FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Rex Ryan knew something was wrong with his team and he needed to fix it — fast.
Confidence was replaced by concern just a few weeks into the New York Jets' season, and there was a sense that things were about to spiral out of control. It was a rarity for Ryan, whose bravado and say-anything attitude have always been reflected by his players on the field.
A three-game road losing streak changed all that.
"I think you felt desperation," Ryan said, "like, 'God, we need to win.'"
Players were sniping at each other in the locker room, and fans and media were bashing them for being more talk than substance. Ryan's defense, his pride and joy, was far from dominant, and Mark Sanchez and the offense were inconsistent and, at times, downright ineffective.
Were they a running team, the "Ground-and-Pound" offense that helped push them to the AFC championship game the last two seasons? Or were they suddenly "Air Jets," with Sanchez throwing more than he has in the past while trying to get all of his receivers — Santonio Holmes, Plaxico Burress and the since-traded Derrick Mason — in the mix?
It was time, Ryan insisted, to finally get the ground game off the ground.
"I just thought that we weren't being ourselves," Ryan said. "I thought, as much as we wanted to expand our weapons and we felt good about our receiving corps — maybe three wides was our base offense — I just don't think that was the best thing for our football team."
So, he met with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and they may have saved the Jets' season with that chat.
"I think he felt the same way and we just wanted to get back to really playing New York Jets style of football," Ryan said. "There's nothing wrong with the way we play offense. It's just, let's get back to doing it. I think maybe I got caught up in maybe being enamored with the type of personnel we had, but at the end of the day, we never waited until the season went by, we went back to being who we were."
That's the smash-mouth, run-first football team that the Jets (4-3) were in two straight victories before heading into their bye-week break.
"We're back on track, I think," Sanchez said. "I think the running game is doing a great job. It takes a lot of pressure off Schotty, it takes a lot of pressure off the wideouts and the pass protection."
And, it quiets the critics for at least a few weeks. That lengthy list included Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, who questioned the way Ryan was dealing with his players, and criticized the offense and some of the moves — and non-moves — by general manager Mike Tannenbaum in the offseason.
"He doesn't know our team," Ryan snapped back, showing some of the fire some believed was missing early in the season from the Jets coach. "He's on the outside."
Winning also pushes the bubbling locker room rifts aside. There was Mason, who said after the team's loss at Baltimore that there were "cracks" that needed to be fixed. He was gone soon after the criticisms, although the team insisted it was due to a lack of production. There was also Holmes twice getting on the offensive line for not giving Sanchez enough time to throw deep passes, and right guard Brandon Moore finally saying he'd had enough and ripping Holmes' role as a team captain.
"The Jets need to be in a hot situation," Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin said on NFL Network, "and then they start playing Jet football."
He might be right. After all, this is a team that has thrived in the face of adversity during Ryan's first two years, whether it has been as road underdogs through the playoffs or dealing with off-field issues that appear to be distractions.
"We know the heart that this team has," Ryan said. "That's what we rely on. Trust me, I try to read everything and I try to see everything that I can because it drives me, it drives our football team. I love when there is a challenge out there to us. I think this team responds because they know it's like, 'Hey, we believe in each other,' regardless of whether people say they stopped believing."
But, the Jets are far from a sure-thing playoff contender right now, and they know it. After the bye week, they have a game at Buffalo, play New England at home, a rare Thursday night game at Denver, followed by a home game against the Bills. It will be after that stretch when the Jets will be able to truly assess if they have what it takes to get to the postseason.
"I think we go into the bye week with a lot of confidence," safety Jim Leonhard said. "Obviously, we wanted to get a couple of wins going in and we did that, but it's more the way we're playing, the style of football that's been successful for us."
After a sluggish start, Shonn Greene has run for 269 yards in his last three games, Sanchez has thrown six touchdown passes with only one interception during that span, and the much-maligned offensive line, with All-Pro center Nick Mangold back from a bad ankle sprain, is opening holes for the running game and protecting the quarterback a lot better.
"Like it always is, it's a 'Ground-and-Pound' type of offense, what we had talked about, an all-weather offense," Ryan said.
Led by their shutdown cornerback Darrelle Revis, who is off to another All-Pro-caliber season, the defense has shown signs in recent games of being the force Ryan demands it be. The Jets are putting decent pressure on the quarterback and are among the league leaders in sacks. If New York can find a way to hold the edge and limit opponents' running games, then a postseason return certainly isn't out of the question.
"We'll make our run," Ryan insisted. "We're 4-3. We're behind where I thought we'd be, but we still have a lot of football in front of us and we're playing teams that we have to beat, they're still in front of us. So, I think that's a good combination."
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment