Felger & Mazz: 'What A Loser's Lament'
With Felger on vacation for the week and out of the studio, Tony Massarotti was joined by Marc "The Beatle" Bertrand for Tuesday's show. In response to the most recent Rex Ryan tirade, in which he challenged the rest of the league to try and beat the Patriots and help the Jets secure home-field advantage, Tony and Marc spent the entire first segment dissecting Ryan's comments and how they fit into the evolution of the recent rivalry between the Pats and Jets.
While Beatle feels that Ryan's comments can only be characterized as a "loser's lament," and has begun to grow tired of the antics that the New York Jets coach continually puts on display, Tony has adopted a slightly different stance. Although Tony admits that he loves Ryan's act for its entertainment value, if nothing more, he also raises the question of whether or not Ryan has, on some level, earned the right to behave the way that he does. Marc, and many Patriots fans, think this sort of suggestion is positively ludicrous, and Ryan has no basis for whining about how good other teams in the NFL are, but Tony also raises an interesting point in noting that the Jets were one of just two teams in the league to beat the Pats last year. And they did it twice.
With the Pats' recent track record against the Jets taken into consideration, it seems that this division match-up has begun to fill the space that was once occupied by the hotly contested rivalry between the Pats and the Indianapolis Colts. When the Pats added Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Adalius Thomas following their embarrassing 2006 playoff loss to the Colts, these moves were widely regarded as ones that were made with a late season match up with the Colts in mind. That being said, the guys can't help but wonder whether or not the Pats' most recent off-season moves were made with similar intentions, that were this time directed at the New York Jets.
As the Jets continue to emerge, and Rex Ryan and his team continue to back up their smack talk on the field, Tony and Marc can't help but wonder if there has been a shift in the hierarchy atop the AFC. Have the Patriots off-season moves on some level been an acknowledgement of this, and a affirmation that the Jets have become the team to beat that the Colts once were? Is Albert Haynesworth a response to the Jets' punishing run game that walked all over the Patriots last season? And what about Chad Ochocinco, was he brought in to help the Pats gain an advantage against the Jets' imposing secondary?
While we'll have to wait until the season starts to see how the rivalry will truly unfold moving forward, it seems that, on some level, the Pats have the Jets in the back of their mind. The Rex Ryan Jets have done something that the Colts were never able to do, beat the Patriots in Foxborough during the playoffs, but that being said, they still have questions to answer. Will Rex Ryan finally back up his talk and win a super bowl this year, or will he once again fall short and make himself look like the buffoon that Bertrand thinks he is? For answers to these questions and more, tune in now, or call in to let us know what you think of Rex Ryan, the Jets, and this new found Patriots rivalry!
