For me, the most interesting development of the night didn’t come on TV, but on Twitter, where Jets fans displayed a fractiousness that I have not seen since the worst days of last season, when snipes at Brian Schottenheimer were routine and the hot debate was whether Mark Sanchez should sit or not. At the center of this argument is one Mr. Joe McKnight, rookie running back out of USC. McKnight appears to have stepped into a torrent, becoming the scapegoat for all those who cringed at the unscrupulous dumping of the Jets’ other, less-than-core four: Thomas Jones, Jay Feely, Alan Faneca and Leon Washington. In fact, it was the enigmatic performance of the latter that caused the debate to erupt. Stuck in the doldrums of the fourth quarter, a captive Jets audience had little choice but to acknowledge our former player’s glorious night, in which he lead Seahawks onto the field before punching in an impressive and conspicuously healthy looking touchdown. The second guessing began immediately. @NYGreenMachine argued that the team failed to find a suitable replacement for Washington. @JfaulkNYJ countered by arguing that we have yet to see McKnight run substantial time behind the first team O-Line, and that he was primed for a good season. Erik from Jets Twit felt attacked for supporting Washington’s post-Jets career, and expressed remorse that some fans viewed this as “traitorous” behavior. There were those screaming “STFU about Leon!!” and others pulling for Chauncey Washington to usurp McKnight’s roster spot (before his fumble, of course) and general chaos all around. Inflammatory things were said by some, possibly including myself. So I called him “McKnightmare.” So what? I couldn’t resist the pun!

Tonight Gang Green travels to Charlotte for a slightly less high pressure matchup with the Carolina Panthers. The starters will only get a quarter of play in this one, which is fine, because we already know what they’re capable of. It is the backups who blew it last week, causing Rex to scold them for their lack of intensity and inability to perform like “bad mothas” (yeah, seriously). From top to bottom, on offense, defense and special teams, there are a whole lot of roster spots on the line for the second and third stringers, who have exposed us as one of the league’s shallowest teams.

More than anything, the world’s eyes – and Darrelle Revis’s -will be on the cornerbacks: Antonio Cromartie, Kyle Wilson, Dwight Lowery, Drew Coleman and Marquice Cole. Many are predicting that Revis will return to the Jets, but only after he’s seen enough evidence that the Jets corners can’t perform without him to back the team into a corner. If this is so, then last week’s game surely left him with some ammunition. While Cro and Wilson played decently, 31 did miss two easy picks, the kind that Revis never would. Lowery, Coleman and Cole, meanwhile, were remarkably terrible, and the Jets defense may be in for some serious trouble if it must rely on these names for the entirety of its nickle and dime packages. More play like that and the only thing Revis will be sweating is whether to show up before or after our bye week. You want to redeem yourself, Lowery? Go pick off Clausen two or three times. How difficult could that be, anyway?

What were some of our takeaways tonight? Mark Sanchez had an above-average night overall, but it was one marred by his very first pass, an ill-advised and obviously forced throw, trying to nail LaDainian before even giving him a chance to escape traffic. Watching the video again, it’s painfully clear where he plans on putting that ball from the moment the snap goes off. Easy pickings for new Giants safety Antrel Rolle, the Giants’ defensive standout of the evening. I hate to say it, but this was exactly the sort of idiot pass that we’d hoped Sanchez had learned to avoid. Best it come in August, then. I remain hopeful that Sanchez will win us more games than he will lose. He did pick things up from there, going 12 for 16 after the pick, for 119 yards and a touchdown (though his final series came mostly against 2s). In that time he lead some very long, typically trouble-free drives on the rebuilding Giants defense. The best thing I saw tonight from the passing game was its very scope. Not only does Holmes provide Sanchez with a new vertical option, but the backfield has become a serious aerial player with the subtraction of Thomas Jones, whose play style resembles stone-handed Shonn Greene’s, and the addition of LT, who proves that your hands are always the last thing to go. Credit Ron Jaworski’s interns with the stat of the day: last year Jets RBs caught only 28 passes, by far a league low. Are you starting to see now why the team so desired LT?

Shonn Greene was in playoff form in the first quarter, busting through tackles to pick up extra yards and first downs that he had no business acquiring. More than ever, I am now settled on selecting him in my fantasy draft. Tomlinson, meanwhile, proved that he’s still a special talent, though it should be a while before we get to put this insufferable gas tank metaphor to rest. McKnight, playing with the backups, looked dazed. He showed that he can get to the outsides easily enough, but dare we ask him to run through a tackle or two! He is in every way Shonn Greene’s precise opposite, and it’s going to be a long time until he’s in top NFL form, if ever.

Well, it’s finally here. Ever since last Christmas, when the Jets’ postseason fortunes suddenly did an about-face, there’s been a feeling that nearly everything this team has done has been building up to a Super Bowl appearance. In many ways, however, it’s also been building to this. To my knowledge, no other team in American sports history has played themselves up quite the way the Jets have. No other team has flaunted itself so pervasively, eschewing the NFL company line of “One game at a time” so thoroughly in favor of “Screw you, we’re awesome and you suck.” Not at least without having won the big one first. It’s a maneuver that has thrilled the fan base and brought previously unheard of amounts of attention to New York’s ‘second team,’ but it has not exactly endeared the franchise to the rest of the nation. In each of the other 30 NFL cities, Rex Ryan’s antics are received as though they are the tantrums of a particularly disruptive toddler; all sound and fury signifying nothing. To them, the Jets clearly suffer from delusions of greatness. We are a dolt with a Napoleon Complex, who, having walked into a biker bar, smashes a bottle of Jack Daniels unprovoked, so confident that we can take down the big men inside.

The Jets have a lot of proving to do, and it’s stuff we’re going to have to accomplish on ESPN, not HBO. But the vitality of the Hard Knocks experience can not be understated. We have a long essay to write this season, and this shit be our thesis statement. Let the hard knocks roll.

At this moment, there is a man in Mount Laurel, New Jersey who can’t remember what sunlight looks like. His eyes have become addled and opaque behind the flicker of his glasses. Should he turn to look away from his computer screen, he will see only the bluish afterimage of the practice field, now permanently burned into his vision. This man’s job is to scavenge through hundreds of hours of raw Jets training camp footage and assemble the most captivating moments into a one hour TV special. Consider the weight of that challenge. From every stretch to every shower, from drill to scrimmage, he and his 14 co-workers must pick apart over a week of big hits and even bigger talk, leaving untold amount of otherwise fascinating material abandoned in the cutting room. Perhaps the greatest drawback to Hard Knocks is not the the effect it could have on team focus and chemistry, but that it can only show us so much. I know many a Jets fan who would not object to settling in on the couch and watching the entire roll of film if they could. But, for now, we only get one hour.

Hard Knocks is here, and I am freaking pumped.