E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

Hello? Can anyone hear me?

I guess we've been having some technical problems with the blog, which keeps insisting that it is Christmas night and the Jets have yet to play the Dolphins. My computer guys tell me that it has to do with servers and blah blah blah. All I know is it's acting wonky, and I apologize. I was actually enjoying the postings you all were making, tearing me a new one on my analysis of the Dolphins game. Some of them were pretty creative and made strong points. One very nearly convinced me that I am a fraud and I should quit. Anyway, hopefully the system gets back on its cyber-feet sooner rather than later. On behalf of the entire Triibune Co., we're sorry.

No apology from Zach Thomas, but he did get him with a $7,500 fine for his helmet-to-helmet crunch on Laveranues Coles. Players usually get five grand for a first offense or a mild infraction, and this was neither, so the NFL upped the dollar amount. I hope learning of the sentence helped Coles enjoy his birthday a little more. He turned 29 today.

Coles is playing, by the way. Now, whether he plays the entire game if the Jets are up 10-0 in the first quarter remains to be seen. But I think the Jets want/need him on the field.

Not so for Andre Dyson, who still looks pretty gimpy. He was running today during practice in some drills by himself, but I don't think he'll be available for Sunday. Nor will the Jets need him. Mangini did make an interesting statement about Dyson this week, talking about his injury and noting that players need to recognize the difference between pain and injury. Now that's a pretty well-used cliche in sports, but it's the first time Mangini used it this season. I wonder if he thinks Dyson gets hurt too often and isn't injured nearly as often as he thinks he is. Probably just some over-analysis of Mangini's word choices, but it did jump out at me when he said it.

No one -- NO ONE -- even mentioned that today could conceivably be the final practice of the season for the Jets. The Jets are playing that whole we're not over-confident act to perfection, even spouting the Raiders' defensive stats to within a tenth of a yard. But there's no way the Jets will lose this game. The fact that the Raiders returned all of those tickets to the Jets -- over 1,000 I was told -- tells me that not even the players wives, families and agents want to make the trip to NY to see the final nail in a 2-14 coffin. Randy Moss was downgraded from questionable to doubtful for the game today. Wanna bet he's not even on the plane when it lands at LGA on Saturday afternoon?

The writers are not bound by Mangini's don't-look-ahead mantra. Yesterday we spent the morning making hotel reservations for next weekend in the three cities the Jets could wind up playing their first round playoff game in: Indy, Providence and Baltimore. The odds are that the Jets will be facing the Colts -- which is probably the best match-up for them anyway. Continuing my hypothetical look-ahead, they could then face O.C. Brian Schottenheimer's dad in San Diego in the second round. Brian had said earlier this year that he was disappointed not to be facing Marty this year, and that only his mom would be conflicted by a Schotty Showdown. Hope mom's fears come to fruition ... and not just because it means a trip to S.D. in January for me!!!