This game for the Jets sits on an island, a potentially dangerous and haunted island if the proper precaution is not taken.
Consider the Jets are still buzzing from their stirring road win over the Bills on Sunday, their biggest win in two years. Also consider the fact, a mere one week from tonight, the Jets will be playing their most hated rivals, the Patriots, in a nationally-televised, Thursday night showdown.
Can you imagine the hype that would surround that game if the Jets and Patriots are both 6-3 and playing for the AFC East lead with six games to play?
You get the idea.
Which brings us to the 2-6 Rams, whom the Jets play Sunday at Giants Stadium in what can only be characterized as the classic “trap” game.
The good thing about these Jets is they are a humble bunch. Losing to Oakland and surviving against Cincinnati and Kansas City will scare a team straight. So perhaps, in an odd way, those earlier missteps against lesser competition have alerted the Jets to the perils and pitfalls that could await with this game.
Eric Mangini has been asked every which way about the importance of this game and not seeing his team take the old “two-steps-back” tumble, and he refuses to bite.
“If you assign different values to things, you get in trouble,” Mangini said. “If you work differently (than you do for another game), you’re in trouble. If you think ahead or focus on what happened in the past, you get in trouble.
“The best way to move forward, to make progress, to keep pushing, is to win the game that you have that week, and that’s really all we have to worry about, ever. Anything else, how another team plays, what’s going to happen in two weeks, what happened a year ago, none of that matters.”
Brett Favre, who sees and knows all, tried to convince reporters yesterday that he wasn’t aware the New England game was next up after the Rams.
“I didn’t realize we played on Thursday against New England next week ’til last night,” Favre said. “As you get older, you realize the only game that’s important, the only play that’s important is the next one. We do a good job here. Eric does a good job, this whole organization does a good job of concentrating on the now.”
In that regard, being in a first-place tie for the division lead is not satisfying for this team.
“We still (have) work to do,” safety Kerry Rhodes said. “We are going in the right direction. We got the big win that we wanted last week to prove that we can get it done and that we do belong, but we still have a long way to go this season and I am just going to try to keep playing every week.
“St. Louis has been playing better since (Jim) Haslett has taken over. They took New England down to the wire. They beat (Washington) and Dallas pretty bad. The last couple games with Haslett they (have been) playing a lot better and they have weapons that can get some stuff done.”
Hopefully, for their own sake, the Jets will listen to themselves.
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Mangini made it sound as if linebacker David Harris (groin) is going to be out a couple weeks. Mangini said Harris is “a longer shot” to play this week than he was last week. He declined to say whether Harris has had or will have surgery.
Harris was hurt in the Jets’ 28-24 win over the Chiefs two weeks ago.