And the expectation around town is that for Rex Ryan it is Do Or Cry — give New York a party that will make New Year’s Eve feel like tea and crumpets at Her Majesty’s, or shed enough tears to fill a Mud Bowl.
Not so.
Don’t fear for tears from him if the Jets beat the Bengals and barge into the playoffs with all their bravado and all their bluster.
REX WENT FROM JOKE TO GENIUS IN A WEEK
Ryan was asked what are the odds that if the Jets win, he will cry.
“That’d be, probably 100 percent, that I would not cry,” he said, and chuckled.
Huh? 100 percent that you WOULD cry. . .
“No, I would not cry,” Ryan told The Post.
If you won.
“No. I expect to win,” Ryan said.
“That’s not my end goal. Now, if we win the Super Bowl, I’m sure I’ll cry like a baby — not just making the playoffs.”
The Jets know they will not have that chance to shake hands with the president at the White House if they lose this game.
“We’re right there — ‘Alive and Kicking’ like the Simple Minds song. So here we go,” Ryan said.
Darrelle Revis was asked yesterday what message he would give to Jets fans living in mortal fear that the Same Old Jets will rear their ugly heads; that Sunday’s gift from the Colts will prove to be nothing more than a tease.
“Two words,” Revis said, and smiled.
“It’s comin’. It’s comin.’ It’s comin.’ ”
I asked Revis to elaborate on what “It’s comin’ “ means.
“The Super Bowl is comin’,” he said.
When?
“I can’t make judgment on that, but it’s comin.’ ”
Can it come this year?
“It can come. A lot of things can happen, just like it happened with Arizona Cardinals last year. Once you’re in the playoffs, it’s do-or-die. You win, or you go home.”
Ryan and the Jets believe that if the NFL leaves the door only slightly open for them, as a wild-card entrant, they have what it takes to kick the door down, perhaps all the way down.
“I think we would be a very dangerous team if we make the playoffs,” Ryan said.
Revis was asked if he can envision not getting this thing done Sunday night.
“That’s not an option,” he said. “That’s not an option for us right now. Just like [Sunday’s] game, it was no option — we had to get that win. And we had to scratch, punch, fight, kick to do it, and we did it in the second half.”
And make no apologies for doing it against Curtis Bleeping Painter. And will make no apologies if Marvin Lewis plays J.T. O’Sullivan a lot more than Carson Palmer Sunday night.
“We expect to kick, scratch, punch, fight, bite — whatever we need to do to get that win,” Revis said. “No matter if it be 3-0 . . . get a safety, 2-0 [chuckle]. . . . Whatever the score needs to be, we gotta get a win.”
Jets players aren’t convinced that this is not Do Or Cry for the rookie head coach.
“We know he’s a crier,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “I wouldn’t put it past him. To be a coach in this league, there’s only a handful of those positions, and he’s wanted it for a long time. What comes with that is getting to the playoffs. That’s how you’re judged as a coach. Going to the playoffs, and then your success in the playoffs. So to have an opportunity in his first year to get to the playoffs, you never know what can happen. I can only imagine he would be pretty emotional if we get this win, and that’s what we plan on doing.”
steve.serby@nypost.com