JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jets defense has lived both extremes the past two weeks.
A week after giving up a season-high 475 yards to the Patriots, they held the Cardinals to a season-low 56 yards.
“[The Cardinals game was] just one of those perfect storms, but in a good way,” defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “That’s obviously a rare thing. But a lot of credit, to me, as rough as the circumstances were on the other side of the ball, I think we found a way to pull together for the last eight and a half minutes. That was outstanding for us to sit and watch half of the fourth quarter go by and never have to step foot back on the field.”
The defense shot up in the NFL rankings from 19th to 10th with their shutdown performance against Arizona and inept rookie quarterback Ryan Lindley.
It has not been an easy season for the Jets’ defense, which is used to dominating. The players were encouraged by being dominant again.
The Jets held the Cardinals to 0-for-15 on third downs. It was the first time since the merger in 1970 an NFL team was held without a third-down conversion on 15 attempts or more.
“It was so needed,” defensive lineman Mike DeVito said. “We really needed that. That’s the defense that we’ve seen all [of] training camp [and] that we’ve seen off and on all season. It’s the defense that we know we have on this team. It was great to see it manifest itself on Sunday to the full extent and to play that way across the board was just awesome. … We needed that going into this last quarter of the season.”
* In a move that came as little surprise, tight end Dustin Keller (ankle) and defensive tackle Damon Harrison (ankle) were downgraded from doubtful to out for today’s game and did not make the trip.
* General manager Mike Tannenbaum has come under fire this year for the Jets’ struggles, but he does have an argument about his overall resume. The Jets have won 55 games since Tannenbaum became GM in 2006. A win today would tie the most successful six-year run in team history. The Jets won 56 games from 1998-2003 under Bill Parcells and Terry Bradway.