But part of the reason I’m so sure the Chargers beat themselves is because they’ve done it so many times before! Stupid headbutting personal foul penalties? Unsportsmanlike for kicking a challenge flag? 10 total penalties? Maybe some false starts can be attributed to the Jets D, but the bonehead penalties are simply a lack of discipline and self-destructive behavior, nothing the Jets did.

And Kaeding’s missed FGs cannot be attributed to anything other than his failing to get the job done. Absolute gifts for the Jets.

San Diego had more first downs, more yards per play, and over 80 more total yards on offense, so I don’t know how you can claim that the Jets outplayed San Diego in every facet of the game. The Chargers also had 50 (!) more penalty yards, further evidence that they beat themselves.

And I’m not sure I buy your explanation for Gates’ dropped passes, considering he caught one over his shoulder with one hand with his entire body completely exposed for a hit. To assume that later dropped balls were due to fear or anticipation doesn’t make a lot of sense in light of those plays.

The Jets deserve to be in the playoffs and they’re playing great ball, but San Diego did all it could to lose that game.

To start, Revis’s interception had a measure of luck in that the ball ended up on him, but his going for VJ’s ARMS after he got the ball was brilliant, and exactly the way you need to play a bigger and stronger receiver–and also exactly the way no one else seems to play him. So, yes, it was luck that the ball ended up on Revis, but (a) it was there, and not in Jackson’s arms, because Revis made a great play, and (b) coming up with the ball as you hit the ground, etc., is still an awesome play.

As for the rest of it, of course the Jets got a nice break with Kaeding missing two FGs (agree that the 57yd-er is a pass), but that doesn’t mean the Bolts just win without it. First of all, the Jets were there to kick a FG at the end, and more importantly, they play completely different in the endgame if the lead is 4 and not 10.

And the reason Antonio Gates drops a pass by turning his head up field too soon is because the Jets beat the piss out of people. If not turning my head soon enough might mean that Kerry Rhodes is about to concuss the shit out of me, I might peek early, too.

I agree that the Chargers did a lot to shoot themselves in the foot–the penalties are an obvious example–but it’s absurd to suggest that it happened in a vacuum. The Jets have the #1 defense in football. They have a unique shutdown corner and use his man coverage abilities to blitz constantly and aggressively vary their schemes from play to play. Trying to just blame things on some unspecified idea–that the Chargers just piss it away in the playoffs–instead of recognizing that an aggressive, constantly-shifting and blitzing defense CAUSES mistakes like false starts, dropped passes, and confusion-caused INTs diminishes the basic argument that the Jets didn’t face the Bolts on their best day.

The Jets will rightly be an underdog in Indy, but please, tell me, how is your evaluation different than what everyone was saying before Sunday–i.e., that the Jets were lucky to face a crappy Bengals team and would finally get their comeuppance when facing a real team like SD?

In any event, your basic conclusion–”the Chargers beat themselves – which is the only way the Jets were going to win”–is utter (and obvious) bullshit. SD is an explosive passing team that can’t run for shit. They were facing a historically-great pass defense (stats-wise, at least). The idea that SD would just run out there and score a bunch of points is simply non-sensical.

Likewise, SD has a pretty crappy run defense and the Jets were the #1 rushing offense (not necessarily THE best, but up there), so the idea that THEY could not move the chains is also non-sensical.

SD needed to either have its passing game outplay the Jets’s defense OR figure out how to run the ball, and they did neither. The Jets had to run the ball well OR have Sanchez make good throws on 3rd down and in the red zone. Sanchez did just that when they needed it, and then the running game came alive against a tired SD line in the 2nd half.

It wasn’t luck. The Jets outplayed the Bolts in every facet of that game.