I've noticed Jets fans seem to have a different approach to watching a football game than Giants fans.

Last Sunday, I went to the Giants-Eagles game, and it was pretty clear to me that everybody expects to win. Fans were waiting for the Giants to make their comeback when they went down big in the first half. They did eventually come back but then they lost, of course. Giants fans were certainly pissed off, but it wasn't the end of the world. The fans around me told each other, "See you next season". This also being my first Giants game after attending several Jets games, I also expected every Philly fan to get the crap kicked out of them leaving the stadium. Again, no dice. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that winning a Super Bowl two years ago might have something to do with this positivity.

Flipping teams, I watched the J-E-T-S spell out c-o-l-l-a-p-s-e yesterday at my Jet fan friend Mickey's house. While Matt Ryan and the Falcons were driving in the 4th quarter, I watched as my friend's personality morphed from a normally positive guy into the world's biggest Debbie Downer.

A rough rundown on some of the things Mickey said. Keep in mind almost all of this was said while the game still looked in control for the Jets.

"We're going to lose."
"No playoffs this year."
"They do this every year."
"We're going to lose."
"Mark Sanchez needs to shave." (fair enough)

Mickey's not the kind of guy to say this stuff. The Jets did do this to him.

Another Jet fan friend's Facebook status (This is 100% cut & pasted):

I HATE THEJETS WITH SUCH AN UNBELIEVABLE PASSION THAT IT'S ALMOST SCARY!!! THISFRANCHISE IS THE BIGGEST DISGRACE IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONALSPORTS!!! IF THERE WAS SOME WAY FOR ME TO RELINQUISH MY JETS FANDOM IWOULD DO IT!! ANOTHER DISGUSTING SEASON DOWN THE TUBES!!! WHAT A WASTEOF LIFE IT IS TO WATCH THESE IDIOTS PLAY!!

Cheer up, miserable people.

Yes, the Jets never do anything, and yes, like the baseball team from Queens that rhymes with Jets, they've become the standard for late season collapses. But here are some reasons for hope, Jet fans.

1) The Jets are good.

When trying to make the playoffs, and ultimately win a Super Bowl, it's very helpful to have a good team. This is a good team. The offense is very good (relax, I'll get to Mark Sanchez in a second). Even without Leon Washington, the Jets' running game is the best in the NFL statistically. And when you have a good running game, you usually have a good offensive line, which the Jets do, led by D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Alan Faneca. They have one of the best one-two receiving combinations in the league (Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery), and hopefully Dustin Keller can live up to the hype eventually and not become the next Anthony Becht.

As everyone knows, the Jets have a very good defense. Maybe not nickname-worthy good, but aside from Tony Sparano's Miami Dolphins, nobody has really ripped apart the Jets' D this year. I wouldn't quite call them a shutdown D, they have yet to prove the ability to stop down opponents in key spots, but they will keep you in every game, and that's all you can ask. They have the league's best corner, a good group of linebackers led by David Harris, and a solid defensive line.

Special teams...well...uh, at least you can fix that quickly! Go draft some hot shot punter and kicker in the 4th and 5th rounds, sign some bitter undrafted guy from a small school ready to take out their fury on a kick returner, and draft a speedster with the ability to catch a kickoff. Of course it's not nearly that easy, but if you follow all those steps, the Jets will have a better special teams unit than the one messing things up right now, and at very least they won't be costing you a key game like yesterday's.

Finally, SoCal Mark. Mark Sanchez is still learning. Be patient. If he's playing like this in December 2010, call for his head. I'll join you. But until then, he's the best you got. Your team invested a fifth overall pick and $50 million on this guy, so they're going to stick with him. Might as well back the dude- he's got the talent.

Like I just said, I think Sanchez has the ability- don't forget that sweet 65-yard bomb to Braylon Edwards yesterday- but he's adjusting big time and it'll take him a little time to figure things out. He's never failed before, and this is his first time dealing with so much adversity, especially under such a big microscope (Peyton Manning didn't have 18 million people ripping his every move in Indy when he sucked his rookie year).

I think the Jets are headed in the right direction; they're a few breaks away from winning the AFC East. Remember, of the Jets' seven losses, they easily could've won five of those. They just need to execute better, and as yesterday showed, they can't execute worse than they already have.

2) Jet fans, you have the right approach to your fandom.

The Jets are amongst the world's biggest teases. They're like those flirty hot girls who will come onto you sometimes, saying things like "You're so cute!", laugh at every terrible joke in your arsenal (vice-verse too, of course), and talk about how you have a striking resemblance to Zac Efron, who she also happens to think is really hot. They'll even rub your thigh a little if you sit next to her and, in more long-term teases, send you text messages expressing how much they miss you every so often. But of course, when it comes down to getting any action, nothing ever happens because they know they're hot and they're just milking you for attention to feed their ego.

The Jets are the same, except for the ego feeding thing- it's hard to have much of an ego when you haven't been in a Super Bowl since the start of the Vietnam war (somebody tell Kerry Rhodes). The Jets cooed all their fans at the start of the year with a new, hotshot quarterback, and a sparkling new defense. They beat the Pats. Not even some fumbling from Sanchez could stop them week 3 against Tennessee. Praying that maybe things were different this year, like when you think "I'm gonna get this girl this time", Jet fans bit. Who could blame them? Things were looking great.

But it's not that they stink all of a sudden- they're flashing the ability every game- but they are just managing  to screw up in the most heart-breaking of ways (I know, I know....you know). You want to love them, you want to be with them....and like the girl, they're playing you like a fiddle.

So that leads me to conclude that the negativity I saw from my friends yesterday is not only justified; it's the right approach. The Jets have done this before, and dammit, you know they'll do it again. My friend Mickey was over the Jets pretty quickly yesterday, beating me in FIFA, MLB '09 and ping pong just hours after his favorite football team almost certainly missed out on the playoffs in the most soul-crushing of ways. He expected the loss; and he got what he expected, and that was it. Oh well, maybe next year.

On the other hand, I'm still not over my Broncos losing to Oakland yesterday. Like any fan whose favorite team is playing the Raiders, I went into yesterday's game expecting a blow out. Then I started wishing for at least a comfortable victory. Then I prayed to every religious sect the Broncos would stop the Raiders on that fateful final drive. And, well, things didn't quite swing my way. I was still trying to block JaMarcus Russell's stupid mohawk out of my head this morning.

So Jet fans, stay negative. Expect terrible things. Because when those terrible things happen, which they almost always will, you'll be better prepared (Yankee fans between 2001-2008, please learn). And when those good things actually do happen, oh how sweet it will be!

Sports are way more fun to watch if you expect bad things; if you expect good things every time, the good things won't be that great and the bad things will be awful. It's probably not good to apply this to anything else in life, but with sports, which act as almost everybody's escape from mainstream life, why not? I think Jet fans, after years of torturous mediocrity, get this better than most fanbases. Stay negative, Jet Nation!