Sure , it was sloppy down the stretch, with more undisciplined penalties than you’d see in a prison-yard game. And yeah, the Jets, playing the part of the bumbling Buccaneers on opening day, did everything they could to give the game away.
But the Jets won the game, beat the Bills, 27-20, Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
You know why they won?
Defense. Rex Ryan’s defense.
“Go get that guy.’’
According to several Jets players, that’s what Ryan told the defense in the Saturday night team meeting at the hotel, referring to Bills rookie quarterback EJ Manuel.
So, Ryan’s defense sacked Manuel eight times after he had been sacked only once in the first two games of the season.
The Bills were 4-of-18 on third-down conversions, a 22 percent success rate. Bills running back C.J. Spiller, who gashed the Jets defense for 228 yards and two touchdowns on 38 carries in two games last season, ran for nine yards on 10 carries before leaving with a knee injury.
This kind of stout defensive effort came on a day when Ryan’s former apprentice, Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, came to his old place of work determined to show his mentor a little something. Pettine left knowing his mentor remains the master.
Pettine spent the last decade working with and for Ryan. As much as anything, his curious departure to Buffalo after last season to make a lateral career move was about Pettine extricating himself from Ryan’s shadow to run his own shop with hopes of a head coaching job down the road.
Because of Ryan’s formidable and deserved reputation as a defensive guru, Pettine was always overshadowed and overlooked by him. Whenever the defense played well, regardless of whatever Pettine’s input was, it always perceived as Ryan’s defense.
So yesterday represented the first time Pettine had the chance to beat his mentor.
In the end, it was Ryan’s defense that was the difference in the game. In a spot of irony, the 513 total yards on offense the Jets stamped on Pettine’s Buffalo defense was the most the Jets have produced in Ryan’s four-plus years with the team.
“This is Rex’s defense, man,’’ linebacker Calvin Pace said. “That is not to say anything bad about Mike, because he did some good things here, but it was time to move on. I don’t blame him for wanting to go out on his own.’’
Pace’s message was clear. It has always been Ryan’s defense, even when Pettine was the coordinator.
“This is a No. 1 caliber defense,’’ Pace said. “If we handle our business and don’t give up plays that we don’t have to give up, I don’t really see a lot of people moving the ball against us. Whenever we get to the point where we start truly playing team ball and we take care of the ball (the offense turned the ball over twice) and we don’t give up stuff that we don’t have to give up (a franchise-record 20 penalties for 168 yards), we’re going to be really a dangerous team.’’
The Jets’ defense was put in several precarious situations in the game and it responded, forcing the Bills to kick field goals.
After a 59-yard Fred Jackson run gave the Bills a first down on the Jets 21, the defense held the Bills to a field goal. After Geno Smith’s first interception, to former Jet Jim Leonhard, gave the Bills the ball at the Jets 21-yard line, the defense forced another field goal. After Smith’s second interception, by Buffalo linebacker Kiko Alonso with 6:50 remaining in the third quarter, gave the Bills the ball at the Jets 13-yard line, the defense held again, forcing another field goal.
Pace steered the credit directly at Ryan.
“He’s a Hall of Fame coach,’’ Pace said. “So many people talk bad about him like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, but think about the names that’s he’s coached — Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs and the list goes on and on. And it’s his defense. I wouldn’t want to play for anybody else. Every week it’s interesting. He’s trying to bring a championship to New York.
“Everyone thought we were [bleep], let’s be honest about it,’’ Pace went on. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t look at stuff like that. But hey, keep on talking it, because we’re proving people wrong and trying to make some noise in this league.’’
If and when they do make that noise, the loudest sounds will be coming from Ryan’s defense.