NFL

Jets’ success product of team effort

NAME the star of the game for the Jets in their statement victory over the hated Patriots on Sunday.

Stumped?

You should be.

There was no one particular star or hero for the Jets, because their master plan is designed that way. This was Rex Ryan’s blueprint from the moment he walked through the green door to replace Eric Mangini as the head coach last winter.

Ryan was so bent on creating a true team that he had the gall to tell team owner Woody Johnson that he wanted to take training camp away from the sparkling $75 million facility Johnson had just built only months before. Ryan was so determined to create team chemistry and bonding that he asked Johnson if he could leave the beautiful Florham Park, N.J., facility, the team’s sponsors who’ve paid millions, and the fans the Jets are so desperately trying to cultivate behind for the summer and take the players and coaches away to Cortland, N.Y., some 31⁄2 hours away, for training camp.

Many of us, not wanting to be inconvenienced from our lives and cynical about whether it would work at all, rolled our eyes and wondered what Rex was doing. Well, two games into a season in which most prognosticators believed the Jets would struggle because of all the newness and a tough schedule, Ryan’s plan is looking pretty good. There is a genuine camaraderie already cemented inside the Jets’ locker room, filled with players who have each other’s back.

If you think his teammates were happy to see Kerry Rhodes’ gasoline-on-the-flames comment last week about wanting to “embarrass” the Patriots, you’re naive. His words were not met with delight inside the Florham Park walls, but they weren’t met with disdain, either. Rhodes’ teammates backed him, publicly and privately.

“Let’s be honest, Kerry said some controversial stuff,” Jets nose tackle Kris Jenkins said. “But I’m not going to judge my teammate. Everybody has their days. All we can do is support him as a team, cover his back.

“Now that we’ve done that,” Jenkins added, smiling, “I hope he doesn’t do it anymore.”

Rhodes and the rest of the Jets were as fueled by the 16-9 win over New England as they were somewhat humbled, because there wasn’t a player on the roster who didn’t contribute — and that didn’t go unnoticed.

Ryan, in fact, sent that message by naming fourth-string quarterback Kevin O’Connell, whom the Jets recently signed after he was cut by the Patriots, as a captain for the game. O’Connell was the emergency third-string QB who wasn’t going to see action barring major unforeseen circumstances.

But Ryan wanted to make his point: O’Connell had helped the team immensely during the week as a scout-team QB, showing the defense some looks the Patriots would give it. Ryan said his decision to make O’Connell a captain for the game “was the right thing to do.” It was a little thing Ryan did, but little things like that become big things inside the locker room amongst the players.

Take Sunday’s game as a prime example of how the little things add up to big wins. Some of the most significant plays made against the Patriots came from backups.

Remember who clinched the game for the Jets, breaking up Tom Brady’s fourth-down pass to Joey Galloway? That was Dwight Lowery, a starter last season as a rookie and who is now a fourth cornerback.

Safety Eric Smith, another former starter and now a backup, made impact plays, pressuring Brady on blitzes and breaking up a big pass.

Cornerback Lito Sheppard perhaps made the defensive play of the day when he dove to break up a potential 36-yard Brady touchdown pass to Galloway in the end zone in the second quarter that would have given New England a 10-0 lead.

Drew Coleman, who is fifth or sixth on the CB depth chart, was forced into action when Sheppard and Strickland went down with injuries, and he performed well.

“Everyone is contributing to win in all phases,” Jets receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. “We’ve had two complete games. If we can continue to do that every week, we’ll rack up a lot of wins.”

That, of course, is Ryan’s ultimate blueprint.

mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com