CINCINNATI —Jets coach Rex Ryan was cornered, and he knew it. So first he tried humor.
“First off, I will not be answering any questions on the secondary,” he said, and cue the laughter. “Tell ya, Dalton looked though, like a $100 million quarterback today.” More laughter.
Except this was no laughing matter, the play of cornerbacks no longer named Revis and Cromartie, but Antonio Allen, Kyle Wilson, Ellis Lankster and Darrin Walls instead, and Ryan knew it.
So he tried fire and defiance and raging machismo next.
Ryan has a crisis in his secondary, and he believes he can beat Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers anyway.
“Doesn’t matter what I evaluate it, I know you guys are going to write about it and all you want,” he said after the Jets’ ugly 25-17 preseason win. “Obviously we got some work to do. I don’t know how you evaluate Calvin Pryor, you give him a plus? I don’t know, he forced like two fumbles , knocked some dudes out [right]. Guess we were right in that one.
“We’ll be right on our corners, too.”
Someone wanted to know why he was so fired up about the secondary.
“I’m fired up because I know we’re a lot better than what we’re given credit for,” Ryan said.
He absolved Kyle Wilson for being left naked on Mohamed Sanu’s 43-yard touchdown catch.
“I know you guys love Kyle, you’ll be all over him, but we blew a coverage,” Ryan said.
Allen, who has been a desperation cornerback for six days now, surrendered a 35-yard sideline catch to A.J. Green.
“You’ve already faced the best the AFC has, and it’s not even close,” Ryan said. “Everything from here on out will be downhill.”
Allen: “I just looked back too soon.”
What, Rex worry?
“I’ll just rely on what I know, which is about 20-something years of experience gives me plenty of confidence,” he said.
Uh, the regular season is three weeks away.
“We’ll make it work,” Ryan said. “We got a lot of good football players, so we’ll make it work one way or the other,” Ryan said.
It needs to be the other, from help at the corner store. Apparently everyone but Ryan recognizes there is disaster on the horizon if you are reduced to waiting anxiously for Dee Milliner to return as the savior (no disrespect intended to Dimitri Patterson).
“I don’t think Willie Brown’s out there,” Ryan said jokingly. “Maybe he is, but he’s like 60 years old.”
The misleading final was a winning ugly showcase that saw the Jets lose their composure (flagged for four personal fouls, two unnecessary roughness, one unsportsmanlike conduct) in the midst of an early Jungle beatdown with a pair of first-half skirmishes involving Willie Colon and Breno Giacomini in the first one and Stephen Hill in the nightcap.
Fight night for Rex’s Jets.
Fright night for Jets fans.
“We’re not here to take anything from anybody, and if a teammate’s at risk, then we’re not going to take that,” Ryan growled.
Better he should discipline them with pushups.
Andy Montana — er, Dalton — was 8-for-8 for 144 yards and the touchdown before Marvin Lewis, already up 17-3, summoned his backups on both sides of the ball for a majority of the second quarter and before Andy Montana — er, Dalton — began thinking he was Montana with his 158.3 passer rating.
Ryan kept Geno Smith (10-for-13, 98 yards, one interceptions, four carries, 20 yards rushing and one touchdown) and his first-team defense in the game through the first half.
And except for a pick thrown wide of David Nelson, it was the fight of his second-year quarterback that shined brighter than the blatant personal fouls, undisciplined choppiness that defined too much of the Jets night.
“I was a bit too early with the throw,” Smith said.
Smith threw mostly darts, short and intermediate, and hurt the Bengals’ backups on several occasions with his legs, scrambling out of trouble, scoring on a 1-yard TD run. He showed resourcefulness by underhanding the ball to Bilal Powell with a defender clinging to his feet about to sack him.
- Michael Vick, working with and against backups, dinked a 17-yard TD pass to Clyde Gates for the go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter.
- Chris Johnson (10-63) and Bilal Powell (4-41) ran hard.
- The rookie Pryor recovered a fumble off a Demario Davis sack and dislodged receiver Cobi Hamilton of a completion and knocked RB Rex Burkhead out of the game (knee) with a hard tackle. No one needs reminding that Idzik drafted Pryor instead of impressive Bengals cornerback Darqueze Dennard, who was forced out after the first half with a hip injury.
Bring on Eli Manning and his Jest Coast offense. Maybe Ryan’s Jets can defend the Snoopy Bowl.