By DENNIS WASZAK Jr.
AP Sports Writer
FLORHAM PARK, N.J.(AP) — Rex Ryan is giving his players six days
off, and he’s pushing his assistant coaches out of the New York
Jets’ facility by Thursday.
He wants his entire team to use the bye week to get away from
football and put what went from a promising start to a
disappointing downhill spiral behind them.
“We’re definitely sick about it,” Ryan said Monday.
The rookie head coach insists his confidence has not wavered at
4-4, but thinks the Jets should have been at least 6-2 at this
point. After all, they started 3-0 and the defense is ranked
second in the league and the running game is No. 1.
“We haven’t put a complete game together,” right tackle Damien
Woody said. “That’s one thing we need to do moving forward with
the season.”
The closest the Jets have come was last weekend, when they
routed Oakland 38-0. But that victory seems like a distant
memory after a 30-25 loss to Miami on Sunday.
“We lost a couple of these games, just nail biters,” quarterback
Mark Sanchez said. “We just need to figure out a way to start
winning these games instead of losing them. We need to show up
in all three phases to do that.”
The Jets’ special teams unit, solid all year, allowed Ted Ginn
Jr. to return two kickoffs for touchdowns – one for 100 yards
and another for 101. Special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff
said it was “the absolute worst” performance by any of his units
in his 27 NFL seasons.
“It’s just a bitter taste,” Westhoff said. “It’ll go away …
when they’re lowering me in the grave.”
Yep, the Jets took this one particularly hard, especially after
dominating the Dolphins in every statistical category. They
outgained Miami 378-104 and had 23 first downs compared to the
Dolphins’ 10.
“We’re sick (about) the fact we’re 4-4 when we’ve played better
than that statistically,” Ryan said. “Again, you don’t win
through statistics. You win on the field and you’ve got to play
for 60 minutes and find ways to win. Right now, seems like we’re
snakebit a bit.”
It certainly seemed that way Sunday, when Ginn had his two long
returns and Jason Taylor returned a fumble by Shonn Greene for a
touchdown. The Jets have allowed six touchdowns without their
defense on the field.
“It makes it tough because we know that we’ve beaten ourselves a
lot,” safety Kerry Rhodes said.
Ryan was particularly angry about some of presnap penalties,
including two on tight end Ben Hartsock. One was a false start
on a 2-point conversion that forced the Jets into kicking an
extra point. The other was an illegal shift in the fourth
quarter that negated a successful conversion and kept it a
five-point game instead of a three-point deficit for the Jets.
“We’ve got to better,” Ryan said. “If that’s benching somebody,
that’s maybe what we have to do.”
Linebacker Bart Scott was asked what can be done to correct
things.
“Let me look into my crystal ball,” Scott said with his usual
sarcasm. “If I knew that, I would’ve won the lottery by now and
retired.”
Ryan has taken blame for what has transpired, saying there’s
room for improvement everywhere, including his coaching. He has
also taken some criticism for being too cocky and having an
oversized ego. Former Colts coach Tony Dungy was critical of
Ryan and Scott for not giving the Dolphins enough credit in
their postgame comments.
On NBC’s NFL show, Dungy said: “My mother used to say, ’When you
win, say very little. When you lose, say less.”’
“I was brought up differently,” Ryan said defiantly. “I respect
everybody, but I fear nobody. My thing is we’re not going to get
anywhere by tiptoeing. That’s how I feel about it. People can
take offense to it. That’s fine and dandy. I’m not going to
change who I am and how I coach because Tony Dungy said
something. I respect him, he’s a great man and a great coach,
but I’m going to be who I am. I’ve said that from Day 1 because
I know I’ll be successful that way.”
For now, the Jets will go back home to their families and take
their long break, which Ryan planned months ago.
“Being able to get away from football and just get a lot of
stuff out of the system is going to be good for us, especially
with the situation we’re in right now,” wide receiver Jerricho
Cotchery said. “We can refresh our minds and come back ready to
roll” against Jacksonville.
NOTES: Rhodes said he was throwing balls into the stands at fans
wearing his jersey Sunday, as he always does before games, when
he and several Dolphins players got into a shoving match. “I
guess they took a little exception to it,” he said. “It wasn’t
meant to mess with them in the beginning, but as the situation
evolved, it escalated a little bit.”
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