Unlike seasons past, the 2010 New York Jets have shown a resiliency and an ability to face down adversity, regardless of the opponent. Yesterday's 24-20 victory over the Denver Broncos was the first come from behind victory of the Rex Ryan/Mark Sanchez era, and it came in a game where the Jets did not play their best. Often during the regular season in the NFL a team will be called upon to get a result when they haven't played that well, and the best teams find ways to get these victories. It's the difference between a 9-7 or 10-6 team becoming a 12-4 or 13-3 team.
The Jets played an uneven game yesterday, getting the first two turnovers of the season from Sanchez, which could have easily been three or four if the Broncos defensive backs had managed to come up with several easy picks on the game's first possession. The Jets running game, which has chewed up yardage and helped to control the line of scrimmage thus far this season, managed just 129 yards. In fact, the Jets gained fewer yards, had fewer first downs, and lost the time of possession battle.
The defense gave up 145 yards on the ground to one of the worst running games in the league, which was a function of the Jets focus on stopping Denver's freewheeling passing game. Bronco QB Kyle Orton was held to just 209 yards on 14 of 34, and Denver never really got the big plays they've grown accustomed to this season. Darrelle Revis started and played the whole game despite the temperamental hamstring that's given him problems all season.
The conventional wisdom heading into Week 6 was to sit Revis, since he would have 2 weeks to rest if he were given the day off, and Revis seemed to think he could only be effective if he were 100 % ready to go. I loved the way Rex Ryan handled the Revis situation all week. After willingly taking the blame for allowing Revis to determine whether or not he was ready for Minnesota, Ryan said he would make the ultimate decision regarding Revis. Ryan seemed to say all week that Revis would play, that he had received assurances from the Jets medical staff that the hamstring was healthy and that it was mostly a matter of Revis being able to play through whatever discomfort he would feel on gameday.
Throughout the week, I couldn't help but feel that Revis' discomfort was not going to bother Ryan at all. Ryan knew that Revis at 80 or 90 % was better than any alternative the Jets could have going for them. While Revis gave up 4 catches yesterday including a TD, he played better than against Minnesota, and revealed after the game that the discomfort was nowhere near as bad as it had been after the Vikings game. Even the TD that Revis allowed looked like it was bogus, as Demaryius Thomas' second foot looked clearly out-of-bounds. The call against Revis for the TD that gave the Broncos a 17-10 lead was one of four or five shaky calls against the Jets in the second half.
I am a firm believer that calls have a way of evening themselves out over time, so I rarely have issue with a specific call, since I feel like it's only a matter of time until the pendulum swings back in my team's direction. The pass interference call against Renaldo Hill on Santonio Holmes was a nice piece of good fortune, but it wasn't a bad call. No matter who you root for, when your receiver goes up to make a catch and is grabbed by the facemask, that's pass interference. The down and distance or game situation is of no consequence. The story of whether or not this was a good call by the refs, as well as the validity of pass interference as a spot-of-the-foul penalty has been debated throughout the media today, which my paranoia takes as a sign that the national media really wanted to see the Jets go down yesterday. I would imagine if the same situation had happened with the Saints or, heaven forbid, the Patriots, we'd be hearing a lot about the nerve of Drew Brees or Tom Brady today, rather than the luck of Mark Sanchez and the 5-1 New York Jets.
Any Jets fan will tell you that the Jets would have lost this game in the past, which makes two consecutive weeks that New York has made the best of a shaky circumstance. For a championship caliber team, it's not going to pretty week in and week out. There are going to be days like yesterday when you have to grind out a victory on the road against a tough opponent. This situation will certainly come up again, whether it's later in the season in Foxborough, or in Pittsburgh, or even Chicago. The Jets may even lose a game like this before the season is over.
A championship caliber team is going to learn lessons about itself over the course of the season. As a fan, you hope these lessons can come in victory. The Jets were fortunate yesterday, but they were also good when they had to be good. They now have two weeks to prepare for Green Bay, a 3-3 team that has lost back to back overtime games, a team that had great expectations heading into 2010. They have a home date on national TV against the Vikings before they play the Jets, so they could even be 3-4 before the Jet game. Either way, they would seem to be a desperate team searching for a rhythm, so the Jets will need to come with a superior effort and execute at a high level to move to 6-1.
The margin between success and failure is ever narrowing in the modern NFL. To remain successful, the Jets will need to improve in virtually every area. Luckily for Rex Ryan, there is much to address during the bye week. There is no better time to apply pressure to a successful team than when things are going well. The New York media market will bend over backwards to congratulate the Jets over the next two weeks. It will be Ryan's job to keep this team from believing the hype. This is the next challenge for the 2010 Jets in the weeks to come...how to deal with success. If they are able to make the playoffs, how they handle the success they're experiencing right now will determine whether the Jets play at home or on the road in January.
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