Ok, so I know that I'm over a week late with this analysis, but I've been busy (a.k.a. lazy) the last couple of weeks. If you follow the NFL then you know that the Jets are notorious for trash talking there opponents before the upcoming game. However, in the week leading up to the AFC championship game against Pittsburgh the tone of the Jets was altered. It was replaced by a complimentary attitude towards the Steelers, and this led to there demise.
At the end of the Divisional round game against the Patriots, the Jets linebacker, Bart Scott, gave an emotional interview to Sal Palantonio of ESPN. When Sal said to Bart, "I'll see you next week in Pittsburgh." Bart Scott replied, "Can't Wait!" We now know that the Jets could wait.
Instead of feeding off of the passion that Bart displayed at the end of the Jets/Patriots game, the Jets organization turned the "Can't Wait!" into a laughing matter. They worked it into press conferences, and even let Sal create a piece around it for ESPN. All of a sudden, you have an emotional charged team, full of passion and looking for blood, turned into a bunch of guys cracking jokes about "Can't Wait!" Add in the new found respectful attitude they have for the Steelers, and you get a recipe for disaster.
The Jets came out in the game flat, and the Steelers drove down the field, 4 yards at a time, taking up most of the first quarter. The drive ended with a touchdown. In the game against the Patriots, the Jets came out looking for blood, they said they hated those guys and it showed on the field. All they wanted to do was hit a Patriot, and hit them hard. Against the Steelers, it looked like they were to worried about respecting them, and they didn't want to hit them. It was almost as if the Jets were afraid of the Steelers.
Only the Jets know if they psyched themselves out mentally with the way they talked about the game before hand, but the way they came out and played it was clear that they did.
Thanks for reading,
Dustin Dominiak
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