Just Endure The Suffering?
Nope.
Just Enjoy The Success.
That is the mindset every New York Jets fan should have after Thursday night’s rejuvenating victory over a previously 6-2 Houston Texans team – and after any future victories over the course of the 2024 season.
Jets fans are trained to be miserable from the moment their dad (or whichever other cursed soul) indoctrinates them into a lifetime of broken dreams. Pessimism flows through their blood and is embedded in their bones. Like the ice cream machine being broken at McDonald’s, the Jets falling short of expectations becomes something you learn to expect every single time.
After a win like the one New York just had – a resilient prime-time comeback in which they rebounded from an atrocious start and finally began to fire on all cylinders – it is easy for beaten-and-battered Jets fans to get lost in the “yeah-buts” and “yeah-wells” of the situation.
“Yeah, but we’re 3-6.”
“Yeah, well where was that against the Patriots last week?”
I get it. Even for the most optimistic fan, it is impossible for those questions not to arise in the back of your mind. Why didn’t the Jets play like this throughout the first eight games? Nobody can answer that question definitively, but what everybody can do is control their reaction to the present.
If you learn to watch the Jets correctly, that game was four quarters of fun. Yes, even the first half was quite a joy from my viewing perspective.
The first half featured a collection of classic Jets blunders (including perhaps the Jetsiest play of the 2024 season by Malachi Corley), and I still found myself having a good time. Having squashed all of my expectations for this team, I’ve learned to just laugh and enjoy the spectacle transpiring in front me. I wasn’t happy about those blunders. For the sake of my sanity, I’d just rather get a good chuckle out of it instead of spewing vitriol at a screen.
Plus, the Jets’ defense played well and kept the game close, and the Texans made plenty of their own blunders, so it’s not as if the Jets were getting blown off the field. It was a comedic game that was also close enough for the Jets to potentially win it.
Enjoyment of the first half was dependent upon emotional withdrawal. Between the silly blunders, the booing and chanting fans, and the score being close enough to not be totally appalled, it was a solid comedic experience if you removed your attachment to the results and simply observed the spectacle in front of you. All Jets fans should train themselves to find comedy in the team’s lowest moments, or this isn’t the team for you.
In the second half, though, the fan side of me threw an upper-cut into the chin of my apathetic side, regaining full control of my body. The Jets finally looked like the team were supposed to be. And, boy, was it one hell of a thrill to watch.
Insane catches by Garrett Wilson! Davante Adams cooking people as a route runner! Good run blocking leading to a consistently successful run game! Quinnen Williams being the best defensive tackle in football! Haason Reddick generating pressure on seemingly every play! Sacks galore! An elite secondary holding a great quarterback to a sub-40% completion percentage!
And above anything else… it was the other team who missed multiple field goals!
That was the New York Jets team we were promised!
I don’t know where they were over the first eight games. I don’t know how often we will see them over the next eight games.
But I do know this: For two quarters on one fateful Halloween night, the Jets played tremendous football. And Jets fans should try to enjoy that with as few caveats as possible.
Just enjoy the successful moments this team gives you. If you’re the type of fan who goes on a Joe Benigno-esque rant after every loss, and then you still aren’t satisfied when they win… then why bother following the team at all? What is good enough for you? Will you only be happy when they win a Super Bowl? Let me tell you right now: you’re not going to have a lot of fun if that’s your mindset.
Only one team comes away with the Super Bowl each year, while 31 others are left disappointed. The reasons are different, but those 31 fanbases all do the same amount of complaining.
The Panthers are completely lifeless and a disgrace to football. The Jets are not lifeless, but they are wildly underwhelming. The Eagles are good, but not good enough for their standards. Out of the league’s elite teams – such as the Chiefs, Lions, Ravens, Bills, and 49ers – most of their fanbases will come away depressed because they had the talent to win a championship and “blew it” or “choked” in the playoffs.
If your fandom is going to be worthwhile, it’s imperative to enjoy the journey rather than getting caught up in goals. You only get a minimum of 17 chances to see your favorite team win a football game over the course of 365 days. Fans spend immensely more time doing mock drafts and tweeting mock free agency plans than they do watching them play football. So, enjoy the wins when you can get them! They’re not common for any NFL team, especially this one.
And it is not as if we are talking about a meaningless game from a dead team walking – not just yet. This game absolutely could have been the start of something special.
The Athletic’s playoff projections have the Jets with a 17% chance of making the playoffs, while NFL.com has them with a 29% chance. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Jets at +300 to make the playoffs, an implied probability of 25%.
A soft schedule contributes heavily to those odds. The Jets have a remaining strength-of-schedule of .443. That ranks as the fifth-easiest in the NFL, but more importantly, it’s the easiest in the AFC. Just one of their next eight games is against a team that currently has a winning record.
This team is still very much alive. The soft schedule helps, but the Jets’ surprisingly realistic playoff hopes exist solely because they are uniquely positioned with enough talent to make a legendary run.
That’s all in the future, though. And all of the misery that led them to this point is in the past. Right now, the Jets went 1-0 this week, and they did it in exciting fashion, putting a boatload of thrilling highlights on tape. Finally, I can have fun reviewing the film from a Jets game!
Don’t overthink it, Jets fans. Just Enjoy The Success.
