginn and kept coming as the ball approached. Rather than calling a defensive pass interference penalty which would have given the Fins a first down at the Jets 1-yard line, the zebras called a penalty on Ginn for offensive pass interference, giving the Jets the ball and, with it, the game.
The duck was a matter of real bad luck for the Fins. On a fourth and long with the Fins all over Favre he aimlessly and recklessly heaved the ball high in the air. The ball looked as if it were a pooch punt, but blindly fell to Chansi Stuckey near the goal line who caught it and rolled into the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown.
As usual, there were a lot of Jets’ jerseys in the stadium still preferably known as Joe Robbie. One would hope that the fans wearing Jets’ number 4 jerseys were smart enough to lease these jerseys rather than to buy them. Let’s face it, Mr. Loyalty doesn’t figure to be around New York long enough to let them get any real use out of these jerseys. These days you can buy a lot of number 4 jerseys very cheaply in Green Bay; New York stores won’t be far behind!
Interestingly, the fact that the Jets’ place-kicker was injured and was unable to return to the game, may have enabled the Jets to hang on to win in regulation. Had their kicker not been injured, their second touchdown would likely have been a field goal as they successfully ran a play on fourth down only because of the absence of their kicker which resulted in a touchdown pass (and an unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempt). These extra 3 points likely were the difference because had the lead only been 3 points instead of 6 at the end, the Fins would have gone for a tying field goal instead of the fourth-down pass from the 18 yard line.
Jets’ third-string quarterback, Brent Ratliff, who was declared as ineligible due to his status as the third-stringer, entered the game as a kicker to kick an extra point after the Jets’ last touchdown. Without checking the rules to be sure, it seemed as though the Fins staff may have missed one because normally the third-string QB cannot come into the game unless the starting QB leaves for good. However, it did not appear as though Coach Sparano made any attempt to question Brett Favre’s return to the huddle when the Jets next went on offense. Either the rules have an exception where the ineligible QB enters to play another position (but how could he since he was declared ineligible for the game?), or the zebras (and Coach Sparano) missed one.
As for the guys in aqua and orange, these were a different breed than we saw last year. They hung in better; they played harder. This group doesn’t look like it has 1-15 in them. This group looks like it will win a number of games and stay in most, if not all, of them.
They’re still missing a quarterback, though, as Pennington was Pennington. He had trouble with the pass rush and he also had trouble with accuracy, especially in the first half. He was inconsistent and he cannot get the ball down field with any degree of reliability. He is no Brett Favre, which explains why he was wearing aqua and orange instead of green and white on Sunday.
Jake Long was not Jake Long on Sunday, either. He had trouble in his first NFL regular season start. This was not pre-season and it wasn’t college. He got flagged twice and was beaten more than that on Sunday. To add insult to injury, both penalties took away Dolphins’ first downs. This never happened to him on Saturdays. But Sundays are tougher and quicker than Saturdays and nobody knows it better than an NFL rookie. So Jake was given some lessons on Sunday and he will be given more lessons on succeeding Sundays as his rookie season unfolds. Here’s hoping he is quick study. After all, the new regime is counting on him as the cornerstone of the offensive line as they rebuild the team. On Sunday, he showed he has a way to go before earning that title.
For the most part, the defense played well, although it did give up 3 touchdowns. One was aided by the zebras and one came on a very well executed play action fake that caught the Dolphins’ secondary napping and resulted in a 56-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery for the Jets’ first score. The defense did a great job of holding Favre and company in the fourth quarter, giving the Fins a chance at a comeback which fell short, but not by much.
All that said it was nice being there on Sunday. It was nice seeing a team that didn’t know the meaning of the word quit; nobody throwing in the towel even when there were less than 5 minutes remaining and they were still two scores down. It’s just a shame the duck made it to the end zone and the zebras threw the yellow flags that made the difference. In this sense, the Fins didn’t lose to the Jets; they really lost to the animals.
