Rex Ryan (Paul J. Bereswill)
It was only days, if not minutes, after the Jets lost to the Colts in the AFC Championship Game last year that coach Rex Ryan and GM Mike Tannenbaum began plotting for the rematch.
It was logical the two teams would meet again in the postseason. The Jets fancy themselves as perennial Super Bowl contenders, and the Colts have been that ever since Peyton Manning put on a uniform.
To win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the Jets reasoned, they’d have to go through the Colts sooner or later.
With that in mind, Tannenbaum and Ryan began reshaping their roster to strengthen areas Manning exploited last January in Indianapolis. The four-time MVP rallied his team from a 17-6 first-half deficit by throwing for 377 yards and three touchdowns en route to a decisive 30-17 victory.
To avoid a repeat, the Jets traded a third-round pick to San Diego for cornerback Antonio Cromartie, and then signed free agent safety Brodney Pool from the Browns. They used their first-round draft pick to select cornerback Kyle Wilson from Boise State and added pass rush help by signing former Dolphin enemy Jason Taylor.
The defense wasn’t the only side upgraded. Knowing they would need to score more than 17 points to beat the Colts, the Jets traded for wide receiver Santonio Holmes, a Super Bowl MVP with the Steelers, and signed San Diego free agent LaDainian Tomlinson, a future Hall of Fame running back.
The moves gave the Jets two shutdown corners in Cromartie and Darrelle Revis, depth in the secondary, a proven pass rusher and more big-play potential on offense.
Now it’s time to see if all those moves can pay off.
“I’ve waited a full year for this,” Ryan said of Saturday night’s rematch with the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We’ll see what happens. I know I feel confident. I feel confident in the men around me.”
On paper, the Jets’ acquisitions look to be the perfect kryptonite for Manning. But Ryan won’t admit the moves were made solely with the goal of beating the Colts.
“It’s not just the Colts,” he said. “We want to win the Super Bowl. We want to get the best team we can possibly put together with that in mind.”
Still, it is no given the Jets will have any better success against Manning on Saturday than they did last season. The Jets defense has endured its share of adversity this year with Revis playing through a lingering hamstring injury and losing safety Jim Leonhard to a broken leg.
There also were those ugly defeats at New England (45-3) and Chicago (38-34) last month. But the Jets’ 304 points allowed was third-best, behind only Pittsburgh (232) and Baltimore (270), in the AFC, and the sixth-lowest in the NFL.
“Did we get destroyed by New England? Yes. Did we have a bad game against the Bears? Yep,” Ryan said. “But this is a new day, and we’ll see what happens.”
Should the defense fail to contain Manning, Ryan thinks the Jets are better equipped this year to survive a high-scoring game.
Mark Sanchez has two seasons and three playoff games on his resume. Holmes, Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery and Dustin Keller have flashed big-play potential, and Tomlinson is a duel threat out of the backfield.
After failing to score a touchdown in consecutive losses against the Patriots and Dolphins, the Jets offense has averaged 31.3 points over its last three games.
“I think we’re built to win a defensive struggle. I think we’re built to win an offensive shootout and special teams as well,” Ryan said. “That’s the type of team we tried to bring together.”
Summing things up, the coach said: “Hopefully we match up better than we did last year.”
That was the plan all along.
george.willis@nypost.com