Jets try to avoid letdown against Jags
FLORHAM PARK, N.J.
Granted, this may sound strange, especially in light of the Jets' exhilarating 27-24 win over the Cowboys, a game that Jets coach Rex Ryan admitted was one of the most pressure-filled of his entire career.
And sure, it's only Week 2 of the NFL season, hardly a time for coaches and players to start talking about games with a "must win" sense of urgency. But with all the emotional capital the Jets spent in preparing for and then beating the Cowboys in one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history, could it be that they're in for a letdown against a Jaguars team that poses far fewer challenges than the Cowboys?
Could all of the good that came out of Sunday night's game, which Ryan admitted was even more meaningful because of how badly he wanted to win for the people of New York on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, be suddenly undone with a clunker at home this weekend?
Evidently, it may not be such a strange idea after all.
"It's interesting you bring it up," Ryan said in response to my question about a potential letdown. "But when you really look at the reality of the situation, that's an NFC team (the Cowboys), so that counts as a game. And in my strange math, this one counts as a game and a quarter because it's an AFC team. This one is huge."
And if the Jets' players don't believe their coach when he tells them the stakes for this week's game are bigger than you might expect this early in the season, then he'll have an easy way to remind them.
"All you have to do it pop on the tape from two years ago when we played Jacksonville," Ryan said, referring to the Jaguars' 24-22 win over the Jets in Week 10 of the 2009 season. "We pride ourselves on being a physical football team, but they handed it to us. They imposed their will on us. They ran the ball better than we did. They were more physical than we were. We know what happened the last time we played 'em. We'll let the video do most of the talking."
So maybe it's not so crazy to think that the Jets have to guard against a letdown after the Cowboys' game. In fact, my sense is that Ryan is very much concerned about that possibility, and will make absolutely certain that the Jets put all the drama from Cowboys Week behind them and concentrate on a lightly regarded Jaguars team. And he'd be well-advised to do so, because the Jets biggest challenge this week isn't so much about Jacksonville. It's about themselves.
The quarterback knows, and he'll do his best to make sure his teammates know over the course of the week. In fact, Mark Sanchez referred to this as "a must game." There, he said it.
"There were a lot of things we had to focus on, and not just the [Dallas] game," Sanchez said, referring to the Sept. 11 observances, not only at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and the area near Shanksville, Pa., but at the game itself. "This week, we can't impress upon ourselves enough how this is another AFC opponent in our place. It's a must win. We need a great game plan to start it off well, and we need to carry it through the week."
If Sanchez needs any help in getting the message out to his teammates, he has a willing voice in wide receiver Derrick Mason, a veteran of 15 NFL seasons who has seen plenty of similar circumstances.
"It's football. You've got to get yourself up for the following week," Mason said. "It's an AFC game and it's worth more than just one game. And then it's a home game as well. So that's motivation enough. We don't need to add anything else to help motivate it. It's an opportunity for us to go out there and hopefully be 2-0."
Makes perfect sense at every level. Now the trick is to translate their words into action on game day. Easier said than done.
