From the moment Rex Ryan stormed into the room, vowing to take a swipe at two of theirs if they take a swipe at one of his, announcing the mere thought of kissing Bill Belichick’s rings was repulsive to him, the Jets have fancied themselves as the biggest, baddest toughest hombres in the NFL saloon, itching to take on all comers.
SEALTeam 11.
They take their cue from Ryan, who would schedule the Lombardi Packers and the Montana 49ers and the ’85 Bears in any parking lot, anywhere, anytime, on the same day if he could.
You can knock his team down, and make no mistake, his team has been knocked down these last two weeks.
But his team will get up, and when it gets up, it will get up angry, with fists balled, shouting: “BRING ON THE PATRIOTS!”
“If we’re [going] to do what we want to do, and we talk about doing,” Brandon Moore said yesterday, “we gotta win this game.”
Aaron Maybin has been with the Jets only for a cup of coffee, but he could sense how caffeinated his new teammates are for the Patriots.
“Everybody’s ready to go,” Maybin said. “You don’t gotta be around a team long to tell when guys are ready to play.”
How can you tell that?
“It’s not something you can describe,” Maybin said. “There’s a certain seriousness, a certain upbeat tempo during practice, a certain attention to detail in meetings. Whenever you have a game that is especially important to a team, those things are evident the week preceding. You can kinda tell the kinda game it’s gonna be by the kind of week of practice and preparation you had leading up to it. And it’s been a very solid week for this whole team, probably the best week of practice I’ve seen or been a part of since I’ve been here both in the summer and during the regular season.”
From the moment Ryan stormed into the meeting room Monday and aired the Jets out, and demanded this SEAL Team 11 mentality, and a return to their Ground and Pound roots, the Jets have marched in lockstep towards Bill Belichick and toward Tom Brady and Wes Welker.
“The whole week the message has basically been to be the most physical team, and to be the dictators of the football game,” Maybin said, “and that’s pretty much held true the entire week.”
Maybin, given a new lease on life again, put enough pressure on Joe Flacco in his limited snaps Sunday night he believes he can be an X-Factor against Brady.
“I believe I’ll have a few opportunities to make some plays, and I think that my skill set is gonna allow me to do some things,” he said.
SEAL Team 11 tomorrow.
“You’re gonna see the New York Jets, and I don’t think that you need to see anything different to have success against the Patriots,” Maybin said. “I think if we come and we play Jet football, then we’ll come out with a victory.”
Jet football being . . .
“Play physical football, play to the whistle, and play together,” Maybin said.
Ryan was encouraged by Maybin’s sack and hurry. Eric Smith was asked if Maybin can be an X-Factor tomorrow against Brady.
“Maybin’s one of those guys who can get pressure on the quarterback, and as much as they throw the ball, that’s what you need,” Smith said.
The virtual certain return of center Nick Mangold buoys the Jets.
“I’m ready to go,” Mangold said.
If Mangold is ready to go, Ryan expects Shonn Greene to be ready to go, finally.
“We had a great week of practice, everything is looking good in the run game,” Greene said. “Today we finished off strong with our preparation.
“We have great confidence coming into this game.”
Of course, practice doesn’t always make perfect on Sundays.
“Very few mistakes, we were moving around playing fast and physical . . . got through the script really fast . . . probably one of our better weeks of practice,” Smith said.
SEAL Team 11 tomorrow.
“We’re confident that we’re locked and loaded to go out there and perform on Sunday,” Sione Pouha said.
Ryan was as pleased with this Friday practice as he was displeased with the Friday practice before Baltimore.
“We were bouncing around pretyy good, flying around,” Ryan said. “I feel good about it. So based on this practice, we should play well.”
Based on Thursday’s practice as well.
“I think our best practice was yesterday, that we probably had all season,” Ryan said.
It will take their best game to silence taunting, cursing Gillette Stadium.
“We know certainly we have to be ready,” Ryan said, “and I think we are ready.”
As much as anyone, he has to be ready against Belichick.
“May go down as the best coach in the history of the game, but,” Ryan began, and paused here before adding, “I’m gonna take my swing at him.”
HC of the NYJ SEAL Team 11.