BNP Paribas Open Tickets

Yes, yes, yes, I know he's a rookie. Get it. Yup, totally saw him get picked this summer. Uh-huh, aware of the whole only started 16 games at SC thing. Still, channeling , this is professional football! This is the NFL! STOP THROWING THE BALL TO THE OTHER TEAM, or dropping it on the ground for the opponent to conveniently pick up. Do we need to put some sort of reflective material on our receivers so you can better identify them? Maybe there's a way to sneak in a Jack Bauer-inspired countdown clock inside your helmet to indicate when an explosion is imminent?Ah yes, all that Sanchize talk seems like eons ago now. The increasingly popular Suckchez moniker might be a little harsh, but Marky-poo is just going to have to deal with it. I know quarterbacks dread the whole managing-the-game association, but the Jets could use that mentality from Sanchez. Just as suspect as his errant throws is his (recently consistent) awful decision-making. Mistakes are expected. It's the whole learning from them thing that Jets fans are still waiting on. Now, his team and his coaches haven't exactly been tearing it up in his support either, but it's time for Sanchez to start internalizing these ugly lessons. All that said, my commentary earlier in the year, and what most Jets fans where saying from the outset, was focused on a desire for one thing -- to be competitive. A competitive ball club was all most intelligent Jets fans were realistically hoping for at the outset. Rookie QB. Rookie head coach. A second-rate receiving core. Most of us went through the schedule and said we'd sign up for 8-8. Of course, the 3-0 start is what makes all of the Jets recent suckiness so painful. That start led to wildly revised expectations that could only lead to one predictable destination -- diasappointment. Since then, Jenkins and Washington have also gone down only further exposing how valuable we all knew them to be. And instead of any more playoff talk, the Jets rookie QB and loudmouthed head coach are 4-6. The lights have long been turned out on the playoff party. Excuse the cliche, but this is where we find out something about this team. Many Jets fans seem somewhat inclined to disregard the fact that yesterday's loss came against a pretty nasty Patriots team. This team wasn't going into Gillette and winning. Of course it's the manner in which they got dismantled that was again problematic. Regardless, six games remain on the schedule: Carolina, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Indy and Cincy. The way this team is playing right now, I would not be able to say with confidence that the Jets should win any of these games.So,what's it going to be Rexy/Sanchez? Lose out and enjoy the offseason rumor mill questioning your coaching chops, and whether you should be holding a clipboard again. Split (by taking the next three) and save some face by showing a bit of improvement and tempering the tempest. Or, and this is just crazy talk, make a run at .500 and give Jets fans a glimmer of hope that the early season visions that started dancing around in our heads might be somewhere in this team's forseeable future.

What's up everybody???

Beating Boston on Friday, now that’s what I’m talking about. It just killed me last week missing the loss to Cleveland, and I was determined to bring it for this game against the Celtics. These are what I like to call statement games and you always have to go out with the mindset that you need to prove yourself to the opponent and to everybody in the NBA.

We were back in Boston for the first time since May when we beat the Celtics in a Game 7. Not many people gave us a chance that night, and I’m sure they didn’t give us much of a chance again on Friday. But I think we showed people some things with the way we won this game. Coach Van Gundy always told us when we’re not playing well on the offensive end that’s when you’ve got to pick it up on defense. Our defense kept us in this game, no doubt.

This is a big win for us and a real confidence boost. Cleveland came in (last week) and took it to us. This kind of lets us know that we’re still a good team. We didn’t get to The Finals for nothing. We’re still a very good team.

And we’re a team on the same page. There was a lot of talk in the media the last few days about Stan Van Gundy’s negativity towards us in practice and in games. Stan is an intense dude and sometimes he really goes at us. All of that bashing can take a toll on some guys, so Stan said he’s going to try and limit his negativity in the future. (We’ll see how long it lasts!!! Ha ha ha)

On Friday, Stan was positive the whole night. He did do a good job of cutting back on the screaming and yelling. He was doing more coaching in the huddles instead of bashing. Usually he bashes us for the first two minutes of the timeouts and then he’ll coach the game. Last night he was strictly coaching.

I really think that’s going to help us out and let guys feel like they can play looser and not have to worry about being so uptight. Instead of getting mad at coach and going out there playing frustrated this way sort of put our minds at ease. Stan just has to pick and choose his moments and not try to be a nice coach. He still has to stay on top of us because that makes us play harder.

I’m just hoping that by beating Boston we showed people we’re still a pretty damn good team. It seems like the Lakers, Cavs and Celtics get all the pub as being the top teams, but maybe this will make folks remember the Magic.

I also gave away 3 tickets to Angel last night in Boston, whose Dad left me a message on my Saynow # (1-888-9RAWLEW). Stay in touch, may be you next time. Outta here for now, but I wanna hear back as to what you guys think about how we played last night. Ya’ll be good!!! Don't forget to vote for me and my bro's for 2010 NBA All-Star!!!

SHARD