When you hear Rex Ryan talk about the team he wants the Jets to be, he paints an appealing picture.
A tough team that isn't willing to give an inch without making you bleed for it, featuring a defense that terrorizes quarterbacks and stuffs the run as if they were offended by the mere suggestion that you could gain yards via the ground. The offense is equally hard-nosed, grinding down defenses with the run and then making an opportunistic pass or two to move the ball in position to score.
Basically, Ryan is saying that he wants his team to be exactly like the San Francisco 49ers. We found out on Sunday just how far away from being that team the Jets actually are at this point in time.
They were steamrolled for just about every single minute of the 34-0 49ers rout and it is impossible to find even one positive thing to say about the performance of a team that was outclassed and outworked across the board. It was a great enough humiliation that most franchises would say it was the darkest day in their history.
Of course, these are the Jets so this was only the third-worst home shutout loss in franchise history. There's still time left in this season, however, so we might just get a new leader in the clubhouse before everything is said and done.
Now's the point when we move on to the rest of the good, bad and ugly from the week. It should go without saying that those looking for anything good will probably have to look to 49ers for that.
UGLY: Mark Sanchez may well be a better quarterback than Tim Tebow and there are certainly other huge problems with the offense this season, but you have to ask if there's much of a point in continuing to throw him out there week after week when it is clear that he can't win against good teams with things set up as they are currently set up. Sanchez doesn't complete enough passes, doesn't make enough plays under pressure and doesn't make smart enough decisions to lead this particular team anywhere good.
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BAD: The Jets are sticking with Sanchez and didn't even give Tebow a chance to run the offense in the fourth quarter on Sunday when the game was totally out of hand, which makes you wonder just why he's here in the first place. The Jets claimed all offseason that Tebow wasn't just here to sell Jets gear with his number on it to his legions of fans, but that's already become the latest complete fabrication told by a Jets organization that has serious problems with the truth.
UGLY: Santonio Holmes is a bit of a misanthrope and hasn't done much to make people like him since coming to the Jets, but he's still one of the two or three most talented players on the team. His injury makes it hard to see how the Jets will actually generate enough points to win any games.
BAD: Tebow's role in the offense has been shrouded in secrecy, although we've always assumed the team actually had a plan for him and that they were working on things in practice. Judging by the way the Jets were completely flummoxed by the appearance of 49ers change-of-pace quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Sunday, we may have been assuming way too much.
UGLY: The 49ers ran for 245 yards on Sunday and the Jets ran for 45. Grounded and Pounded should be Ryan's new slogan.
BAD: No one expected Kyle Wilson to step into the lineup and be anything close to Darrelle Revis. People probably expected to see a player who had even the faintest familiarity with how to play cornerback and didn't expect to see said player ask the 49ers bench to keep throwing his way after he got burnt badly on a pass that Alex Smith wound up missing with a terrible throw.
UGLY: For years, Mike Westhoff has led Jets special teams units that made a positive difference on the team's efforts. Perhaps it is an illustration of the overall lack of talent, but those units weren't good this year even before the Jets gave up a blocked punt because they simply didn't feel like blocking the 49ers' Larry Grant.
UGLY: Remember when we said the Jets could still set the francise record for futility with a bigger home shutout? The Texans will be in town next Monday night and they could very well top what the 49ers did this week.
Josh Alper is also a writer for Pro Football Talk. You can follow him on Twitter.
