Bart Scott wants to get his shot this time

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.

With each successive run by Patriots tailback BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Bart Scott stood helplessly on the sideline, his arms folded, his countenance deflated.

Eight yards around right end. Fifteen yards around left end. Six yards off right guard . . . and on and on and on.

With the Jets still within reach of the Patriots after Mark Sanchez's touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes in last month's game at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots went on a game-clinching march that barely featured Tom Brady's arm. Instead, the Patriots had Green-Ellis run the ball down their throats.

For Scott, one of the Jets' most effective run-stoppers, it was an agonizing way to watch the game end. With Green-Ellis running 11 times for 62 yards to set up Stephen Gostkowski's 28-yard field goal to put the game out of reach with 1:02 left, the Jets' defense had failed them.

And Scott couldn't do a blessed thing about it, essentially having been left out of the game plan. In the same stadium where he helped the Jets reach the AFC Championship Game in a divisional-round upset of the Patriots, after which he uttered his famous "Can't Wait!" message in an ESPN interview, he was a bystander. And it hurt.

"Of course, my pride, I would love to have been in there," he said. "But I understand the situation, the studying that the coaches do."

But Rex Ryan guessed wrong this time. He loaded up his lineup with defensive backs to more effectively deal with Brady's arm, but the Patriots fooled the Jets by going smashmouth down the stretch.

"They ran the ball more effectively than we wanted them to or even expected them to," Ryan said Thursday. "It backfired on us. The kid [Green-Ellis] did a great job. New England was patient, and they were able to win the game that way."

Ryan admits he was outfoxed by Bill Belichick. "They had us in that situation," he said. "Again, it's my fault. I take responsibility for it. I was trying to have a better defense against Brady. I never thought they'd run the ball there as much as they did. That's a credit to them."

I mentioned to Ryan that Scott was the odd man out that game and asked if the same would hold true when the teams meet again Sunday night at MetLife Stadium. The coach grinned. "I don't know," he said. "We'll have to see."

Will Scott lobby Ryan to play more? "I don't lobby," he said. "I think you trust your leadership. That's how we went about our business that time, and we weren't successful. But that's not to say we would have been successful if I was in there."

But make no mistake: With a national audience tuning in to a game pitting two of the NFL's biggest rivals, there's no way he wants to be caught holding his helmet on the sideline. "I'd like to be in there," he said. "This week, we'll see. Maybe it will be something different."

This hasn't been quite the dominating season Scott envisioned, especially after helping the Jets rebuild the defense and advance to back-to-back AFC Championship Games. With David Harris developing into a Pro Bowl performer, Scott isn't even the team's best inside linebacker. But this is no longer about numbers for him.

"I'm all about winning," he said. "I didn't come here to worry about stats and all that type of stuff. I came here to win. I think I've had decent stats before, but that's not my biggest concern. I don't mind doing whatever needs to be done to try and win a Super Bowl."