They became the butt of jokes, all over the country and the league that humiliating Thanksgiving night at MetLife Stadium. And Rex Ryan and the Jets have had to wait 295 days to get a chance to do something about it, to do something about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Finally, that day, this night, is here.
You want to silence the naysayers? You want to turn the AFC on its head? You want to announce on the prime time-stage the circus has left town, replaced by a mean green football operation? You want to shock the world?
You go win this game.
Many of the faces have changed since Patriots 49, Jets 19, since the Patriots scored three touchdowns in 52 seconds in a 35-point second quarter, since the infamous buttfumble, since fans evacuated by halftime as if a hurricane was about to make landfall in East Rutherford.
Ryan still is here. So is less than half of the Jets team that was torn apart in the offseason by new general manager John Idzik.
The Jets can say they don’t remember all they want. They remember.
“You can’t forget it. I don’t think nobody’s going to forget until we beat ’em this year,” reserve cornerback Ellis Lankster said. “That’s real motivation. We ain’t really brought it up, but everybody still knows what they did to us.”
Lankster then smiled and said, “If Rex hates ’em, we hate ’em.
“Rex really wants this game, so we’re going to make sure he gets it.
“Rex wants his revenge, so we’re gong to make sure he gets it, so Rex can smile at the end of the day.”
Rex was smiling as broadly as he has ever smiled in New York when he upset the Patriots 28-21 at Gillette Stadium on his way to the 2010 AFC Championship Game. The oddsmakers, who have established the Patriots as 12-point favorites over the Geno Smith Jets, apparently would consider this an even bigger upset.
Jay Kornegay, vice president of race and sports operations at the LVH Superbook, was asked to explain how Vegas arrived at this number, considering Brady will be without Danny Amendola, Shane Vereen and Rob Gronkowski.
“[The Jets] don’t have that much firepower,” Kornegay told The Post. “We’re talking about one of the top teams in the league and one of the worst teams in the league. Not to mention, just based on the first week’s betting patterns, no one supported the Jets, and that was at home against the Bucs. Even the wiseguys didn’t bet them at all.
“We know that the Patriots aren’t at full strength. If they were, it would probably be more like 15. They’re still head and shoulders above the Jets. We expect them to still be pretty efficient. You don’t really expect a lot of money on the Jets.”
Rookie QB versus Brady and Belichick.
“The sharpies might be waiting to see how high it goes before they might take a shot at the Jets,” Kornegay said. “I expect it to go back up to 12 ¹/₂ and maybe 13. There’s always a number the so-called sharps see value. I’m not quite sure what it is.”
Even with sharpie Marty Mornhinweg playing offensive puppeteer for the Jets, the rookie quarterback will be at a grave disadvantage against Belichick, especially without a running game he can rely on, and without Jeremy Kerley, and with Santonio Holmes a shell of his old self. You have no chance to beat Brady at home if you turn the ball over and give him a short field. Ryan’s challenge is making Brady sweat in the pocket with an opportunistic defense that either gives Smith a short field or scores itself.
“If you move Tom Brady off his spot, you should have a successful game against him,” Lankster said.
Easier said than done.
“We’re just going to play Jets football,” Lankster said. “Jets football is Rex Ryan defense, and you already know what Rex Ryan defense is all about, and we ain’t going to change it.”
Ryan will need Mo Wilkerson to be in full Beast Mode for his defense to keep his rookie quarterback close. Unlike Thanksgiving night.
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t even remember that game right now,” Wilkerson said.
He remembers. All of them who were part of that night do.