It’s time for Eric Mangini to coach football again after his stab as an actor with his cameo appearance on the Sopranos as ‘Mangenius’ during the offseason. Chad Pennington gets an opportunity to start a preseason game after playing a complete season last year. Are you ready for this game Die Hard Jets Fans?
Tonight, the New York Jets will host the Atlanta Falcons at Giants Stadium. The Jets are fortunate the Michael Vick is not the opposing Quarterback in tonight’s matchup because of his alleged dog fighting operation. It should make this match-up a little more manageable because it is very easy for the Jets to get burned by Vick’s running capabilities. Instead, the Falcons put in Joey Harrington as the starting QB.
J-E-T-S, Jets-Jets-Jets!!!
First Half - The Jets stopped the Falcons at about the 50-yard line on the Falcons’ first drive, resulting in a punt. The touch-back will give the Jets the ball on the 20 yard line for Chad Pennington and the offense. The Jets only moved the ball a little with mostly running plays on their first drive, they had to punt the ball as well. On the Falcons second drive, they moved down field on two big plays.  Horn caught a 20-yard reception, and Blakley caught a 37-yard pass which got the Falcons down to the 17 yard line. The Falcons gained 7-yards on a quick pass and scored a touchdown on the next play as Norwood ran it in from the 11 yard line. So the Falcons draw first blood leading 7-0.
So the Jets got an opportunity to return a punt, and Leon Washington ran it back 86-yards to the Falcons 7 yard line. This guy just flew right down the middle of the field. He’s a stud. Jones runs it on first down for 3-yards. Clemens comes in on 2nd and 5, and the Falcons committed pass interference so the Jets get an automatic first down at the 1 yard line. Clemens hands it off to Thomas Jones, and he scores on a 1-yard run to tie the game up at seven a piece.
The Jets punt, and the Falcons ran it back to the 25 yard line. Redman takes over the Quarterback role for the Falcons. A few more Falcons passes, and the Falcons kick a 45-yard field goal, and they take a 10-7 lead. Washington now runs it back for 27-yards on his next attempt. McCareins picked up a pass interference call for a big time gain to get the Jets down to the Atlanta 40 yard line. The Jets have the ball at the 2-minute warning, and Washington just picked up a big first down on a 3rd and 9 play which creates a 1st and goal for the Jets at the 2 yard line. Kellen Clemens‘ first attempt was a to Sean Ryan, which was originally called incomplete and subsequently called a touchdown. It looked good to me, but the play is under review. The play on the field stands so this puts the Jets up 14-10 with 47 seconds remaining. Jennings, of the Falcons, had a pretty nice run back himself to bring the Falcons to the 37 yard line. With 1 second left, the Falcons are going to attempt a 49-yard field goal kick. And it’s…Game off…The Jets took a time out to ice the kicker. Game on…and it’s good, and it closes the gap in the Jets lead. We go to halftime with the Jets leading the Falcons 14-13.
Second Half:  On 3rd and 5, from the Falcons 13 yard line, Clemens threw to Chansi Stuckey in the end zone for a touchdown. This is Clemens’ second TD pass of the game, and it puts the Jets up 21-13.Â
Jennings on the Falcons ran it back 37 yards, but it got called back because of a holding penalty. Both teams’ special teams units are picking up big time gains. The Falcons ended up having to punt it back to the Jets, and the Jets get the ball at their own 44 yard line. The Jets were able to capitalize on this drive as well as Clemens completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Ryan (again). Now the Jets are up 28-13 with 5 minutes remaining in the 3rd Quarter.
The Jets kickoff and Jennings brings the ball back to the 43 yard line for a 40-yard gain. On 3rd and 12, the Jets tipped the ball and Drew Coleman intercepted the pass at the 41 yard line and returned it to the Jets 33 yard line. That was beautiful. Unfortunately, for the first time in a long time…Atlantas’ defense stopped the Jets…And Nugent is kicking a 52-yard field goal which is…no good. So the Jets are still up 28-13 with 2:42 left in the 3rd Quarter.
With 14:07 left in the 4th Quarter, the Falcons kicked a 37-yard field-goal to make it a 28-16 match. The Jets get the ball back, again. Danny Ware broke out for a very nice 26-yard run which brings the Jets within the 49 yard line. Clemens, as he’s getting hit, makes a beautiful throw to Frisman Jackson on 3rd and 11. Jackson reaches up with his right arm and knocks the ball down, and it bounces off of his stomach but was able to bring it in at the 30 yard line. So far, this was the Jets best play of the game. So the Jets were stopped again, MikeNugent is attempting a 29-yard field-goal with 8:01 left in the 4th Quarter, and the kick is good. Now the Jets are up 31-16.
Atlanta had to punt…and New York had to punt with 4:18 left in the 4th Quarter. Again, Jennings ran it back from the 41 yard line to the 25 yard line, but Atlanta committed two fouls which brought it back plus a 10-yard penalty. The Falcons move into a hurry-up offense, and they moved down the field a little bit but were stopped by the Jets. So it’s Jets ball at the Falcons’ 42 yard-line with 2:33 left in the 4th Quarter.  The Jets killed the clock and wrapped this one up and win the game 31-16. They improve to 1-0 in the Preseason. Attached is the Recap from NFL.com.
Jets Studs:
Kellen Clemens threw for 174 yards and 3 Touchdowns. He was very accurate all night once he came in for Chad Pennington who never even attempted to throw a pass.
 
Leon Washington was big time tonight. He finished the game with 30 rushing yards, 13 receiving yards, 112 return yards. He was a playmaker and he was responsible for the Jets early success. He had an 86-yard return in the 1st Quarter, which led to a Jets touchdown.
Sean Ryan had 2 TD catches tonight.
Jets Duds:
There weren’t really any poor individual performances, however the pass defense was horrible, as an entire unit, for the first half of the game. This wasn’t good since the Vick-less Falcons were pass heavy tonight. In the second half, the Jets defense tightened up and really improved.
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The self-destructing of the New York Jets. The Jets looked like the bad news Bears yesterday. Chad Pennington should not have started. It seems Eric Mangini and Chad is friends. Last week all we heard was there were going to be big changes. the only change was that Jonathan Vilma would not start, that’s because he was injured. In yesterdays game Chad threw for 87 yards an Mangini really did not look upset. Gang Greens defense played well against Buffalos offense. Darrelle Revis had a good game. Thomas Jones also had a good game running the ball. It is time for a new coach and quarterback. You cannot blame Kellen for the interception late in the fourth quarter trailing by 10 points. Clemens tried his best with what was giving to him with three plus minutes left in the game.
