It's a great question, and sometime there is no easy answer.
Even at 1-8, I always felt this was a much better team than the record would indicate
The injuries at CB has forced and the coaching staff to completely re-architect the defense all year long, and maybe, those adjustments are now finally paying dividends, that the players are now finally getting comfortable in the modified scheme, and now we are even seeing some players flourish as a result of those adjustments, ie. Jarrett.
Rex has had to completely overhaul his defensive philosophy, but it's a credit to him for final getting the adjustment right, benching Pryor if he was struggling, and finally getting a couple of breaks along the way
Fans don't want to hear it, but football is a game of momentum, that momentum exists during the game, and can exist game to game.
This isn't a case where Ryan and the coaching staff were trying to do one thing for the last 9 games, and all of a sudden today, they made changes. Rex has had to tinker, tweak, and make changes all year long. Each of his game plans have been game specific, but finally, he had a little stability with guys that he has healthy, and Rex was finally able to make it work.
Stable QB play obviously improves the offense, and we saw that the last two weeks since Vick has taken over.
Simply put, this is not a 1-8 team, we aren't a bottom of the league team, we have holes, and we all knew this going into this season with our young roster. Geno is still a player the team is developing, and they will undoubtedly put him back on the field because they need to find out if he at least will be part of the competition for the job in the future
Vick at the very least, is also auditioning for a starting job next year, and could very well be brought back to the Jets if Rex and MM remain with the team.
I know the SOJF and others are all opining for a complete overhaul with the CS and GM, but this Jets team will finish with 6-7 wins, because they just aren't that bad of a team, they were just on a real tough stretch of games where they had to play unbelievably good QB's and offenses, and solid to very good NFL teams.
There were only 2 really bad losses o the 8, against the Chargers, a good team, and the Bills a decent team.
It also should not be overlooked that the offense has improved since Harvin joined the team, that will only continue as he continues to become a big part of the offense.
It's not just Vick taking over at QB, I think Harvin would have helped Geno too, Geno hasn't been poor all year long, but has had a stretch of a couple of bad games.
