Sports cliches don't get much older than "We're taking it one game at a time." If players are thinking about two weeks from now because next week brings a game and, if you aren't focused, a loss. The cliche should apply to fans and media as well, but it rarely does.
It didn't apply to either group when the Jets beat the Patriots and Titans on the road in successive games. All of a sudden, there were visions of Super Bowls dancing in heads even though the Jets were still miles from the promised land. That's what fans and media do, though, and it's up to players and coaches to keep the team blinded from all the discussion. According to David Bowens of the Jets, that didn't happen.
"When we were on the road, everyone started buying into the Giants and the Jets in the Super Bowl and this and that," Bowens said. "It's not like they are just going to put us there. We have to earn the spot. We have to get there."
It's funny, with all the talk about how distracted the Giants have been the last two weeks no one noticed that the Jets were the team with their mind on anything but football. Watching the team stumble through losses to the Broncos and 49ers with no semblance of a plan or execution, it's easy to take Bowens at his word. How that could happen falls on both the players and the coaches.
A little bit more on the coaches, though. Complacency comes from on high, and the Jets looked like a complacent team the last two weeks. They allowed their opponents to set the tone and reacted to it, a far cry from their approach to the way they played against the Titans. Players have to execute, of course, but they take their read from the guys running practice and calling plays. The message has been sit back and enjoy the ride when it needs to be seizing the brass ring.
