Schottenheimer again in middle of Ryan twins

For the second year in a row, Brian Schottenheimer has to play the middle man in the Rex Ryan/Rob Ryan sibling rivalry. And take it from the Jets' offensive coordinator, it's not easy.

"I think he truly played every [defensive] front known to man against us in the Cleveland game," Schottenheimer said the other day, referring to Rob's relentless attempts to slow his offense in last year's Jets-Browns game, the most recent head-to-head between the brothers.

Rex won that battle, as the Jets beat the Browns, 26-20, in overtime on Mark Sanchez's touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes. But as always when they face each other, the Ryans can't go directly at one another in terms of X's and O's because they're both defensive play-callers. So it's Schottenheimer who is Rex's proxy against his twin brother on the other sideline.

But you get the feeling Rex would so love to trade in his defensive play-call sheet for Schottenheimer's just this one time, so he could bash his brother over the head -- figuratively, anyway -- in this their latest, and most important, matchup. They've faced one another plenty of times as defensive assistants in college and the NFL, but the stakes in this one trump the rest.

"We rip each other. That's what this week's about," Rex said. "You're just ripping each other. The rest of the time you're comforting, you're asking questions, you kind of pick each other's brains a little bit, but this week is strictly about ripping the other guy."

But as much as each would love to beat the other, the Ryan boys have muted the attention surrounding their otherwise intense personal rivalry in the run-up to Sunday night's's game. Both said it was important that their relationship not detract from the far more serious backdrop to the season opener: It comes on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

So the bulk of their back-and-forth this week has come during their private telephone conversations.

"This being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I just want to share those with my brother and back and forth,'' Rex said, "because this game is so special to so many people and I certainly don't want to take away from that."

Rob agreed.

"It's hard to talk about me and my brother when it's 9/11," Rob said, "so everybody's got emotions on that one."

Last November, when the Jets played the Browns in the first Ryan vs. Ryan battle with Rex as head coach, it was a jocular time for the twins. Remember the news conference when Rex dressed up in a wig and wore a Browns cap and sweatshirt with a pillow stuffed underneath? Rex got plenty of laughs out of that one, and he wound up laughing after the game, too. Thanks to Schottenheimer's offensive game plan, the Jets found a way to seal the game in overtime against a Browns team that previously beat the Patriots. As it turned out, Rex's and Rob's teams were the only ones to beat New England during the regular season last year.

The defensive strategies for the Ryans were honed over a lifetime. The 48-year-olds grew up as sons of defensive wizard Buddy Ryan, who in 1985 helped the Bears turn into arguably the most dominant defensive team ever. And each sibling's defense bears the hallmarks of Buddy's: tough, aggressive, risk-taking.

But they don't go quite as far.

"We think we have some courage, and we're crazy, but we're not that crazy," Rex said when asked about differences between the way they call plays and how their father did.

"When you look back at my dad, it's like, 'Whoa.' They'd run zero pressure more than any other defense. Everything they did was like, 'Hey, we're not going to let your quarterback stand back there.' "

Zero pressure means sending blitzers with no safety help, a high-risk strategy that often results in sacks but leaves the cornerbacks in one-on-one coverage vulnerable to big pass plays.

"The records they set will probably never be broken," Rex said of his father's defenses.

And there are nuanced differences between Rex and Rob. Rex prefers to blitz linebackers and safeties; Rob will often send cornerbacks on blitzes, which creates some vulnerability in the passing game.

But blitz away they do, and you can expect to see plenty of that when the Jets and Cowboys meet Sunday night.

Ryan vs. Ryan.

Rip away, fellas.