Results tagged “kellenclemens”

The Jets got their quarterback to replace Brett Favre. This afternoon, the Jets traded up in the NFL Draft to select Mark Sanchez, the quarterback out of USC. In addition to trading their first two picks (17 and 57 overall) in the 2009 Draft to the Cleveland Browns, the Jets sent the Browns QB Brett Ratliff, DE Kenyon Coleman and S Abram Elam. In the days before the draft, there was lots of buzz around Sanchez, despite starting for only one season at Southern Cal. Sanchez led the Trojans to a 12-1 season including a Rose Bowl win over Penn State where he scored five touchdowns (4 passing, 1 rushing) and threw for 3207 yards, 34 TDs and 10 INTs for the season. With Sanchez, the question for head coach Rex Ryan is, how soon will he give Sanchez the keys to the offense. Prior to the trade, Kellen Clemens was set to battle for the starting job with Brett Ratliff. When asked if he was ready for the New York media, Sanchez said that he would "be alright."

Brett Favre may help the Jets this season, but he's certainly not helping the environment. Thursday's 6 p.m. press conference in Cleveland, where the Jets downed the Browns in their preseason opener, capped a whirlwind day that saw Favre travel from Mississippi to New York and then to Ohio. It was on the shores of Lake Erie that Favre told the media “I’m here for one reason. Not to do commercials, Broadway all those things. I’m here to help the Jets win."

A timeout and a holding penalty on the Jets couldn't prevent Mike Nugent from hurting the Jets' draft position helping the Jets end a disappointing season with a 13-10 win over Kansas City on Sunday evening at the Meadowlands. A 33-yard make, which set off some premature celebrations, turned into a 43-yard try after Wade Smith got nailed for holding. Nugent made that too, a fitting sendoff for special teams coach Mike Westoff, who told his team he wouldn't be back next season. He's been suffering from a malignant tumor in his femur and has walked around on crutches while leading the most successful of the Jets units. Given how inconsistent the offense and defense have been, that shouldn't be too hard, but the Jets' Leon Washington was one of their biggest threats -- as a returnman.

Eight of the Jets' 12 losses have come by seven points or fewer. Too many of them have followed the script of Sunday's 10-6 defeat at the hands of the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. Jets fans have to be sick of a banged-up team not expressing confidence in its quarterback -- Chad Pennington wasn't named the starter but played over Kellen Clemens and his sore ribs -- and then going out there and laying an offensive egg. Without his most dynamic playmaker (Laveranues Coles is on injured reserve), Pennington still found a way to complete 81 percent of his passes and throw for 264 yards.

As admirable as the Jets' effort has been during the second half of their lousy season, don't count on it staying there the final two weeks. Sunday's game against the Titans will mean nothing to them -- though Tennessee needs to win it to have any shot at the playoffs -- and who knows if the Jets will be motivated after their grudge match with the Patriots last week. Their season right now is about watching young players like Darrelle Revis.

The Patriots and Jets didn't have the worst weather in the league Sunday, but they still had plenty to complain about. Rain and wind didn't stay the Patriots from improving to 14-0 with a 20-10 win over the Jets in Foxborough, Mass.. It did help the Jets keep the game close and easily cover the record 27-point spread, for those who care about those things.

With the Jets 3-10, the best thing that can be said about them is that they're still playing hard. They seemed insulted that people thought the Dolphins could beat them last week, and, despite playing in front of empty seats in a heavy rain Sunday, the Jets fought back before losing to the Browns, 24-18. Kellen Clemens scored the Jets' only touchdown with his quarterback sneak in the fourth quarter, but his inconsistent play and...

As the Jets look ahed to their game Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, they may be hoping that's where they are in a season or two. Cleveland, like the Jets, is coached by a former defensive protege of Patriots Coach Bill Belichick. Romeo Crennell had a rough go of it during the first few seasons, but he now has an offense filled with playmakers like Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow and run by an unheralded...

Neither the Jets nor the Dolphins have enjoyed their seasons too much. One half of the Jets' wins came on Sept. 23 when they edged the Dolphins 31-28 at home. Now they travel to Miami. They're 0-5 on the road, but Miami has lost 14 straight. Ironically, the Jets stand to gain the most if they lose and somehow pass the Dolphins in the NFL draft pecking order. But shhh! No one's thinking about that....

After seeing the Jets take Pittsburgh by surprise Sunday, the Cowboys weren't going to be ambushed. They dominated the Jets in every way in a 34-3 Thanksgiving Day whupping. Anyone who sat down to dinner after the Jets' first two series didn't miss much. Tony Romo led Dallas on a quick-strike scoring drive to start the game, and then Leon Washington fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Kellen Clemens couldn't get comfortable in the pocket when...

When the NFL scheduled the Jets to play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving back in the spring, it had to think it was going to get a good game between two 2006 playoff teams. Unfortunately for the league, only the Cowboys have lived up to expectations this season. Still, the game is better than some of the duds of recent years. The Cowboys look like the best team in the NFC -- which could make them...

Bye weeks can do wonders for football teams. Time off certainly helped the Jets. They held their own against the Pittsburgh Steelers and then secured a 19-16 win in overtime after trailing by three with two minutes, 23 seconds to go in regulation. For the second straight game, Kellen Clemens engineered a game-tying drive capped by a Mike Nugent field goal -- although this drive probably should won the game. The Jets finished the job...

After a much-needed bye that followed six straight losses, the Jets return to the Meadowlands field Sunday to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers, the first of three Super Bowl-caliber teams on their schedule in the second half. A win in any of those games -- they are also at Dallas on Thanksgiving and at New England on Dec. 16 -- would be a major surprise. That's the only way the Jets can affect the NFL...

Even if a good portion of the announced paid attendance wasn't there to see it, the Jets played an entertaining if not successful football game in their 23-20 overtime loss to the Redskins on Sunday. Kellen Clemens showed flashes of brilliance and moments of poise -- including a drive that culminated with the game-tying field goal with 10 seconds left in regulation -- but the Jets defense didn't hold up its end of the bargain....

Remember how excited some people got when Roger Clemens announced he was coming back to the Yankees? New Jets starting quarterback Kellen Clemens -- no relation, but like Roger's kids, his name does start with "K" -- won't get as much attention, but he still has quite a following. Weeks of calls for Chad Pennington to sit in favor of Clemens didn't persuade Coach Eric Mangini, but a 1-7 start has been enough for him...

If they want to, the Jets can trace the morphing of their season from disappointing to disastrous from their Week 4 loss in Buffalo on Sept. 30. Before that, their only defeats came against the Patriots and the Ravens. Those are nothing to be ashamed of. But now the team hasn't won since a Week 3 squeaker against the Dolphins, and, let's face it, everybody's beating Miami these days. The Jets will try it all over again at home this Sunday, but the change everyone wanted made hasn't happened. Chad Pennington is still the quarterback.

Chad Pennington gets all the attention, but the Jets' problems run deeper than the quarterback position. Eric Mangini said as much during an unusually open news conference following the latest Jets debacle, a 38-31 loss at Cincinnati on Sunday. Pennington looked fine in the first half, throwing two touchdowns to Lavaranues Coles. In the second half, the rest of the team's wheels fell off at once. Kenny Watson tore up the Jets' rush defense. When the Bengals did go to the air, Darrelle Revis, the rookie cornerback and a No. 1 draft pick, got called for two pass interference penalties. Nick Manigold, the center, botched a snap. On the last meaningful series, Pennington had an interception returned for a touchdown.

If a change in clothes doesn't help the Jets, what will? Despite looking snazzy in their New York Titans throwbacks, the Jets looked anything but sharp on the field in a 16-9 loss to the Eagles on Sunday. Some creative playcalling, including a reverse, got the Jets deep inside Eagles territory as the fourth quarter wound down, but Chad Pennington couldn't get the ball to Laveranues Coles on fourth-and-one fade.

The Jets and the Eagles have plenty in common. They both made the playoffs last year and had expectations of returning. Slow starts have made those aspirations appear less likely. The Jets' season, without a bye to arrest its fall, has taken the sharper downward turn. They're 1-4 and have not looked good the past two weeks in losses at Buffalo and "at" the Giants.

So much for taking advantage of an easy schedule. The Jets were handed a rookie quarterback, a banged up defense and an 0-3 opponent. They took one look at the pile under the Christmas tree, rewrapped the presents and gave them right back. But not before adding a bow to each of them. They now sit at 1-3 instead of 2-2. The season lost a lot of promise Sunday.

The list of 0-2 teams to win the Super Bowl is a short one, though it does include the 2001 Patriots. No team has won it after losing its first three games. Like it or not, the Jets find themselves on the first list and will try desperately to avoid being placed on the second one when they host Miami this week. Despite reports of limited action in practice this week, Chad Pennington seems guaranteed to start at quarterback, much to Jets fans' chagrin. They're the ones who cheered Pennington's departure -- or backup Kellen Clemens' arrival -- when the veteran left with an ankle injury two weeks ago against the Patriots. Even with Clemens' strong fourth-quarter performance last week, apologist Coach Eric Mangini remains eager to get Pennington in there. No matter how indifferent fans feel toward Pennington, Mangini continues to provide plenty of slack on the leash. Pennington doesn't cost a team too many games, but how many he wins for them remains the subject of many a debate.

Ready for a quarterback controversy? Kellen Clemens took a while to get his feet under him, but he almost led the Jets back in their 20-13 loss in Baltimore. A drop and a poor throw of his own cost Clemens down the stretch, and the Jets are 0-2. At least they didn't go weakly into the Baltimore night. If not for Justin McCareins' buttery fingers, this game would have gone to overtime. This performance won't make it any easier for Coach Eric Mangini to stand by Chad Pennington as his starting quarterback when the Week 1 starter recovers from an ankle injury.

Thanks to the Patriots' spying, the Jets have enjoyed a week surprisingly free of the questions that normally follow teams that start the season with convincing losses at home. According to The Times, 14 of the 25 questions fielded by Coach Eric Mangini on Wednesday dealt with the alleged filming of the Jets' defensive signals. Rest assured, Eric Mangini's not thinking about the Patriots offense but instead the Ravens defense.

For much of the first half, things didn't look so bad. The Jets contained the Patriots offense, had scored a touchdown of their own and looked like they would be in position to scare and maybe upset New England. But seconds into the second half, the team trailed by two touchdowns en route to a 38-14 loss at home. Adding injury to insult, the Jets lost Chad Pennington to an ankle injury. He returned but then yielded to Kellen Clemens during garbage time. The injury was especially ugly. Not only did Pennington have to endure landing awkwardly on his own foot, but he had to hear -- as he hustled hobbled off the field to save a time out -- fans cheer Clemens' entrance into the game. Not the classiest move by Jets fans.

Life's easier the lower you keep everyone's expectations. Bill Waterson once had Calvin impart that wisdom in the comic strip, and the Jets are about to find that out as well. Last year, Coach Eric Mangini worked wonders to get the team into the playoffs and created a situation where media and fans will be looking for more. Don't be surprised if the team doesn't improve upon last year's results.

• Yankees 6, Indians 1: The Yankees played well against the soft part of their schedule and last night, against an actual playoff contender, they continued their recent winning ways (they've won 20 of the last 27 games). In his second start since returning from a May leg injury, Hughes, a key player in the future of the Yankees rotation, pitched brilliantly. He allowed only one run over 6 innings to the AL Central-leading Indians. Equally as impressive as Hughes, if not more so, was Joba Chamberlain who pitched perfect 7th and 8th innings. Chamberlain picked up one strikeout in the 7th before striking out the side in the 8th. The win put the Yankees in a tie for first-place in the Wild Card standings and gave them the same record as the Mets (not that it matters).
• Marlins 4, Mets 3: Perhaps it was the cold weather that pushed Billy Wagner into the blown save territory last night. Wagner, who hasn't exactly inspired confidence recently, blew only his 2nd save of the season. Wagner allowed a two-run double by Hanley Ramirez in the 9th to spoil the return of Carlos Beltran from an oblique strain. Beltran had the go-ahead, three-run homer in the 5th inning, but the Mets were unable to capitalize on a night that the Braves loss.
• Cyclones 4, Doubledays 3: Brooklyn won its third straight game last night by defeating the Doubledays. The Cyclones took the lead in the 7th with a two runs in the inning. Doubledays starter Marc Rzepczynski had a career high 10 strike outs in six innings of work.

Anytime you can walk away with two players who are rated #1 at their position, you have had an excellent draft and that is exactly what the Jets did. D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold will form the nucleus of their offensive line for the next decade. Kellen Clemens has a great arm and while he will need time to develop, could challenge Pennington and Ramsey for the starting job by the end of the year. Leon Washington should give them a good “change of pace” running back and Eric Smith will probably contribute immediately in the secondary.