NFL

It’s showdown against last year’s Sacrificial Ram

ST. LOUIS — The Jets sang his praises until it was time to find a scapegoat, then they couldn’t wait to show him the door and change the locks at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center.

Someone had to take the fall for 8-8, for quarterback Mark Sanchez regressing, for receiver Santonio Holmes quitting in Miami, for no Super Bowl championships since Jan. 12, 1969.

Today they come face to face with the Sacrificial Ram.

Today, Brian Schottenheimer tries to show the men who kicked him to the curb they made a fatal mistake, tries to show them the door to the 2012 season in the Show Me State of all places, tries to feel the exhilaration his replacement Tony Sparano felt when he beat the team that fired him in Miami.

The Rams’ offensive coordinator takes his Schott with Sam Bradford throwing to Danny Amendola, with Steven Jackson running, at the end of a week in which he willingly provided to his current team a helluva lot more than name, rank and serial number of the players he trained — namely a detailed look inside the minds of the men he worked alongside for four years, and the tendencies and idiosyncrasies of the quarterback he nurtured from the day the blockbuster trade to make him a Jet was made.

Let’s see if Rex Ryan, self-proclaimed best defensive coach in football, and Mike Pettine, his trusted aide, can win this cat and mouse game.

Let’s see if Sparano can devise a game plan that isn’t offensive.

Let’s see if Sanchez and Sparano can be better than Bradford and Schottenheimer.

Let’s see if the four of them together can keep Schottenheimer from getting the last laugh on a critical day when the Jets no longer can afford to be laughingstocks.

“Any time you play against people you know, you want to win,” Sanchez said.

Last Schott for the Jets.

“This game right here is pretty much our season on the line right here,” Brandon Moore said.

The Jets have been so baaaaaad lately you can forgive New York for depicting this one as Rams vs. Lambs.

This would be a good time for Ryan and Sanchez to stop the bleating.

This will be the quarterback’s 63rd start. His four road playoff victories seem like an eternity ago.

If Sanchez wants to keep his dream job, he better start showing he deserves to keep it, and he better start showing it now.

And a boatload of his teammates, none of whom get to be anonymous once they run out alongside Tim Tebow today, better wake up and start fighting for their jobs too.

And the head coach, 11-14 lately, better not lose a game to an eminently beatable team at a fragile time when he needs to lead too many cowardly horses to water and make them drink.

Because if owner Woody Johnson wants to, he can view this Last Schott as a referendum on the consensus to trade Schottenheimer for Sparano.

“Block out all the other distractions, and concentrate on what’s the most important thing at hand, and that’s this game on Sunday,” Ryan told his team Friday.

It’s not Schotty’s fault Sanchez is completing 52 percent of his passes.

“Especially in some of those playoff games, he was kind of like a mind reader,” Sanchez said.

It’s not Schotty’s fault Ryan and Sparano haven’t figured out a way for Tebow to be any kind of weapon.

“I think [Sparano] attacks it as much as anybody I’ve been around, and he wants to get better, there’s that burning desire,” Ryan said.

It’s not Schotty’s fault Ryan doesn’t have the defense he promised Jets Nation.

It’s not Schotty’s fault Shonn Greene isn’t the feared spearhead of Ryan’s ground and pound.

It’s not Schotty’s fault there isn’t a single playmaker around Sanchez who can scare a single defensive coordinator.

It’s not Schotty’s fault the Jets are 3-6 and on the brink of extinction.

“Went into a lot of battles with him when our backs were against the wall, and came out on top on most of them,” Moore said.

Their backs are against the wall again now.

Last Schott.

steve.serby@nypost.com