Thomas Jones insisted his troublesome knee felt fine yesterday and said it won’t be prohibitive for him tomorrow.
Jones missed practice on Wednesday, though coach Rex Ryan assured reporters that day that his 1,400-yard back could have practiced if need be. Jones was back on the field Thursday, and he downplayed the knee yesterday, saying it had just been bruised.
“I was ready to play last week. I had to wear a brace last week just because for comfort,” he said. “But other than that, I’m good to go.”
Jones only carried the ball 15 times in the Jets’ wild-card win over the Bengals. He hardly tore it up, rushing for just 34 yards.
In fact, in the Jets’ past two games combined (both against Cincinnati), he ran 42 times for just 112 yards, a 2.7 average.
Jones also had fewer carries last week than rookie Shonn Greene for the first time this season — Greene ran 21 times for 135 yards.
Jones said yesterday that sharing the carries is fine with him.
“Man, everybody has a role to play. My role is to be productive when I’m in the game,” he said. “Shonn’s role is to be productive when he’s in the game. Danny Woodhead’s role is to be productive when he’s in the game. We’re all here to help us win. There’s no issue with splitting carries.”
Ryan is about more than the bluster of his bold predictions and his self-effacing humor.
Safety Jim Leonhard, who played for Ryan in Baltimore, said Ryan doesn’t get enough credit for his defensive mind.
“As far as schematics and coaching it and teaching it, he’s as good as I’ve ever seen,” Leonhard said. “He doesn’t get nearly enough credit for that.
“All you hear is about his comments and his confidence and what he says to the media. That’s what allows him to be confident, though, because he knows he’s a good coach and he’s surrounded himself with a lot of good coaches.”
The Jets listed no players as either doubtful or questionable on their final injury report.
The last time the Jets played the Chargers in the playoffs, five years ago in San Diego, they nearly blew the game because of a roughing-the-passer penalty on LB Eric Barton, who’s no longer with the team. The penalty allowed Drew Brees another play and he threw a game-tying TD pass.
The Jets survived, winning 20-17 in overtime, but memories of that moment still linger for those who were on that team, like right guard Brandon Moore.
“It’s still in my mind,” he said. “We were sitting there devising ways how we were going to kill [Moore] and who was going to do it.”
The Chargers have been more than impressive in their NFL-high 11-game winning streak. But the Jets, in their past six regular-season games, have been on a defensive tear.
The Jets allowed a league-low 47 points on those final six regular-season games, a 33.5 passer rating with QBs completing only 42.9 percent of their passes (75-for-175) for 630 yards, one TD and 10 INTs. They forced 14 turnovers in that span and an 18.5-percent success rate on third-down conversions.
Ryan compared this group favorably to the Ravens’ defense he coached in 2000, the season Baltimore won the Super Bowl.
“It’s close,” Ryan said. “I think in 2000 we gave up 160 points the whole season. We gave up 187 on defense this year. I think we’re closer than people would think, but we’re not there yet.”
There will be three players from the University of Maine playing in the game — DT Mike DeVito and TE Matthew Mulligan for the Jets and LB Stephen Cooper for the Chargers.
The Jets, in last week’s wild-card win, became the first team since the 1934 Giants to get a scoring run (Greene) and a scoring pass (Mark Sanchez) from a rookie.
Sanchez can become the fourth rookie quarterback since 1970 to lead his team to a conference championship game.
DE Shaun Ellis said of the Jet defense, “I think we still get overlooked. Me, personally, I’m used to that. That’s just been my whole career. But we’ve just got to just go out and play, man. The numbers speak for themselves. We’re where we are for a reason. No better way to go out and prove it and make a statement in this game right here.”