So Favre Away

Eric Mangini is likely to be fired and Brett Favre is hopefully going to retire. Good riddance to both. The Dolphins were clearly the best team in their division and deserved to win on the final game of the season (and thus win the division), but poor decisions by both Mangini and Favre in the fourth quarter cost the Jets a chance at victory and thus the Patriots a chance at the playoffs.

First, some basics -- when you have 4th-and-2 on your opponent's 43 and you're down by four points in the fourth quarter, you go for it. Unless you can get a perfect punt, at best you'll gain 20 yards of field position by giving up the ball, and you're facing a team that has run the ball effectively all season, particularly in the fourth quarter. The fact that the punt was blocked is immaterial -- the call to punt in the first place was idiotic.

Second, why are you running a hurry-up offense with a full five minutes left? You have two timeouts and you're on the opponent's 29. What's the rush? Favre was apparently trying to catch the Dolphins in the wrong defensive formation, but isn't it better to execute the play properly? Even his (intended) receiver was surprised.

This isn't sour grapes -- The Patriots lost their all-world quarterback early in the first game of the season, yet rebounded to finish 11-5 and lost the division on a tie-breaker. They had winnable games against the Jets and the Colts (and, to some degree, the Steelers) which would have made this discussion moot had they executed.

New England's defense -- already aging and depleted entering the season after having been manhandled back in February -- was their true Achilles heel (pardon the expression) this season, a problem which was exacerbated by the loss of stalwarts Rodney Harrison, Adailus Thomas and many others. With Tom Brady's status up in the air, they've got some work to do in order to contend in a suddenly improved division.

We'll see what that brings. In the meantime, congratulations to the Dolphins on a well-deserved division title. As for Mangini and Favre, we'll see you on Monster.com.