"A win's a win.''
That's what Brett Favre had to say after Sunday's 31-27 gift of a win against the Bills, the words of a leader trying to focus on the positive despite ample evidence of the negative. Given the nature of the NFL, it's a strong point. When the season's done, tough losses or blowout wins don't count any different than their opposites. Survive and advance is the name of the game and, ultimately, that's what the Jets did.
Favre might not have played well for 60 minutes, but he was awfully sharp on the team's first two drives. Both resulted in touchdowns and the first one featured a 27-yard scramble by Favre that was both crucial and comical. Many a retired quarterback could have scored on such a play, but Favre ran out of gas. His play slipped as the game went on, and his second-half play bordered on unacceptable, but his team won.
That matters more than anything else, of course. So, why can't the images of the Jets getting pushed around escape the memory? It was shocking to see Kris Jenkins treated like Dewayne Robertson in the center of the Jet line. If Jenkins, no martyr to conditioning, is running out of gas, the Jet defense is going to have a very difficult time stopping either the Seahawks or the Dolphins in must-win games over the final two weeks.
But that's not why the bad things crowd out the good things. It's because the creeping feeling of same old Jets wasn't erased in a game against, perhaps, the worst current starting quarterback in the NFL and a team that's 2-8 in their last 10 games. It's because the coaches continue to seize up -- one carry for Leon Washington, even after that carry results in a 47-yard touchdown? -- and because the players make brutal mistakes over and over again.
Favre's new in town, but he's acting in the same script that originally starred Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, Vinny Testaverde and Chad Pennington. For the Jets, the only win that's just a win comes with a trophy presentation.
