MIAMI — When the Jets stare across at the Dolphins today, they better view them as sharks. And they better show up as Great Whites themselves. They better bring a sink-or-swim mentality to Sun Life Stadium today, and they better not sink.
The season isn’t over if the Jets blow this one — even to a rookie head coach (Joe Philbin) and a rookie quarterback (Ryan Tannehill). But with the powerhouse 49ers and Texans lurking ominously
on the horizon, the Jets could find their season in jeopardy in the blink of an eye, with the merciless buzzards perched atop the roofs of the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center and MetLife Stadium, desperate to pick apart any and all carcasses.
The Jets better pretend they have to stop Dan Marino. They better look at Brian Hartline and Davone Bess and see Mark Duper and Mark Clayton. When Mark Sanchez drops back to pass, he better not turn Karlos Dansby into A.J. Duhe. Otherwise, the Jets will be sleeping with the fishes.
This is their Fry Noon.
When they look in the mirror come 4 o’clock, what will they see staring back at them, the face of a 2-1 contender, or 1-2 pretender?
If the Jets think it will be hot today under the broiling Florida sun, it will feel like a day at the beach compared with the hell that would await them should these prove to be the first steps on a Bataan death march to oblivion.
Nothing short of victory is acceptable. Defeat would be inexcusable. If truth be told, the Jets should slap around the Dolphins much like the Giants toyed with the Panthers.
Think about the juicy subplots here:
• Tony Sparano returns with the man who whacked him, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, in the house. Revenge game for Sparano.
• Mark Sanchez returns to the place where he lost control of his huddle in full view of everyone. Santonio Holmes returns to the place where he lost control of himself and quit on his team. Miami Vice for them last December, Miami Nice now. Maybe.
• Coach Rex Ryan returns to a place where it is virtually a given that some Dolphins fan will try to get his goat and turn him into a bird-flipping fool.
• Yeremiah Bell returns to the place where he toiled for nine seasons before the Dolphins gave up on him. For whom the revenge tolls as well.
• Tim Tebow returns to the state where he delivered one powerful football sermon after another at the University of Florida and made true believers out of so many.
And indeed, the Dolphins are bracing for Tebow and the Wildcat. Which has been little more than the Timmaculate Deception, designed to drive defensive coordinators batty.
This is the day the Timmaculate Deception takes flight and lands on a football tarmac, and maybe the God-fearing pilot even tosses his first pass of the season.
It makes too much sense for today not to be the day.
The Wildcat was the rage of South Beach when Sparano first sprung it on an unsuspecting NFL.
And if the Jets take care of business, they will be playing with a lead, meaning conditions will be favorable for the Timmaculate Deception.
Also, the Jets can sell it by reminding us that Sanchez took a pounding from the Steelers, and the less he exposes his cranky back to Cameron Wake the better.
But there’s a Catch 15: If Darren McFadden could manage just
22 rushing yards against the Fins, what are the chances of Tebow having himself a Jim Thorpe day?
With cornerback Vontae Davis shipped off to Indianapolis, Sanchez better be at the stage of his development where he can torch that secondary, even with his pedestrian weaponry.
He needs to show the aberration was not Week 1 against the Bills, but Week 2 against the Steelers, and he needs to show it today — to his coaches, to his fans, to himself.
Ryan? It’s time for him to field that dominant defense he keeps promising will intimidate young Tannehill and gang-tackle Reggie Bush whenever he touches the ball.
It’s Fry Noon.
steve.serby@nypost.com