COVERING IT UP: Jets coach Rex Ryan (right) has tried to hide from the ugly truth that his defense (above) has been nowhere near the elite unit it had been in previous years, ranking 26th in points allowed this season. (
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Rex Ryan does not do concession speeches.
The Jets coach refuses to admit his defense is bound to finish outside of the top five in the NFL for the first time during his tenure. The unit is currently ranked 19th with five games left, allowing an average of 354.1 yards a game.
Before the season, Ryan vowed the Jets would be a top-five defensive team again, regardless of whom they lined up. He also called himself the “best defensive coach” in the NFL.
But the defense has been porous this season. Ryan was asked if he is willing to concede the defense is not going to make the top five this year.
“It certainly looks that way right now,” Ryan said. “I’m not willing to concede anything, though. Maybe we can have some of those great games. I’m not willing to concede it yet because — you know what? — I don’t know any different. We’ve got five games left. They’d better be some doozies on defense to get there.”
The good news for Ryan’s defense is it faces some of the worst offenses in football over the final month. The Cardinals, whom the Jets play Sunday, are 31st in the NFL. Even with a strong performance down the stretch, though, the Jets have been a shell of the defense that fans got used to seeing in Ryan’s first three years.
The defense is 26th in points allowed (26.4 per game), 30th against the run (142.8 yards per game), 30th in sacks (17) and 31st in third-down efficiency (45.8). All of it adds up to an ugly picture for a unit that in the preseason was expected to be dominant and carry the offense along as it adjusted to new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano.
During the preseason, Ryan boasted this defense would be great, no matter whom he had healthy.
“Am I confident in our defense? Absolutely, granted I said top five, that’s a given,” Ryan said on Aug. 15. “I don’t care who’s out there, [even if defensive coordinator] Mike Pettine [is playing] at safety. That might be a stretch, but [with] DT [Coach Dennis Thurman playing] maybe. That’s how confident we are. We know we have a great system and a great group of players and coaches. We always expect to be right there with everybody.”
For the Jets to make the top five, they would need a historic run. The Seahawks are currently fifth with 309 yards a game. For the Jets to get to that spot they would have to give up around 210 yards a game the rest of the way.
Interestingly, the Jets passing defense is ranked seventh in the league despite the loss of cornerback Darrelle Revis to a season-ending torn ACL in Week 3.
The most glaring deficiency on the defense has been its lack of a pass rush. With 17 sacks, the Jets are getting little to no pressure on the quarterback. They entered the season banking on linebacker Aaron Maybin giving them the pass rusher they’ve never had. Maybin ended up with no sacks before the team cut him earlier this month.
“The sack number is alarming,” Ryan said. “We’ve only had 17 sacks so obviously that’s not anywhere close to where we want to be.”
The defense played better against the Seahawks and Rams but then allowed 475 yards last week to the Patriots in a 49-19 loss. The defense did not give up all those points, but did allow two long touchdown passes that were due to communication mistakes.
“A lot of the things we did in that game were self-inflicted,” safety Yeremiah Bell said. “Communication things that we haven’t had problems with all year. We miscommunicate on a couple and they hurt us big. It’s one of those games where you don’t want to play like that. You don’t want to chalk it up completely. What they did was on us. I’ll give them credit and say they made plays but we could have stopped a lot of it.”