Before the season began, Rex Ryan crowed his Jets defense would be among the NFL’s best, among the top five in the league. Now as Gang Green limps toward the end of the season, and with that same defense suddenly struggling, they seem more likely to end up being average than elite.
“We don’t know that. You don’t know that,’’ said Ryan, who insisted his flagging Jets — who have lost four of five — can break their skid and avoid defensive mediocrity for the first time in his career. “I’ve never experienced it, so I’m assuming that we’ll make it.
“We might have to have some unbelievable games. Again, you look back and say ‘Oh, shoot,’ because I don’t know any different and that’s where we’ll be. Obviously, we’ve had some struggles that need to get fixed; and hopefully these last two games we’ll play up to my expectations.’’
In every one of the past eight seasons — the first four as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator and the last four as the Jets’ head coach — Ryan’s defenses have never finished worse than eighth in the NFL, that coming last year.
Gang Green appeared set to continue that impressive streak, but having played poorly the last three weeks to slump to 12th (341.4 yards/game), that will clearly be a tall order for a defense that has sprung leaks lately.
“I just assumed that’s where we’d always be. I’d just assumed we’d be there,’’ Ryan said. “But to me it’s just the wins and losses. I think that’s the disappointment. That’s where the disappointment comes in. We have two games left. We’ll see where we finish.’’
The Jets’ defense has actually regressed in each of Ryan’s seasons, following an NFL-leading 252.3 yards/game in his 2008 debut. They fell to third the next season, fifth in 2011 and slid to eighth last year.
They were ninth through Week 12, at 322.9 yards/game according to Elias. But they’ve tackled poorly over the last three games, coughing up 409.3 yards/game and ranking a very un-Ryan like 26th in the NFL over that span.
“This is the NFL. People see and watch you each and every week, so if you’re getting dominated at certain positions teams are more likely to aim to break that down because they know they’re hitting a [weak point],’’ said outside linebacker Quinton Coples. “But at the end of the day we’re still standing by his word. We’re going to try to finish strong and get things right and move on from there.’’
Coples — along with the young defensive line of Muhammad Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson and Damon Harrison — had Ryan believing the Jets would be a top-5 defense. But Wilkerson admitted they simply haven’t made enough plays.
“This a professional business, the best of the best in this league. Other players are elite as well,’’ said Wilkerson. “People make plays, and I guess we’re just not making no plays.’’
Defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman insisted ranking 12th in total defense isn’t a blow to the unit’s collective pride, but admits it has blown far too many tackles over the past few weeks and knows the 26.2 points-per-game it has coughed up — 23rd in the NFL — are far too many.
“I think when you’re not giving up points, you obviously put yourself in a better position to win games. That hasn’t been what we wanted it to be this year,’’ Thurman said. “Moving forward, that’s one of the things we’ll always look at and say ‘hey, preventing points is the No. 1 goal of ours, the No. 1 objective.’ When you go out there, it is to prevent points. That’s the No. 1 thing.’’