Flying High Again: Looking back at the 2010 New York Jets
(Credit: REUTERS/Adam Hunger)
In 2022, what comes to mind when you think of the New York Jets? A four-win team? The redheaded stepchild of New York/New Jersey football? Zach Wilson’s escapades with…. Okay I won’t go there. We’ll keep it PG.
Me personally? I think of the potential this team could have if things go right for them over the next few years. I know, we hear that all the time. But what if they actually do? What happens when the Jets put together a team that can keep up with the big dogs of the conference?
Their 2010 iteration gave us a glimpse of that, and it was fun.
Laying the foundation
In the previous few seasons, the Jets had flirted with both successes and failures. In 2006, they made the playoffs with a 10-6 record, only to be outed by the Patriots in the Wild Card round (remember that for later) 37-16.
They would significantly drop the following year, going 4-12 amid a season full of injuries, including to starting QB Chad Pennington, wo would be released in 2008 when the team acquired Brett Favre in a trade with the Packers (moving on from one Hall of Fame QB to a future one).
The Favre experiment was going well for the first 11 games, with the team going 8-3, before falling to 9-7 to close the season. This included a back breaking 24-17 loss in Week 17 to the Miami Dolphins, who were now led by Pennington and left the Dolphins the sole team in the AFC East to make the playoffs (had the Jets won, they would have made it along side Miami AND the Brady-less Patriots).
Their coach, Eric Mangini, whom they hired in 2006, would be outed and Favre would “retire” for a second time. The Jets would have to search for their starting QB yet again, as well as a new head coach.
Enter Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez
Ryan was hired in January 2009, while Sanchez was drafted with the 5th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft. The two would become synonymous with each other during their tenure with the team. The outspoken coach would sing the praises of the former USC signal caller, even when “The Sanchize” would be less than up to par for a rookie 1st round draft pick.
But those two weren’t the only reasons why the Jets would become a force in the AFC for the next two seasons. That conversation began with their defense. In 2009, the Jets’ defense gave up the least number of points allowed per game (14.8), passing yards allowed (2459), and passing TDs allowed (8).
The talent was at a plenty: Shaun Ellis, Kris Jenkins, Bart Scott (who was with Ryan in Baltimore), David Harris, Kerry Rhodes, Jim Leonard, and of course, the center piece of the team, Darrelle Revis, along with good depth to solidify the top defense in the league.
The following season, almost everyone returned (most noticeably, Rhodes departed to Arizona in the offseason), and the team added more pieces such as Antonio Cromartie to play opposite Revis to form arguably the top CB duo in the league at the time, as well as Trevor Pryce (whom they traded for mid-season) and former rival LB Jason Taylor, who terrorized the organization during his time with the Dolphins. Once again, the defense was a strong unit, finishing 6th in points allowed and pass yards allowed, and 3rd in rushing yards allowed.
To complement their defense and franchise QB, the team would bring in several key players between 2009 and 2010 for the offense. This including trading for Braylon Edwards during the 2009 season, acquiring former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes in 2010 and drafting players such as RB Shonn Greene to add to their attack. To round it out, the Jets had also drafted many key offensive linemen, such as Center Nick Mangold and Tackle D’Brickishaw Ferguson in previous years to ensure the ground game would be one of the best in league, and to keep their QB upright.
Another promising start
In 2009, the Jets began the season with a 3-0, before falling to 4-6. They would then win five of their last six to finish 9-7 and make the playoffs as the fifth seed. Infact, they would make the AFC Championship game, before they lost 31-17 to the Colts.
This was seen as a positive for the team. It proved that they were in the conversation as one of the AFC’s best heading into the 2010 season. They would drop a defensive struggle to Ryan’s former team, the Baltimore Ravens in the Week 1 Monday Night Football opener 10-9 but would rattle off five straight wins to go into their bye 5-1.
Their wins included another Week 2 victory over the eventual top seeded New England Patriots (whom they beat in Week 2 in 2009) 28-14, followed by victories over Miami and Buffalo, guaranteeing that they would, at the very least, split the series with their rivals.
On their second Monday Night appearance of the season, they defeated the other conference runner up in 2009, the Minnesota Vikings, which featured the return of Randy Moss to the Purple and Gold, as well as Brett Favre’s 500th Touchdown.
They would enter their bye with a 24-20 win over the Broncos. At that point, they were the hottest team in the league possessing the best record.
Thrillers galore
The Jets would return home to face the Green Bay Packers on Halloween, where they would drop another defensive struggle 9-0. This once again did not phase the team. In fact, New York would have some of the most memorable games of the season over the next three weeks.
First stop was in Detroit, where they would erase a 10-point deficit in the final three minutes before winning in overtime 23-20.
The following week, the Jets faced a confident Browns team. Cleveland had just knocked off both the defending Super Bowl Champions New Orleans Saints and Patriots in back-to-back blow out victories (30-17 and 34-14, respectively). They were looking to take out yet another top tier team.
Their former coach Eric Mangini, was now the coach of Cleveland, adding more intrigue to the mid November bout. The game would be back and forth between the two teams. But yet again, the Jets found themselves in an overtime game.
This time, the game would drag nearly to the end of the period. However, Sanchez and Holmes connected for a 37-yard touchdown pass with 16 seconds left, winning 26-20. The next week, the Jets took on the Texans, and jumped out to a 23-7 lead, before the Texans put up 20 unanswered points to lead the game with 55 seconds to go.
Once again, the duo of Sanchez and Holmes connected with 10 seconds left in the quarter to win it 30-27. This sent the team to an 8-2 record. The team would easily dispatch the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving 26-10 (now winning four straight over the team in three seasons). This setup a highly anticipated battle for first place in the AFC (and the East) against the Patriots, on their third Monday Night game of the season.
Blowout and controversy
With the Jets firmly in the spotlight, they would face their first true adversity to start the month of December. The aforementioned highly anticipated (or “marquee matchup” as Rex Ryan stated) game against the Patriots would see them be blown out 45-3 and derailing the team’s seemingly unstoppable momentum.
When asked about the loss, Ryan stated: “They had payback, we kicked their butt at our place; they’re trying to come back. Trust me, we’ll remember this. There’s no question about it.” The team would bury the ball and look to their next game against the Dolphins, hoping for a better outcome.
This would not be the case. Not only would the team lose yet another close game 10-6 (again with the defensive struggle). But the game in question would become infamous after the team’s Strength and Conditioning coach, Sal Alosi. Alosi would trip Dolphins rookie CB Nolan Carroll during a punt. He was subsequently finned and suspended for what he did. And the Jets were now 9-4 and were the talk of the week for the wrong reasons.
Rebound for the Jets
The next game for the Jets would prove to be pivotal if they wanted to keep their playoff spot intact. They would travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers in a snowy affair.
The team once again found themselves in a back-and-forth contest. They were able to prevail 22-17 after putting up a field goal and a safety in the fourth quarter, holding off a Steelers game winning drive to end the game.
The next week they would find themselves in yet another brisk, back-and-forth game game against the Chicago Bears. But the Jets fell short in a shootout 38-34 (which was ironic since both teams featured top tier defenses).
Their final game would see them sweep the Bills. They finished the season with an 11-5 record, two games better than last year’s record. But in a cruel twist of fate, they would be the sixth seed. A team that beat them earlier in the season, the Ravens, finished 12-4 to take the fifth seed. And who would the Jets face in the Wild Card round this year?
None other than the team that put them out in the AFC Championship game last year: the Indianapolis Colts.
Time for revenge
The Jets once again found themselves facing the Colts in the playoffs. They had faced each other twice before since 2000 in the playoffs. But this would end up being their closest matchup of the three.
As it was commonplace outside of the Monday Night game against New England, the Jets found themselves in a back-and-forth battle with Indianapolis and trailed 16-14 with 53 seconds left in the game.
Also much like previous games, the Jets would find a way to win. Antonio Cromartie returned the ensuing kick-off 47 yards to set up the Jets at their own 46, and saw Sanchez connect with Holmes and Edwards to set up a game winning 32 yard field goal by Nick Folk to send them to New England for the rubber match.
Learning from their previous mistakes, the Jets took the fight to New England. The game looked more like their Week 2 encounter. They were able to harass the league MVP, Tom Brady all day, and hold the top offense in the league to 14 points for most of the game.
The game also proved to be one of Mark Sanchez’s best. He outduelled Brady and put up three TDs on the day to secure a 28-21 victory. They Jets sent the near 10-point favorites into a premature offseason and exacted their revenge for their Monday Night embarrassment a month earlier. Next up: a return to Heniz Field to face the Steelers. The team was going back to the AFC Championship game for the second consecutive year.
Unfortunately, the Steelers wanted exact some revenge of their own that day. They jumped out to a 24-0 lead at the half but would not score the entire second half. The Jets would score 19 unanswered, and had to make one stop with all of their timeouts remaining. The Steelers did enough to survive the vaunted Jets defense, and ran out the clock. The Jets’ season was over one game shy of the Super Bowl yet again.
On a personal note, I think the Jets had the most fascinating postseason of the 2010s. And the playoff game against New England is one of my personal top playoff games of all time.
Every game they played or could have played (based on how the other games played out) would have been against a team they had either lost to or beat during the previous 12 months.
They had faced the Colts in the AFC Championship in 2009. And played the Patriots, Steelers, and Packers during the 2010 Season. Elsewhere, had they made the Super Bowl, we would have seen the first ever sixth seed Super Bowl. Albeit both teams were much better than what their record suggested, they just ran into their fair share of bad luck throughout the season.
It also showed how strong the competition was 12 years ago. Outside of the 7-9 NFC West Winners Seattle Seahawks, who knocked off the defending Super Bowl Champions in the Wild Card Round.
I may be biased by saying this, considering my team won the Super Bowl. But 2010 may have been the best season so far in the new millennium. And that iteration of the Jets were a major reason for it. Hopefully it doesn’t take the Jets too much longer to be good again. When they’re good, the league is more fun.
