Have dreams, Jets fans? Watch your team crush them

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Just as Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan lined up under center and tossed what would be the game-winning touchdown pass, a perfectly thrown snowball launched from the stadium's upper deck looked like it barely missed him.

After Ryan threw the 6-yard score to tight end Tony Gonzalez, winning the game 10-7 and crushing the Jets' soul like a tin can, more snowballs fell onto and around the Giants Stadium field. Some were thrown at Falcons players, others at the Jets, all were tossed with keen accuracy from dozens of feet away, hitting their targets with greater precision than a Mark Sanchez pass to his wide receivers.

If there was such a thing as a snowy hell -- a putrid, funky, brutal hell -- this was it for the Jets. In one minute, the playoffs were within their grasp, and in the next, their hearts get Medusa-d by destiny and Jay Cutler-d by Sanchez.

In a game that featured 13 punts, three missed field goal tries by the Jets and the kind of offensive ugliness usually reserved for a debate on health care, the contest basically started with a Sanchez interception and, quite karma-like, ended with one.

So the Jets' playoff hopes are all but done. They're not mathematically cooked but are basically barbecued. They're dead. Stick a snow-covered fork in 'em.

Goodnight, sweet Jets.

"It's really sad for us right now," said Jets corner Darrelle Revis.

Isn't it always sad for the Jets?

Even coach Rex Ryan acknowledged the obvious. Ryan was speaking specifically of his defense, but he might as well have been talking about the entire team.

"This group right here is going to win us the Super Bowl," Ryan said, "it ain't going to be this year."

They had this game, they had this game, they had this game.

It's indeed an annual occurrence for the Jets to give their fans hope and then, like Lucy to Charlie Brown, snatch that hope away at the last minute. But even for the Jets this was pretty anguished, lodged somewhere in pleasantness between standing in a snow drift naked and watching Dude, Where's My Car?

The Jets entered the game in a four-way tie for the second wild-card spot and needed a number of things to break their way. Well, some of those things did. The Jaguars lost and then the Dolphins fell. If the Jets had beaten Atlanta they would still be alive.

Instead the Jets are where they often seem to be, which is wondering why fate always beats them senseless.

Many will blame the loss on Sanchez and he was certainly bad at times. Sanchez had not one but two bulky braces securing his knees, looking like he was built by Cyberdyne. But it seemed like he needed eyeglasses as much as knee support.

Snow and angry Jets fans? Not a pleasant combination. (AP)

On the Jets' second play of the game he failed to recognize the Falcons were utilizing a safety over the top and he tossed the football right into the arms of Thomas DeCoud. It was as poor a throw and recognition as you'll see this season. He rebounded with a 65-yard touchdown pass to Braylon Edwards, the only score of the contest for New York.

So blame Sanchez, but this game mostly came down to a special teams dumpster fire.

New York blew three field goal tries: A miss by kicker Jay Feely, a botched snap and a blocked kick. Sanchez' three picks certainly hurt but if the Jets just make two of those kicks they still win.

"I dropped the first one," said backup quarterback Kellen Clemens, who is also the holder on field goal tries. "It can't happen. It's a chip shot field goal and Jay is of course going to make it. It doesn't matter what the conditions are. You have to get the ball down."

But these are the Jets we're talking about. The ball doesn't get down. It does exactly what it did -- bounce and skip into oblivion.

After the final Sanchez interception the booing and snowballs came. Jets fans seemed more ornery than usual (which is saying something) because they knew what just happened. The Jets were handed a heaping dose of fail.

Yet again.