Maybe the football gods owed the Jets after that brutal loss Thursday night in Denver because over the weekend things started to go right even without them doing anything.
While the Jets rested, the rest of the NFL gave them some help. In a crowded AFC playoff picture, the Bills, Titans and Chargers lost, bringing the Jets’ chances from bleak on Friday morning to much better yesterday morning.
“It seems like every week somebody gets beat and helps us,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “It helps keep us close. We’ve got enough issues that we’ve got to take care of ourselves. We’ve got to get back to winning games and playing our brand of football. You kind of feel like at the end of the day if you do that, it’s either going to take care of itself or not.”
The Jets sat in ninth place in the AFC before last night’s Patriots-Chiefs game. They are one game behind the Bengals for the final wild-card spot, tied with the Broncos, Titans and Bills. The Jets have some tiebreaker issues, having lost five games in the conference already, but their schedule softens now and they returned to work yesterday confident they can make a run to the playoffs.
“We can, and this league, I think, will show you any time you think something’s a certainty or whatever, it really isn’t,” coach Rex Ryan said. “I don’t know how many wins we have to get or whatever, but certainly, we’re right there lumped in with a bunch of teams, fighting for playoff spots. Absolutely, we can make a run.”
Ryan said the Jets are built to play their best at the end of the season. Two years ago, the Jets were 4-6 through 10 games and won five of their last six to squeak into the playoffs. Last season, they stumbled in December, losing three games, but still made the playoffs.
After the 17-13 heartbreaker in Denver, the Jets had a few days off before returning to Florham Park yesterday. They watched the film of the Broncos game then tried to put it behind them. They face the Bills on Sunday to begin their six-game homestretch.
“It’s a long season,” guard Brandon Moore said. “We were written off when we had the three-game losing streak. It’s a long season; it has peaks, it has valleys. We’re in a valley right now and I know it sounds simple and cliché, but we’re going to have to get better until the end and win our next game. It’s as simple as that.
“I think our confidence is fine. … We just have to be able to do it during the course of the week and prove it on Sundays.”
The Jets have left themselves no room to falter down the stretch.
“It’s now or never,” Leonhard said. “It’s do or die time. We’ve got to play well and do whatever it takes to get back in this playoff picture. It starts today.”
Ryan and several players admitted they paid attention to the games on Sunday that affected their playoff hopes. But all agreed that it won’t matter how much help they get if they don’t correct the mistakes they made during the last two losses.
“We have the kind of team that can get hot and can put it together,” Ryan said. “That’s been the biggest problem that I see, that we’ve been inconsistent in all three phases, and we have yet to really put together a great game where we’ve played consistently in all three areas.”