Overlooked in the furor over the gift flag that allowed the Jets to steal one from the Pats in OT last Sunday was Rex Ryan’s confounding decision to attempt a 56-yard field goal to win it in sudden death.
Ryan has sky-high confidence in Jets kicker Nick Folk right now and deservedly so. Folk is perfect on 16 attempts this year although all his tries in the 45-50 yard range have come in pretty good weather.
My jaw dropped when Ryan sent out Folk Sunday for the try from 56. The wind had been changing directions throughout the afternoon. It appeared Folk had a mildly favorable breeze at his back on the attempt and he had made a wind-aided 58-yarder before the game. But when you discuss a kicker’s “range,” you need to incorporate the consequences of a miss. Folk’s career long going in was 56 but that came back on October 2010 in the thin air of Denver where the ball flies an extra five or ten yards on trey attempts hit square. A miss would give Brady the ball at his own 38 and a short field to reach a reasonable FG try for Gostkowski who had just nailed one to end regulation from 44.
There were seven and a half minutes left in OT when Ryan made his decision. He should have punted given the risk/reward calculation. The Jets D had stymied Brady much of the second half. A Folk miss would have opened Rex up to a deafening chorus of second-guessing. But you know what happened next. Folk struck the ball solid despite a less than optimum snap. He had the distance but missed wide left. It wasn’t really even close. Umpire Tony Michalek (standing behind the Pats defensive line) threw up a flag as the ball sailed above and behind him.
The call was “unsportsmanlike conduct” against New England for a gentle push by Chris Jones into teammate Will Svitek who was attempting to penetrate the Jets blocking formation. A new rule instituted before this season bars the teammate-on-teammate pushing tactic but had never been enforced in a game (preseason or regular season) before this. Clearly Michalek had been looking for the infraction because it wasn’t something you’d otherwise bother recognizing unless you were keen on seeing it. I understand “rules are rules,” but to enforce a new edict for the first time ever on a desperate OT kick attempt in a tie game – well – you just don’t do it. The Jones push had absolutely zero bearing on the outcome of the play.
The flag gave the Jets a free 15-yard move up field, a first down, and an easy game-winner for Folk who has earned the nickname “Folk Hero” by the city’s tabloids – and now his head coach.
Ryan’s bad decision-making got bailed out by a bad flag. The Pats got robbed. And then to make it worse, it was revealed later that the Jets did indeed tip off the game officials in advance to watch for the infraction.
-Despite announcing a third-quarter profit of $379 million, United Airlines boss Jeff Smisek said Thursday he was “not satisfied” with the company’s financial results. Why did Smisek project a sad face? You can bet part of the reason was the quarterly results announced just two days earlier by rival Delta Airlines. Delta put its third quarter haul at a whopping $1.369 billion on the plus side. Year-to-date, Delta is up $2.061 billion vs. United’s $431 million tally through nine months. Why the big difference? What is Delta doing differently? Smisek is certainly under pressure to understand the contrasting results and narrow the gap. Delta is a couple years further along in their post-combo restructuring but that excuse will only last so long.