Sports

KINGS OF THE ROAD ; JETS HAVE NO FEAR OF ‘BLACK HOLE’

Watch out, Raiders.

The Jets are Road Warriors with an ornery us-against-the-universe attitude and the results to back it up.

If you think they’re fretting a second trip to Oakland to play the vaunted Darth Vader Raiders in less than a week when they return to the West Coast for Saturday’s AFC wild-card game, you’re very wrong.

The Jets are road revelers, winners at Network Associates Coliseum only three days ago and winners of a franchise-high seven regular-season road games against only one loss this season.

Only the Rams had a better road record this season at 8-0. No team in the AFC was better than the Jets on the road.

And that has this team’s confidence suddenly buoyed only a week after going into the “Black Hole” wide-eyed and desperate to keep its season alive.

Here’s what makes the Jets a much more formidable team than the one that escaped Oakland with a 24-22 win Sunday: They now know they can win there.

“We’re going in there with a lot more confidence than we had before last game, because we hadn’t won there,” Jets’ CB Ray Mickens said yesterday. “Now we know we can win there. We’ll be ready. We believe we can win again there. A 7-1 record on the road means we’re doing something right.”

Jets’ RG Randy Thomas credited the “no one but us” factor.

“We stick together on the road,” Thomas said. “We’ve got ourselves and no one else.”

Then Thomas added, “We’ve got four more to go.”

Four more wins on the road and the Jets are Super Bowl XXXVI champions.

Not a single No. 6 seed in NFL playoff history has advanced to the Super Bowl or even the conference championship game. To that, the Jets say, “So what?”

“I look at that as a stat and that’s why they keep records, because they were made to be broken,” Mickens said.

Fittingly, the Jets got their first win of the season – and of Edwards’ head coaching career – on the road against the Patriots Sept. 23. They won handily at Buffalo, beat up on the physical Saints and then whipped the Dolphins 24-0 in Miami.

Their only road loss of the season came in Pittsburgh against the 13-3 Steelers, losers of only one game at home.

They saved their season with a 29-28 comeback win over the Colts in Indianapolis and, of course, clinched the playoff berth Sunday in Oakland.

“We’re not afraid to go on the road now,” Edwards said. “We’re like the Ringling Brothers Circus. We stay in town and leave and go someplace else.”

When asked why he thought his team is looser and better on the road, one thing Edwards said cryptically was “some reasons I won’t say.”

Those reasons, according to some players, include getting away from reading the local papers and allowing negativity to seep into their psyches.

“Guys play a lot looser on the road, because there’s more pressure at home,” Jets’ FS Damien Robinson said. “It’s tough when you wake up in the morning and read about how the Jets are going to lose it again.”

Jets’ DT Steve Martin, one of the most affable players in the locker room, even spoke about the pressures of handling the New York media.

“You tear us apart,” Martin said. “You rip us apart. We can’t read the papers anymore; we’ve got to throw all that stuff away, because you guys [reporters] tear us apart when we lose. And then when we win, it’s like, ‘Oh, well, you know, the sun shines on the dog’s butt every now and then.’ “

Ah, but the cozy road awaits for Martin and the Jets Saturday.

“We’ve played like some bad suckers on the road,” Martin said. “I don’t know what it is. It’s one of those things where if it’s working, don’t question, don’t try to change it, let it happen.

“Don’t dig up doubt where you’ve already planted faith.”