Jets Fan Complex: a condition described by non-Jets fans in which Jets fans imagine their football team doesn’t get any respect no matter how good it is or what it does.
Are Jets fans victims of having this complex en masse? It wouldn’t be surprising if it were true. 42 years and counting without a Super Bowl would probably put a chip on any fan base’s collective shoulder, and playing in the same division with Tom Brady and the Patriots probably hasn’t helped much.
So yeah, there's a bit of a chip, and after going through articles the last few weeks, I am so tired of hearing and reading that Mark Sanchez and the Jets have “a little Tim Tebow in them” after they pulled off fourth quarter, comeback wins against Buffalo and Washington and are now in a much better playoff position.
[caption id="attachment_414" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="Tim Tebow. Photo by Justin Edmonds // Getty Images North America"]
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This might be the Jets Fan Complex speaking, but as per usual, it feels like nobody is giving the Jets any credit.
Since 2009, Sanchez has started 50 games for the Jets and won 31 of them. Sunday against the Chiefs was his 50th game (uh, congrats to him, poor sucker). But for two and a half years, we have been watching Mark Sanchez and the Jets come from behind to win ball games, sometimes with less time left on the clock than is comfortable and fewer years on our lives because of it when it’s all over. Not to say Jets fans prefer losing. Oh hell no, we’ll take our wins as shaky as they come.
Mark Sanchez has brought us plenty of shaky wins, where the Jets win but nobody feels really great about it afterwards (see the two games against the Bills and Redskins). But in his third season, he’s got either 9 or 10 comeback wins, depending on what article you’re reading. According to this page, he has 9 fourth quarter comeback wins and 11 game winning drives (where the quarterback leads the winning score but not in the fourth quarter, and it isn’t result of the defense or special teams scoring). There is an article on how they did the research in three parts: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
In 2009, there was one comeback win. Just one. But it was kind of a big deal. It was the 17-14 post season win in San Diego, the last game LaDainian Tomlinson played as a Charger.
2010 was an entirely different story. There were four fourth quarter comeback wins, and six game winning drives. There were the fourth quarter comebacks against Denver, Detroit, Houston and Indianapolis (the Indy comeback was a post-season game). The other two games where he led game winning drives were against Cleveland and against Pittsburgh.
Some of those games were intense. Remember this? Sanchez to Holmes with 12 seconds left against the Texans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0jBz9fAgfA
Right? RIGHT? It was intense.
And this year, we’ve gotten four fourth quarter comebacks and game winning drives this season against Dallas, San Diego, Buffalo three games ago and the Redskins two games ago.
People can say that Dallas or San Diego gave the Jets the game, but even if they did, the Jets stepped up and took it. Any Jets fan that has been paying attention since before 2009 should easily remember a time when the Jets were so bad that they didn’t step up and take games they were being handed. They lost those games like the one against Dallas in Week 01, where even though Dallas got on their knees and begged the Jets to win, the Jets still lost.
That’s not to say that the Jets should be struggling against the Redskins like they did two Sundays ago. They shouldn’t be. But they definitely shouldn’t be losing games to them. We can debate style points endlessly (Sanchez and his crew, more often than not, aren’t pretty), but they don’t lose a lot of games they shouldn’t, either. For now, wins and losses are all that matter.
Compare this to Tim Tebow's numbers. He has started 11 games now, dating back to last season. According to this website, he has 5 comeback wins and game winning drives this season. But there’s one game against Oakland where he deserves no credit, and the game against the Vikings was won on a field goal as the result of an interception, though this is still counted according to the website we were looking at before.
So Tebow has about half the comeback wins of Mark Sanchez and the Jets, and yet the Jets have a little “Tim Tebow” in them.
Let’s not even begin to talk about the huge hypocrisy it is that when Sanchez has comeback wins it’s because he’s a mediocre quarterback who can’t get a lead and when Tebow gets comeback wins, he’s full of heart and grit and whatever else. Who cares that he can’t throw the ball and should really be a fullback? He’s got heart, so he’s way better than Sanchez who just closes his eyes and hopes for the best when he’s conducting his comeback wins.
[caption id="attachment_420" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Mark Sanchez (6) and Santonio Holmes (10) run off the field after the go ahead score against the Washington Redskins. Photo by Evan Vucci // The AP."]
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Sorry, do I sound bitter? It’s the Jets Fan Complex talking.
Here’s the bottom line: since 2009, Gang Green has been the perpetual underdog. It’s better that way, as they don’t seem to handle success well. But when the game is on the line, when the season is on the line, the Jets find ways to win football games. Some are games they should win. Some are games they shouldn’t. But they win them, when it looks like they’re not going to, and when it looks like they’re no longer dangerous, they find a way to hang on and beat opponents.
They’ve orchestrated some of the wildest last minute wins in recent memory. Even this season, as ugly as they’ve looked (like when they lost to Tim Tebow and the Broncos), they’re in the game and they never completely go away. After being dead a month ago, they’re currently in control of their own destiny and are in sole possession of the final AFC playoff spot.
Hey, does this play look familiar? The only difference between this video and the first one is that this one was two weeks ago against Washington and not last season against the Texans.
Tim Tebow might have some comeback victories, but since Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez arrived in 2009, comebacks have been a way of life in New York.
Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Tim Tebow’s got a little bit of the Jets in him, not the other way around.
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