Playoff-Bound Jets: Hard To Believe, but It's True

Rex Ryan and his players conducted a victory lap with the fans at Giants Stadium once the game was over.

They earned it by making the playoffs after going through tough times this season.

It helped the schedule favored the Jets with the Colts and the Bengals laying down as an attempt to rest their stars. In the Bengals case, they didn't want to showcase their best stuff for the Jets to expose their strengths and weaknesses in a playoff rematch that will take place on Saturday afternoon at Cincinnati.

Regardless, this is an accomplishment, and it should mean something with a rookie coach leading the team.

The critics counted the team out after the Jets gone through a rough stretch in October yet they managed to get some wins in the final weeks of November to put themselves in the playoff hunt, and now look at them.

This writer knocked Ryan in this site so it's only fair to offer credit where it's due. The first-year head coach showed his optimism even during the rough times, and his players responded to that.

That was one reason why Ryan was hired. He knew how to motivate his players by pushing them to succeed in practice and on Sundays.

Eric Mangini struggled to do that when the Jets went through a rough stretch last year. He had no answers, and it showed in the sidelines.

The current head coach acts like he knows what he is doing on the sidelines, and he comes up with answers when it comes to the media instead of ducking the questions or looking lost out there like his predecessor.

It's easy to give in to negativity when one looks at the history of this downtrodden franchise, but it takes a special coach to overcome that, and that's what convinced Woody Johnson to believe in Ryan by hiring him.

It was not just the motivational tactics and interpersonal skills that served Ryan well. Ryan improved with his coaching skills late in the season by making better use of clock management and being involved with the offense by forcing Sanchez not to do much and getting Thomas Jones involved.

Give it up to the players too. The Jets lost Leon Washington and Kris Jenkins for the season, but they marched on by winning without them.

They managed to survive despite Mark Sanchez's woes.

The offense figured out a way to score enough points thanks to Jones' effort. The defense lived up to its top ranking these last few weeks.

They did their job by winning games that they needed to win to get there. Looking at history and what took place this season, who knew if those guys would screw up, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

These guys showed they are as good as any AFC team out there. If Sanchez can get hot in the playoffs, maybe this team can make a run to Miami.

This is a team that has a good nucleus of young players to build around for many years to come.

Making the playoffs signifies a great season even if this team showed mediocrity again or not win a playoff game.

The hope is that this team can use this year as a steppingstone for bigger and better things in the next few years. Expectations are going to be higher next season, and it should be.

This is just the beginning.