Finest Form of Flattery: Jets V. Ravens

“The game ain’t played through tongues”

- Ray Lewis

I love the Jets. They play a smashmouth brand of football and have a certain swagger about them. They blitz the quarterback. They defend the pass, stuff the run. They have a rookie qb who led them to the AFC championship game…

Wait.

Where have I seen this before?

Oh, that’s right. Baltimore.

Rex Ryan has taken the very soul of Baltimore and put it on Broadway. What’s worse, he is warping and disfiguring it. It’s one thing to take players brought up under the Ravens’ system (Leonhard, Scott) but it’s quite another to become boisterous and cocky when they’ve won little of consequence.

Baltimore has always been a quiet, hardworking team. They rarely come out and make ridiculous claims through the media. The few times they make comments through the press, it’s been in relation to things that have happened on the field. The talk against the Patriots. The Hines Ward cheap shot comments. The “Hit list”. They all had to do with things that occurred on the field.

The Jets? Well, there’s the whole Channing Crowder thing that happened before the Ryan era Jets took the field. There was the Belichick ring talk, also before they played a game. Now? Well Cromartie refered to the Jets as the “Heat of football”. Guess when he said it? That’s right, before he suited up for a regular season game.

The Jets have one of the best defenses in the league. They have great wide receiver depth. They have a talented running back duo. They have the best cornerback in the NFL. They have plenty of things going for them. Does that give them the right to say the things they do?

No.

They haven’t won anything of value yet. As far as last year goes, the Saints won the championship. As far as this year goes, the only team with a win are those same Saints. The Jets are writing a lot of checks that they’d better be ready to cash.

Like I opened saying, I love the Jets. Their play has a ton of similarities to what Baltimore has done in the past.

It’s just a shame that they don’t carry themselves the way the Ravens do.