Bob Glauber of Newsday thinks they should:
If Mangini doesn’t get to the playoffs, the Jets need to show him the door. No excuses. No explanations. He was on board with the Favre decision, and he must pay the price if the collapse is completed next week.
Yesterday, his coaching was abysmal:
Fourth down and less than a yard from the Seattle 2 on the Jets’ first drive, and Mangini goes conservative and has Jay Feely kick a field goal.
Early in the fourth quarter, Feely makes a field goal with room to spare from 45 yards. However, the Jets are penalized five yards, which wipes out the points. Mangini elects to punt. What?!
With 2:21 left in the fourth quarter, the Jets face a fourth-and-2 at their 20 with all three timeouts and the two-minute warning, and Mangini goes for it. Favre’s pass over the middle to Laveranues Coles is dropped. The Seahawks kick a field goal (with 1:47 to play, meaning the Jets still had plenty of time if they’d elected to punt) to ice it.
It all adds up to three losses in four games, with the only win a gift from the Bills last week after Buffalo coach Dick Jauron inexplicably put the ball in J.P. Losman’s hands instead of Marshawn Lynch’s in a must-run situation.
The Jets’ playoff fate now rests in the hands of a 39-year-old quarterback who is at the end of the road — and a head coach who should be, too.
It’s amazing how Mangini has looked so bad at times since his first year in New York when he led the Jets to the playoffs. A lot of purists compared him to Bill Belichick when he became the Jets head coach, but the difference between Belicheat and Mangenious is having the ability to make adjustments throughout the game. Belichick is one of the best in-game coaches in the league and while Mangini can game plan, he can’t deliver when opponents start to make adjustments.
Things don’t look good for the Jets, although I think they beat Miami next week at the Meadowlands. The Dolphins have struggled there over the years and the Jets have been a better team at home than they’ve been on the road. But New England will win the AFC East. The Pats look like a juggernaut right now and I doubt they lose to the Bills next Sunday, although a game in Buffalo is always a little tougher in December than it is in September.
