NFL

Harrison says Patriots give Jets chance to air it out

Check the flight schedule at Newark, it might be time to fire up Air Rex again.

The Jets have won three straight games, thanks in large part to coach Rex Ryan’s ecision to return to his team’s ground-and-pound philosophy. But NBC analyst and former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said the Jets best chance to beat New England on Sunday night at Met Life Stadium is by exposing its “timid” secondary.

“When you are playing against the Patriots, you have to come out and play aggressive,” Harrison said. “If you’re the offensive coordinator and you know there’s a weakness, you come out and go after it. If there’s a doubt in a player’s mind, you go after him. They should go out and attack these corners, attack these safeties, make them make plays in open space and see if they can recapture that confidence.”

UPDATES FROM OUR JETS BLOG

The Jets did not do that the first time these teams played this season when the Patriots won, 30-21. In Ryan’s first attempt to reestablish the ground game, spurred by an embarrassing 34-17 loss to the Ravens the previous week, the Jets started the game in Foxborough with four straight three-and-outs and fell in a 100 hole. But the Jets have not lost since and come into this game off their best performance of the season: a 27-11 dismantling of the Bills.

Meanwhile the Patriots come in losers of two straight, and now there are three teams (the Jets, Pats and Bills) tied atop the AFC East.

“Their guys are really playing with a sense of urgency,” Harrison said of the Jets. “To go into a hostile environment in Buffalo and play a confident team was something that was really impressive. Defensively, I saw guys moving around, causing confusion instead of just lining up in a vanilla defense. They are just really competing.”

But Harrison doesn’t see those traits in his former team. The two time Super Bowl champion still thinks the Patriots will win the division, but only if coach Bill Belichick changes his brand of defense.

“Flat out, I think those guys back there in the secondary are playing timid,” Harrison said. “They lost confidence and they don’t want to make mistakes.

“I am not a fan of playing the soft coverage. I like playing mantoman and taking your chances, forcing a quarterback like Mark Sanchez to throw in those tight windows and tight pockets. I just don’t see the Patriots doing that right now.”

That could give Sanchez a chance for a breakout game and allow the Jets to gain critical tiebreakers over the Patriots. Because New England has already lost in Buffalo, the Jets would own the divisional record tiebreaker that comes after head-to-head if they are able to beat the Bills at home and win at Miami later in the season.

“If you can get Mark Sanchez to stop making some of those mistakes and start hitting those players down the field, combined with that running game that’s getting going, this team can be dangerous,’’ Harrison said. “The Jets are peaking at the right time.’’