GROUND CENTRAL: Shonn Greene rumbles past the Chargers defense during the Jets’ 27-21 win Sunday in which the offense returned to its run-first roots. (Getty Images)
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The day after the Ravens dismantled the Jets, Rex Ryan knew he made a mistake and was ready to admit it.
Ryan realized his team had to get back to running the ball the way it had in his first two seasons as head coach. He met with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer then with the team to tell them that they were going back to Ground and Pound.
Three weeks later, that decision looks as if it could turn the Jets’ season around. The running game clicked in their 27-21 victory over the Chargers, gaining 162 yards on 31 carries, both season highs.
“I just thought that we weren’t being ourselves,” Ryan said yesterday, reflecting on that day three weeks ago. “We just wanted to get back to really playing New York Jets style of football, because there’s nothing wrong with the way we play offense.”
Ryan admitted he fell in love with the idea of throwing the ball all over the field with a receiving corps of Santonio Holmes, Plaxico Burress and, at the time, Derrick Mason.
“I got caught up in maybe being enamored with the type of personnel we had,” Ryan said.
That led to the talk of “Air Rex” and putting more of the offense in the hands of third-year quarterback Mark Sanchez. The Jets threw the ball 44 times in two of the first three games to mixed results. They moved the ball, but the offense seemed out of sync.
Sanchez threw six touchdowns in the first four games, but also had five interceptions. Since Ryan made the switch back to being run-first, Sanchez has looked more relaxed. He has six touchdowns and just one interception in the past three games.
“I think the confidence . . . he’s back. This is the offense that we built and he is so familiar with,” Ryan said of Sanchez. “Not saying he can’t do the other, but it just seems to fit us better.”
The week before the Patriots game, Ryan made a change in practice. He had the scout team run full-speed to better imitate the game. Players said that made a difference, forcing them to practice more aggressively. The Jets said that week of practice was the best they had all year.
The results did not show immediately against the Patriots. The Jets gained 97 yards on the ground in the 30-21 loss in Foxborough, but swore they saw signs of improvement.
“You guys laughed at us after the New England game when we lost and Rex made a point that we were getting better and showed signs that we were getting closer,” right guard Brandon Moore said. “You could look at the film and see we were getting back to that.”
After more improvement in a Monday night win over the Dolphins, the Jets completed their transition Sunday and talked about regaining their identity.
“Being physical — that’s how we’ve won,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “That’s our blueprint is we’re physical, stop the run on defense. You get big hits, you change a game, you make big plays on defense. And then offensively, run the football, pound ’em, pound ’em, throw completions and you keep moving the sticks. In a word, it has to be ‘physical.’ That’s our blueprint, and that’s the only way we know how to win.”
Moore said the Jets know they are a tough team when they stay true to their identity. That identity returned when Ryan decided to scrap “Air Rex” and return to the ground game.
“I guess as a lineman you want to run the ball, you want to run efficiently,” Moore said, “and with the players we’ve got, with the system we’ve got, I think we do really well when we can pound on people, we can get to our play-actions, and Mark can get the ball down the field to the playmakers. That’s what’s done well for us in the past. If it’s not broke . . .”
Moore did not need to finish the sentence.
The Jets learned that lesson the hard way.