There is little joy in Mudville today. Base10's beloved Jets were trounced by the Buffalo Bills yesterday. Oh the humanity! It is clear that our team has a long way to go.

The bad: The offense just couldn't produce. Vinny took a beating in the first half and threw for a coyuple of picks. You just can't win that way. The defense--the unit that made Tampa Bay look lifeless last week--clearly took a step backward. Guys, did you practice tackling during the week? How can Willis McGahee run wild on you with eight or nine guys in the box?

The good: Justin McCairens actually remembered how to catch the ball rather than let it sail through his hands. Vinny connected with him several times. Curtis Martin also had a great game rushing for triple digits for the first time this year.

The good news is that, at least for now, the division loss isn't devastating. New England and Buffalo are now 3-3 while Miami and the Jets are 2-4. The division is there for the taking, so it's not time to panic just yet.

Next week the Jets play Atlanta. I am certainly not looking forward to playing what is shaping up to be the hottest team in the NFC next week, but they're not unstoppable either. If the Jets "D" from a week ago shows up, we might have a shot. Then we go into the bye week to reassess.

In other football news, our crosstown cousins the New York Giants lost a squeaker to Dallas at Texas Stadium. Base10 wonders though, was there some rule he missed? Dallas could have taken an intentional safety to insure that they didn't give the ball back to the Giants in the waining minutes. Instead, they punt out of their own endzone and give the Jints good field position. The Giants tie up the game and send it into OT. Although Dallas eventually wins, why didn't they avoid OT by taking the safety. Some speculate that Parcels would not do this under any circumstances. But Base10 remembers that Parcels ordered Neil O'Donnell to do just this in his first season with the Jets. Unless there's an obscure rule that Base10 isn't aware of, this was a foolish decision on the part of Parcels.

In other sports news, in what was the finest college football game of the week, USC won a squeaker in South Bend against Notre Dame. It was a great game pitting two former Jets coaches against each other. Ironically, the game was decided by a fake spike in the last seconds of regulation. USC remains undefeated. In another upset, Penn state was beaten by Michigan in the waning seconds handing Joe Pa his first loss of the season. The other major upset of the week was Florida State being beaten by Virginia (coincidentaly led by Al Groh, another ex-Jet coach). All is not lost for FSU (see shameless praise for Bobby Bowden here). It seems to me that if USC takes a loss at some point in the season, the Championship picture gets considerably murky.

In baseball news, the Chicago White Sox are going to the World Series for the first time since the 50's. Houston won as well and needs one more to clinch their spot. Base10 rapidly loses interest in baseball most years, but even he will be cheering the White Sox. They haven't won since 1917 and almost ruined baseball in the Black Sox scandal. A storied franchise to say the least.

Links to follow when I get to work.

- posted by Base10 @ 12:53 PM