NFL

Jets’ stingy defense key to victory

SAN DIEGO — Regarding the last Chargers drive of the game — the one that gave San Diego a touchdown on seven plays — Jets coach Rex Ryan apologizes to Gang Green Nation for not being aggressive enough on defense.

“I apologize to our fans for going too soft at the end of the game there,” he said, “but shoot, we were trying to play to that clock a little bit and allowing them to go down there.”

It didn’t matter. The coach talked during the week about how no team had held the Chargers to fewer than 20 points the entire season. Yesterday San Diego was held to just 14 by Ryan’s defense. And lost.

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The Chargers did miss three field goals in the Jets’ 17-14 upset. But the top-ranked Jets defense was superb, picking off Philip Rivers twice and holding San Diego to just 61 yards rushing.

“It was the best defense I’ve played [against] this year,” LaDainian Tomlinson, who was shut down on 24 yards over 12 carries, said. “No question.”

Actually, though, star Chargers tight end Antonio Gates thought the loss was more about what San Diego didn’t do.

“They play hard. They make plays, but with all due respect, we just weren’t playing up to our standards,” Gates said.

“They are a tremendous team. They play hard on both sides of the ball, but make no mistake about it, this was just about the San Diego Chargers.

“We lost by three points, and there were some things that were just … I mean, I dropped some passes. It wasn’t the team I’ve been around for the last 11 weeks.”

According to Bart Scott, the Jets tried to deliver a physical message with their tackling and their hits.

“We believed that they were a finesse football team and we wanted to impose our will and make sure that we made them know that every time they get tackled to be looking,” Scott said.

“I think those hard hits set the tone. I think it made some guys kind of hear some footsteps.”

Scott, whose hard-hitting group now gets set to face the world’s best player in Peyton Manning, doesn’t even believe the Chargers should have had 14 points. He thinks they shouldn’t have cracked double digits.

“We really should have held them to seven,” he said. “We’ll go back and we’ll get those things corrected. That’s an explosive offense. That’s a great team with a lot of weapons, and people can say what they want, [that] they’re the better team.

“But we were the better team today. And that’s all you need in the playoffs. You just have to be the better team that day.”