When the NFL schedule was released I was thrilled to learn that the Jets have a primetime game this year, and a good one at that! They square off on Monday Night Football at San Diego against the Chargers in week 3. However, I have since read an article on newyorkjets.com by Editor-in-Chief Randy Lange, entitled "The '08 Sked's Monday Night Crunch." Lange very carefully articulates the perils of having to play a Monday night game in a different time zone (particularly an east coast team traveling into the pacific time zone) and then having to return home for a 1pm Sunday game the following week. The Jets this year are faced with such a predicament and Lange points out how recent history has not looked kindly on teams dealt such a difficult scheduling constraint. First of all, it hasn't happened very often since 2002 which would suggest that the scheduling gurus are possibly making a conscious effort not to put teams in this bind. (For example, east coast teams should be granted byes after a west coast Monday nighter, or possibly a Sunday night game which would afford them several more hours to adjust and prepare.) And when it has happened, victims of this circumstance have not fared well, losing most games for which they return home.
I wanted to give the scheduling committee the benefit of the doubt. My first assumption was that the Jets play so many west coast games this year, they probably have a bye week after one of their stints out west. After all, they travel to Oakland, to Seattle, to San Francisco, and to San Diego. I took a second look at their schedule expecting to see their bye week falling after one of the aforementioned games. But I was wrong, and I suppose, a little too optimistic. Their bye week comes immediately after the home game that I’ve been talking about (the one on the heels of their Chargers game, when they return to the Meadowlands to host the Cardinals.)
I suppose all this heartache could be much ado about nothing. Perhaps they were deliberately assigned an opponent with a low winning percentage from last year, rather than bringing them home on a short week to play New England. Perhaps it’s worth having the primetime exposure, no matter who they’re scheduled to play on short rest. Or maybe in their infinite wisdom, the powers that be had a hunch that the Jets would go 16-0 this year, so it really didn’t matter who they played and when.
My yearly ritual every April is to go down the Jets schedule game-by-game and see how many games I expect them to win. Inevitably, amidst the mental fog and disconnect of the off-season, I come away thinking “They could actually win every game on the schedule.” Well, this year I tried to be a little more objective. I went through each game and realistically determined their chances. Granted, I’m biased so there is a bit of wishful thinking in some of these matchups, but I believe the Jets will go a minimum of 9-7 this year with the following wins and losses.
W at MIA
L vs NE
L at SD
W vs ARI
W vs CIN
W at OAK
W vs KC
L at BUF
W vs STL
L at NE
L vs TEN
L at DEN
W at SF
W vs BUF
L at SEA
W vs MIA
So there’s my prediction for 2008. Of course this will all change once Week 1 kicks off and I realize that the Jets are for real this year. 9-7 quickly becomes 12-4 because they’ll sweep Buffalo, split the series with New England and eek out a thriller against Denver. They’ll earn a playoff berth as a Wild Card team, face the Pats in the opening round and this time, vengeance will be theirs.*
*All of this is contingent on Chad Pennington being their starting quarterback. With Kellen Clemens, they will go 1-15.**
**The one win they have is when Clemens leaves the game due to an injury and Pennington steps in to save the day.***
***I’m really not a Clemens-hater. I promise. But he’s in the unenviable position that Jay Fiedler, Brian Griese, and now Aaron Rodgers all found themselves in…taking over for a beloved legend.
Keywords: 2008 schedule, Chargers, Clemens, Monday Night Football, NFL, Patriots, Pennington, Randy Lange, time zone, west coast
