I'm not surprised Eric Mangini was fired. This man squandered a playoff appearance that seemed almost inevitable. Such a mistake should carry a consequence. Many armchair Quarterbacks are blaming Brett Favre for the meltdown, but those folks are borderline delusional. Yes, its true that Favre was intercepted a lot, but rewind to last season when Chad Pennington was intercepted much in the same way. Its nothing short of a miracle that Favre took the Jets to 8-3 with such miserable pass protection. When any quarterback has to deal with a pocket that consistently collapses, or when blitzers are coming at them clean off the line, they tend to make big mistakes and they try to force things. Lots of Jets fans want to see Favre go, but I don't agree with that. Some guys think that bringing in a new QB like Matt Cassel would fix everything, but thats also hysterical. If anything, we could use the guys who protect Cassel and put them around Favre. Brett Favre would be deadly with the pass protection that Matt Cassel gets. That guy has all day to throw the ball. With Cassels protection, even Ryan Leaf could throw for 400.
Its kind of sad to see Mangini go because he did make some good progress in building the team. Last season, even Richard Simmons could have rushed for a hundred against the Jets while rocking out to "sweating to the oldies." At least thats been shored up a bit, but Mangini had to be held accountable for allowing the Jets to be eliminated from the playoffs by 3 of the leagues worst teams. It was Manginis responsibility to make adjustments in game plans and to rotate players if they weren't performing correctly, and that includes Favre. If Favre's arm was banged up during the Titans game, then Mangini should have rested him for a game.
The Jets owners are correct, this all falls on Manginis shoulders. The poor pass defense, the failure to rotate players and draw up game plans that would work. Its also obvious that Mangini underestimated threats. How else do you explain his willingness to allow Chad Pennington to go to a division rival, Miami. While the Jets weren't actually eliminated by Miami, they now pose a huge threat. "Mangenius" must have thought that Pennington was washed up and posed no threat, and thats just a microcosm of how 3 crappy teams ended up getting the better of him.
Just because a team is playing poorly doesn't mean that you can take the day off and not prepare a solid plan against them. Take the 49rs for instance, sure they stink, but if you don't plan a way to stop players like Isaac Bruce, a superbowl Champion, they will beat you to death with him. So sayonara Eric. I would like to see Parcell's come back to the Jets, but he has a nasty habit of almost getting a team to the big game and then quitting, Id rather have mean old Bill Cowher out there with his spittle cup, or Mike Holmgren would be good too.