By Tom Rock
Just got off our conference call with Chad Johnson (who was running about cinco ot ocho minutes late) and Marvin Lewis. Johnson was entertaining, but said he wouldn’t be pulling any post-TD extravaganzas until his team is at least back to .500. 
Lewis, who was a defensive coach in Baltimore when Mangini was an offensive assistant there, told us to ask Eric about “the watch.” He wouldn’t give any further details. Hmm.
Matt Chatham practiced with the team today. In fact, he had about six weeks of frustration come out on the first contact of the workout when he went against James Pociask in one-on-one tackling drills. The drills are supposed to be “thud” but Chatham spun and flung Pociask to the ground.
Don’t go thinking that Chatham’s hit on the fourth-string tight end will be a difference-maker though. A few reps later he missed a tackle on Sean Ryan. Then he put a hands-free hit on Brett Ratliff.
Pennington spoke today. The big point he made was that the time for talking is over. Now the Jets need to win.
D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Jerry Mackey were honorary captains for Freeport on Friday night in their game against Farmingdale. According to people I spoke with they even wore their old Red Devil varsity jackets. Didn’t help, though, as Freeport lost. Ferguson said that’s OK because there is always a second meeting with these teams and he said the Red Devils will get their win in the playoffs. He also joked that he and Mackey tried to sneak onto the field in uniform to help out the high schoolers, but somebody ratted them out.