Rex not thrilled with mistake-filled win

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Rex Ryan was somewhat torn after watching the footage of the Jets' 27-24 victory over the Cowboys.

Sure, the Jets overcame a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to earn their second season-opening win in Ryan's three seasons. But if Sunday night's game had been a term paper, there probably wouldn't have been enough red ink in the building to mark off all the errors the Jets made.

"We celebrate the victories because they are hard to come by and you have to earn every one of them," Ryan said Monday. "It was good news, bad news. We have some corrections to make, clearly. We have to get better, and you give Dallas a lot of credit because they made a lot of plays both offensively and defensively.

"But we made some mistakes. That isn't who we are. That's not who we are."

The Jets had their issues starting with the first series, when they couldn't contain the Cowboys' passing game. Screens gave them fits and they didn't cover tight end Jason Witten well, letting him roam for 110 yards on six receptions, including a 64-yarder.

The Jets yielded 390 yards, and Ryan didn't award a single game ball to a defensive player because he thought they didn't play up to the unit's standards.

The Jets never got their ground game going, either. They mustered a meager 2.8 yards per rush and didn't break off a run longer than 7 yards, unheard of for a team that prides itself on being able to pound away.

"We had some technical issues, fundamental things and breakdowns," guard Brandon Moore said. "We saw some different fronts and pressures that involve a lot of communication that gave us a hard time.

"But you work your way through it, you try to keep Mark [Sanchez] clean so he can get the ball to his receivers and try to do the best you can. You look at film and see the things that need to be corrected . . . just your technique in dealing with things that came up that were a little different."

Schematically, the Jets are going to have to find a way to play better defense against the screen pass, on which Dallas picked up huge chunks of yardage. The Jets know they have to shore up that aspect of their defense, or otherwise they'll be facing countless similar plays.

"It's definitely a copycat league," safety Jim Leonhard said, "and the stuff you struggle with the week before or once you get later in the season, everything you struggle with up to that point, teams come back to. We definitely have a lot of stuff to clean up, but we feel very confident we'll be able to clean these issues up and not have them come forward."

At least there's one thing they didn't have to clean up -- penalties. The Jets weren't penalized one time, which pleased Ryan after only eight teams had more penalties a season ago. The Jets committed 103 penalties for 934 yards in 2010, and had 14 for 125 yards in their opener against the Ravens.

"That's a point of emphasis this year, trying to knock those penalties way down," Ryan said.

"If you have to beat us physically, I think you'll have a tough time. I think we have an excellent football team. We are a talented team and if we can eliminate those mental [mistakes], eliminate the penalties, eliminate the self-inflicted wounds, if you will, then we are going to be tough to beat."