Brett Favre, Jets complete collapse as Eric Mangini awaits fate
BY RICH CIMINI
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Sunday, December 28th 2008, 7:39 PM
Woody Johnson had just witnessed the final insult in an unfathomable collapse that began four weeks ago, and he was clearly disgusted. In a brief interview outside the Jets' locker room Sunday night after a season-ending, 24-17 loss to the Dolphins at the Meadowlands, the owner ripped his team of underachievers and put Eric Mangini on notice.
"It's extremely frustrating. I'm disappointed in the season," said Johnson, who rarely shows any public anger. "We have a lot of talent. I'm unhappy with what turned out. I hate to disappoint the fans. I feel badly for them. They deserved more and we wanted to give it to them."
For a mild-mannered owner like Johnson, that amounted to flinging a chair through a pane of glass. It may not bode well for Mangini, whose status was discussed last week in high-level organizational meetings. Johnson was mum on his onetime Boy Wonder, declining to give him a vote of confidence after the Jets' fourth loss in five games, the worst meltdown in the team's star-crossed history.
Asked if Mangini will return next season, Johnson said, "We're going to look at that. I'm going to get my guys together and we'll look at everything. . . . We're going to make these decisions in a rational way."
Johnson said he hopes to make a decision this week. It could take weeks, maybe months to figure out how out the Jets went from an 8-3 Super Bowl contender to a 9-7 also-ran, officially eliminated at 7:04 p.m., when the Ravens beat the Jaguars to secure the final wild-card spot. Johnson doled out nearly $160 million for veteran acquisitions, including future Hall of Famer Brett Favre, and it ended with a Nightmare on L Street. The only thing missing were cameo appearances by A.J. Duhe and Dan Marino, Dolphin villains from their haunted past.
Of all the Jets' bloody endings - it's now 40 straight years without a Super Bowl - this may have been the worst. They lost to their old quarterback, Chad Pennington, who outplayed their new old quarterback, who threw three interceptions, admitted he was plagued by shoulder pain through the season and sounded like he was ready to head back to his farm in Mississippi.
"I'm sure everybody's going to say he's old and washed up. Maybe they're right," said Favre, 39, who will have an MRI exam today on his throwing shoulder and is leaning toward retirement (again), according to several people close to him.
The Jets lost to a team they had beaten five straight times, a team that was 1-15 a year ago. Now the Dolphins are the AFC East champions, an amazing turnaround, and the Jets could be on the verge of a housecleaning.
A subdued, emotionless Mangini, 23-25 in three seasons (0-1 in the playoffs), said he hasn't discussed his future with ownership, but he expects to return. "That's my anticipation," he said. His contract, with only one year remaining, will have to be addressed even if he stays.
As it turned out, the Jets would've missed the playoffs even if they had won. They needed a Patriots loss to the Bills or a Ravens loss, and neither happened. The day was a total loss. So was the season.
"I'm trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing, just the collapse we had," tackle Damien Woody said. "One minute, we're 8-3. Next minute, we're done, season over. It's hard to fathom right now. Shoot, you could look at it like we lost five games. The Buffalo game was a gift."
Linebacker Calvin Pace was livid.
"It's embarrassing, to be honest with you," he said. "We don't really have anyone to blame but ourselves. Everybody in this room should take a look in the mirror and see why we'll be sitting at home."
Guard Brandon Moore scoffed at the suggestion that the team nosedived because it bought into the hype of its five-game winning streak.
"That's the easy way out," he sniffed. "That's like trying to blame coaches for losing. If you can't handle winning, you're never going to win anything."
The Jets' decline coincided with Favre's late-season slump, a five-game stretch in which he threw for nine interceptions and only two touchdowns. Favre (20-for-40, 233 yards) showed some spunk yesterday, but he killed the team with his second interception, returned 25 yards for a touchdown by defensive end Phillip Merling. His third interception came on a potential game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter.
How's that quarterback switch looking now?
Pennington, fired by the Jets after the Favre trade, made his old team look silly. Showing that it doesn't take a big arm or a Hall of Fame resume to win a division title, he passed for 200 yards and two touchdowns, dissecting a sometimes-confused Jets defense.
What else is new? The Jets blew 6-0 and 17-14 leads, coming apart like a jigsaw puzzle in a windstorm.
"The hardest part is the finality of it, especially when you expect to go on," Favre said somberly.
Mangini addressed the team after the game, but he didn't mention his future. Asked to summarize Mangini's message, guard Alan Faneca said, "Basically, this feeling sucks, but we'll regroup."
But maybe with a different coach and a different quarterback.
