Rex Ryan stood before his team moments after the Jets’ 37-27 win over the Raiders and offered to give them Monday off, an NFL tradition at this time of the season known as “Victory Monday.”
But veteran players Willie Colon and D’Brickashaw Ferguson told the coach they would rather come to work than take the day off and begin preparation for the stretch run of their season that begins next week against the Panthers.
“You give us two days off and we’ve got to go down and play a team that’s kicking a lot of tail right now,” Colon said. “We’ve got to be all hands on deck. We’ve got to be ready to go. Having two days off off a solid win … it’s no time to sit back and throw our feet up. … We’ve got to put our foot on the gas.”
The Jets (6-7) showed some promise Sunday, snapping a three-game losing streak in a solid performance against the Raiders (4-9). The victory keeps them alive in the playoff chase, but it is hard to decipher just how much weight to give the win, which came against a Raiders team that looked as if it would have had trouble if Fordham was the opponent Sunday.
Oakland looked terrible and the Jets still had their issues with the Raiders, allowing touchdowns of 63 and 48 yards in the third quarter and never really putting the Raiders away.
Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith performed better than he has recently, but he was not totally sharp. Smith finished 16-of-25 for 219 yards with a passing touchdown, a running touchdown and his 20th interception of the season.
Overall, though, the Jets offense showed some signs of life after being dormant for the past three weeks. Smith hit Jeremy Kerley with a 25-yard touchdown in the first quarter to give the Jets a 10-0 lead and end an eight-quarter touchdown drought. For Smith, it was his first touchdown pass since Oct. 20. Smith finally tasted some success after playing so poorly he was benched last week.
“I’m not the type of guy that’s going to take it easy on myself or lightly or feel sorry for myself when things aren’t going well,” he said, “because I know there’s, like I said, a light at the end of the tunnel. I just keep working. I just keep plugging at it.”
The Raiders defense gave Smith some help Sunday. The Jets had 352 yards, the first time they topped 300 yards since they beat the Saints on Nov. 3, which, until Sunday, was the last time they had won.
The victory gave the Jets locker room a sense of relief.
“It feels like we haven’t won in a century,” tackle Austin Howard said.
Wide receiver Santonio Holmes said: “If anybody is down right now, they should be slapping themselves in the face.”
The Jets now enter their final three games with slim playoff hopes. They are a game behind the Ravens and Dolphins in the standings, but lose out on tiebreakers to those teams. Now, they travel to Carolina to play Cam Newton and the Panthers, who had their eight-game win streak snapped Sunday night with a 31-13 loss to the Saints.
“This team wants it in the worst way,” Ryan said. “Will we get it? I don’t know, but I know how bad we want it.”
The Jets offense benefitted from the return of Kerley, who missed the previous three games, and an increased role for Holmes, who played two snaps last week, and tight end Kellen Winslow, who has been working his way back after his suspension.
The Jets also got a big play from their special teams when Antonio Allen blocked a Marquette King punt and recovered it in the end zone to give the Jets a 20-3 halftime lead.
The Raiders played two quarterbacks, rookie quarterback Matt McGloin and they used Terrelle Pryor for one series. Oakland found some holes in the Jets defense in the third quarter, with Marcel Reece, the team’s fourth-string running back, going for a 63-yard touchdown and Rod Streater scoring on a 48-yard pass from McGloin.
But the Jets offense answered each time. Smith ran for an 8-yard touchdown and Nick Folk booted his third field goal of the day after those scores. Chris Ivory’s 15-yard run with 8:58 left in the game made it 37-20 and cemented the Jets first victory in a month.
“We made this mess,” Colon said. “Three weeks ago we were 5-4 and coming off a bye, pumping our chest. To drop three against teams we knew we could have beat if we would have executed better, give Geno some more time, we may be in a different position. We kind of realize hey, Rex can only do so much. He can only cry and scream and shout. It’s up to every player in this locker room to be accountable for how they play and execute to their fullest.”