Maturing at the right time

To paraphrase the lead in today's LA Times, the Jets believe who they think they are! While we all doubted how they have gotten here. With mirrors and lots o luck mostly; Coach Rexie has this team believing that this is exactly how he's expected this to go. He knows that it takes defense and a running game to win in the NFL playoffs. He's experienced it in several seasons with Baltimore and he has both. They have taken the pressure off San-chise and allowed the strength of the team to lead the way. Yes, the Chargers gained a lot of yards in the 1st half yesterday, but the Jets kept the Bolts out of the end zone. Close enough for the Jets to score a couple of times and steal the game.
If this team believes, then we should too. The Colts saw the same defense on Saturday and only scored 20 points. The Ravens were lost on offense and don't have Gang Greens running attack. This will be another good one to watch.
I think all Jets fans can enjoy this season and look forward to an off-season with no angst. Super Bowl or not this team has overachieved and can build upon it's success. They have gone on a magical run with a little help. The doubters said that Indy and Cincy had nothing to play for when the teams met in the regular season. Well the Bengals showed up for the playoff game and failed to get it done. The Chargers, who were supposed to have this incredibly high powered offense scored 14 points and looked uncomfortable at home in a lose and go home environment. Gang Green stood toe-to-toe with two teams whom most experts thought would knock them out and survived. this team is learning how to win at a crucial time. It reminds me a lot of the Giants Super Bowl run from two years ago.

Some obeservations from the divisional playoffs...(in no particular order)

• The score of the Cardinals-Saints game was more like watching an NBA All-Star game...
• Tony Romo and America's Team never got off the bus! Can we all now stop getting so excited about how dominant the Cowboys are, please...
• Nate Kaeding's relived 2004 vs. the Jets all over again.
• Has Norv Turner for Marty Schottenhiemer really turned out any different?
• How does Sanchez' rookie season stack up against Ryan and Flacco now!
• The Colts did play the first half of the game in Week 16... rematch just like in Madden when my son doesn't like the way the game is going.
• Not that they are thinking that far ahead, but do you think some of the Jets would love to get a chance to get a shot on Farve for imploding their '08 season?

And finally, looking back was it really Leno's manager, Helen Kusnick, who put a gun to NBC's head over succeeding Johnny Carson over Letterman. Leno didn't want to be percieved as the bad guy and threw her under the bus. And he's doing it again. Jay, time to go home and play with your cars. You made a promise to step away, be a man of your word and step away permanently. You don't need the money or the gig. Have some class as Johhny did. When the great one stepped away, we never saw him again.

BTW, Dick Ebersol hasn't been relevant to primetime television in quite some time. Zucker needs to get his team under control. P.S. if he has, he hasn't done anything to change the network's standing lately has he? NBC built a dominant network with one night of incredible programming and Jerry Sienfeld and not much else. Going with Conan O'Brien was a brave move, but they wanted their cake and eat it too. Conan never did a conventional talk show that's why it worked at 12:30. If you want Conan, let him do his show at 1135 and give him 18 months to build an audinece as you did for Leno. Or the actual move is to move Jimmy Fallon to 1135 with his more vanilla delivery and innocent demeanor that plays well with mid-america.