RAISING THE BAR: Jets coach Rex Ryan is channeling his old persona. Yesterday, discussing Gang Green’s battle Sunday against the Patriots, Ryan said, “I want them to know, and they know, that I think we’re going to beat them.” (
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Leave it to the Patriots to bring out the old Rex Ryan.
The Jets coach showed some of the bluster he has hidden this year while answering a question about the Patriots, whom the Jets play Sunday in Foxborough, Mass.
“I want them to know, and they know, that I think we’re going to beat them,” Ryan said. “I don’t buy into all that other stuff. I recognize they’re a great football team and [Bill] Belichick is a great coach. I’ve never once said that he wasn’t. But we’re not going to back down or concede anything.”
Ryan has toned down his public statements since the end of last season, when he felt some of the things he said put too much pressure on his team. The juices always get flowing around the Jets when the Patriots arrive on the schedule.
Both teams enter this week’s game at 3-3, tied along with the Bills and Dolphins on top — or on the bottom, depending on your view — of the AFC East.
“They’re going to get our best shot,” Ryan said. “We know we’re going to get theirs. It really doesn’t matter who says what, but we’re going to be ourselves. We’re coming up there to take our swing. We’ll see if we land that punch to win the game.”
The Jets are 1-3 at Gillette Stadium under Ryan, the one victory coming in their dramatic playoff win two years ago. After that game, the feeling was the Jets had narrowed the gap in the division, but the Jets finished 8-8 last year and missed the playoffs while the Patriots went 13-3 and made it to the Super Bowl.
The Patriots are a focus around the Jets all year long, not just the two weeks they face each other. New England has won the division in nine of the last 11 seasons and every year Ryan has been the head coach. The Jets have finished second each year.
“I’ve never stopped thinking about the Patriots,” Ryan said. “That’s a team that we have to beat to win our division and obviously Buffalo and Miami are improved. [I’m] not taking anything away from them, but the team that’s won our division since I’ve been the head coach here is always New England. That’s the one you have to beat for sure. You think about them, you even build your roster sometimes in trying to compete, trying to beat this team. You’re always thinking about them.”
The Patriots are coming off a stunning 24-23 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday, and Ryan was asked if he expects to get an angry Patriots team coming off that defeat.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt,” he said. “I’ve got news for everybody, we always get their best. They always get ours. We’ll see if our best is better than their best on that particular day. … They know that we know we have to knock them off for us to get to where we want to get to, or anybody in our conference … they have to beat New England.”
Despite the Patriots’ unusually average 3-3 record, the Jets know New England can’t be taken lightly.
“I am [shocked the Patriots have lost three times],” tight end Dustin Keller said. “They’re usually a lot better than that at this time of year. That could turn around at any moment. We have to play our ‘A’ game, otherwise we won’t be able to pull it off.”