“And as far as Brian Schottenheimer’s concerned, we’ll just keep working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, and we’re trying to find a way to beat Miami. I have confidence in him. I have confidence in all of our coaches. It’s just that we have to find a way to get it done.”

When I first read these words, I thought that they were the ramblings of a mad man. After all, how could anyone that is sane or even remotely knowledgeable about this sport honestly say these things? Clearly, they had to be the words that belonged to be someone who escaped from some sort of institution or at least belongs in one. Upon further investigation, I was very troubled to discover that this was said by none other than the biggest mouth in New York sports, Rex Ryan, during his Monday conference call.

I quickly formulated my next theory…that Rex dipped into some leftover holiday spiked eggnog. So to confirm this, and frankly for my own amusement, I decided to listen to the conference call myself. Nope, he was sober and his inflections implied that he was not being sarcastic at all.

So after living through this season, watching all the games, I still cannot understand how someone could stand by Brian Schottenheimer. Just based on Saturday’s loss against the Giants (a team that is mediocre at best), how can anyone think that way? The Jets’ offense had 59 passing plays and 25 rushing plays. The play calling was atrocious. It is like some kind of annoying broken record with Schottenheimer. Passing the ball worked at first and then we did a do-si-do and the football was getting tipped left and right. But he wouldn’t give up on it. The Jets have been successful with Ground and Pound, but for some reason, Schottenheimer decided that a notoriously weak passing offense would be the way to go.

With one game left in the New York Jets’ horribly disappointing season, Rex has to play this game. This game, like we still have a chance at winning the Super Bowl this year. He can’t state the obvious, that we are done. We are a broken team. We aren’t officially eliminated, but are we going to the post season? Probably not.

In the unlikely event that we do make the playoffs, (if the Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos/ San Diego Chargers beat the Oakland Raiders, and of course we beat the Miami Dolphins) the Jets will most likely go one and done. For the record, my prediction is that we will not beat Miami, so all the other games’ results will be moot. There are of course people out there that don’t feel the way I do. I like to refer to them as those who live in denial, whereas I am someone who lives in reality. For whatever reason, (cough, Schottenheimer, cough) things just aren’t clicking this year and that prevents us from being a Super Bowl winning team. That is the reality and it really sucks. And to be brutally honest, it was written on the wall during Week 3 when we couldn’t beat the Oakland Raiders.

I am hoping that Rex is just trying to save face by publicly standing by his colleague. He figures that they still have another week to work together so he wants civility and he doesn’t want there to be any more infighting. And obviously stating that the offensive coordinator is a failure would really prevent that. But if he really does believe that Schottenheimer has been doing a good job for this team, we are in a lot of trouble. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: the Jets cannot win a Super Bowl with Brian Schottenheimer on staff. It is simply an impossibility. But also, if our head coach cannot see this no-brainer, we need to further question Rex Ryan’s intelligence and competence.

Angie Kozak is the New York Jets writer for The Penalty Flag. Angie was raised in New Jersey and has had NY Jets season ticket for 12 straight seasons and counting. She moved to Pennsylvania for college, and graduated from Penn State University in 2010 with a degree in Communications. Although a lifelong diehard Jet fan, Angie writes from a critic’s point of view. Follow her on Twitter @Angie_Kozak or email her at AKozak@ThePenaltyFlagBlog.com.

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