Looks like nobody stayed on script since mid-Fall in this Season at the Improv, when the Dolphins were in mid-free fall and first saw the Jets.

Matt Moore, who made his first Dolphins start that night, plays quarterback for the AFC offense with the most pass plays longer than 25 yards and featuring the Dolphins’ first 1,000-yard receiving and rushing combination, Brandon Marshall and Reggie Bush (but not Sunday). The Dolphins didn’t see their coach fired after an 0-7 start, but after their second loss in the next five games. With the playoffs in sight, the Jets got smacked around each of the past two weeks and have been less consistent than the Dolphins.

Now, New York’s green team comes to town needing a win to start the dominoes falling toward another in-by-their-heel-skin playoff berth.

OK, that you might have guessed. That’s typical of a game that features the Dolphins and Jets, who comprise the NFL rivalry that regularly pours the wacky sauce on an NFL weekend.

Season finales are no exception. Remember how Brett Favre’s season in New York, 2008, ended foiled by a leaping Ted Ginn touchdown catch and defensive end Philip Merling’s interception-return touchdown?

Take the situation of one of the two probable Hall of Famers possibly ending their careers Sunday, the Jets’ LaDainian Tomlinson and the Dolphins’ Jason Taylor.

Taylor has played the second-most games as a Dolphin behind arguably South Florida’s greatest sporting icon, Dan Marino. He has been a local community pillar, similar to Marino. And it’s entirely possible during the pregame ceremony honoring him — the Dolphins ask that fans be in their seats by 12:45 p.m. — he will hear boos from the Dolphins fans who can’t forgive Taylor for being a Jet during 2010.

“There are a lot of coincidences I guess,” Taylor said. “It’s great to end at home. It’s great to have a chance to walk away and do it in front of your home crowd in a city that means a lot to you against an opponent that you’ve had a tremendous history against.

“I want to win. I want to win the game. I don’t want to win the game so I can say I won my last game. This is not about Jason Taylor and my career and all that stuff. It’s not about that. There’s guys in this locker room that are fighting for jobs, fighting for their futures, auditioning for their next jobs, trying to improve and grow their game and their career, so I’m just a small piece of this team train.”

That train has gone on some serpentine tracks. Ask Dolphins players if this is the weirdest season they have been a part of and you get either “definitely” or a head-shaking “it’s football.”

Nobody’s saying the Jets marched in a straight line to their end, whatever that might be. Instead of a secure future with a quarterback settling into a groove, Jets coach Rex Ryan finds himself refuting questions about Mark Sanchez’s future and fielding a mediocre defense.

“I really think we can do some damage if we get into the playoffs,” Ryan said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, because I think we play excellent defense, I think we can run the football and I think that’s what you have to do this time of year.

“So, can we do some things if we can get in? I think we can. Are we better than the eight wins? I think you are who you are. Right now, we’ve won eight games.”

But, then in the next breath, Ryan said: “I’ll tell you what’s interesting. When you look at when we played Miami … 0-7 to start with, 5-3 their last eight games. I’ve always said that they were a better team than their record. I never thought there was any doubt. And the fact that they’re 5-3 in their last eight games I think proves that they’re a better team.”

Just like it all graphed out two and a half months ago.

MIAMI – Jason Taylor’s ready to hang it up, while the New York Jets are desperate to keep playing.

Taylor plans to retire after Sunday’s season finale for the Miami Dolphins. They’ll try to send him out with a win against the Jets, who need a victory to keep alive their slim hopes of making the playoffs.

Even if the Jets win, to earn a post-season berth they’ll also need losses Sunday by Cincinnati, Tennessee and either Denver or Oakland.

“This is the first time I have ever been in a situation like this,” said receiver Plaxico Burress, a 10-year veteran. “If we do get in, great. If things don’t work out, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.”

The Jets (8-7) lost control of their destiny when they were beaten last week by the Giants 29-14. Now the Jets are in danger of missing the playoffs after reaching the AFC championship game each of the past two years, and elimination could come at the hands of the AFC East rival Dolphins (5-10).

“It would be beautiful to ruin their playoff dreams,” Miami defensive end Kendall Langford said. “We’re playing for pride. They’re playing for a playoff spot.”

The teams meet in a regular-season finale for the first time since 2008, when the Dolphins won to clinch their only division title since 2000. That game eliminated the Jets from playoff contention.

This year the Dolphins have been consigned to a spoiler’s role since Halloween, thanks to their 0-7 start. Taylor’s retirement announcement this week provided some additional motivation for the last game.

The NFL’s active sack leader spent 13 of his 15 seasons with Miami, made the Pro Bowl six times and ranks with the greatest players in franchise history.

“His presence will be missed, not only in our locker room, but in this organization,” receiver Brandon Marshall said. “Those guys are once-in-a-lifetime guys. We would love for him to go out with a win.”

Coincidentally, Taylor played last season for the Jets before rejoining the Dolphins.

“He was a great teammate, and we loved having him here,” Jets tight end Dustin Keller said. “But they’re going to want to send him off with a big win, and we can’t let that happen. We know what kind of player he is and what he’s capable of, and we can’t let him disrupt the game.”

Taylor has 16 1/2 of his 139 1/2 sacks against the Jets, although he managed none when the teams met in October. New York won 24-6, and while the Dolphins have been a much better team lately, they’ll be without 1,000-yard rusher Reggie Bush because of a knee injury.

The Dolphins took a 17-point lead at New England last week before losing 27-24, which left them 0-5 in games decided by a field goal or less. The Jets’ loss to the Giants carried even more sting, because it may wind up costing them a playoff berth.

Coach Rex Ryan declared months ago that these Jets are even more talented than the two teams he took to the AFC title game. But New York has given up 74 points while losing the past two games, and the offence was so out of sorts against the Giants that Mark Sanchez was forced to throw a career-high 59 passes. The Jets rank 27th in the NFL in yardage, stirring speculation about offensive co-ordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s job security.

With typical bravado, Ryan insisted the season might yet be salvaged.

“We can do some damage if we get into the playoffs,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, because I think we play excellent defence, I think we can run the football, and I think that’s what you have to do this time of year.”

But getting to the post-season is now a long shot. Three of the other games that will determine the Jets’ fate are late starts Sunday, which means that if they win, the Jets will likely be flying home when they learn whether their season is over.

“We’re just focused on the things we can control, and that’s trying to play well against Miami and coming up with a win,” Sanchez said. “After that, we’ll see what happens. Hopefully we get a win and on the plane we find out everything worked out in our favour. But all we can control is winning.”

The Dolphins, meanwhile, are bound for another off-season of change. Coach Tony Sparano was fired Dec. 12, and the next coach will be Miami’s seventh since the start of 2004. With a losing record for the third consecutive year — the Dolphins’ first such stretch since the 1960s — a roster shake-up is likely, too.

Given his team’s situation, the 37-year-old Taylor decided the time was right to call it quits. He’ll do it after playing his 204th game for the Dolphins, more than anyone aside from Dan Marino.

“It’s great to have a chance to walk away in front of your home crowd in a city that means a lot to you against an opponent that you’ve had a tremendous history against,” Taylor said. “I want to win the game, but not so I can say I won my last game. This is not about Jason Taylor and my career. There are guys in the locker-room that are fighting for jobs, fighting for their futures, auditioning for their next jobs. So I’m just a small piece of this team train. I’m going to do my part Sunday to help win.”

From Florham Park, N.J. — For the past couple of years, we have heard a lot from the bombastic New York Jets about what they are and what they’re capable of doing.

On Thursday, the loudest voice in the locker room disclosed what the Jets are not.

“I don’t think we’re a Super Bowl team,” linebacker Bart Scott said. “Right now, we’re not even a playoff team.”

That might sound like blasphemy in Rex Ryan country, where the Lombardi Trophy isn’t just mentioned but is promised — “I guarantee we’ll win it this year,” the coach said at the scouting combine in February — yet these Jets have had a bit of the edge knocked off them this season.

Still, they control their destiny. If they run the table in these final three weeks, they will secure at least the No. 6 seed in the AFC. That will require some strong play from their No. 6, quarterback Mark Sanchez, and knocking off Philadelphia, the New York Giants, and Miami.

The Jets (8-5) are perfectly capable of doing that, seeing as they typically have gotten better at the end of the season under Ryan, the Giants could have their playoff spot locked up when they play the Jets, and the Dolphins won’t be overflowing with incentive in their finale.

But the real measuring stick for the Jets will be Sunday’s game against the Eagles, a team similarly loaded with talent and likewise capable of laying an egg. Philadelphia should have banged-up Michael Vick and receiver Jeremy Maclin in the lineup, is coming off its most complete defensive effort of the season (a 26-10 victory at Miami), and has a wisp of hope of winning the NFC East (the Eagles must go 3-0; Cowboys and Giants 1-2 or worse).

As pleased as the Jets are that they’re riding a three-game winning streak, they know that those triumphs came against downward-spiraling Buffalo, Washington with Rex Grossman and Kansas City with Tyler Palko.

Vick and the Eagles should be a real test, a way for the Jets to determine whether they truly belong in the upper echelon of teams, or if all those championship promises were just more hype by the Hudson.

This much we know: In each of their first two years under Ryan, the Jets surged at the end of the season and made it to the AFC championship game despite never playing host to a postseason contest. The Jets are loaded with experienced players who have come within one step of the NFL’s biggest stage.

“I think there’s benefit of going through the playoffs and gaining that experience,” Ryan said. “Well, no team has won more playoff games than the New York Jets have over a two-year period — not Green Bay, not anybody — so that’s going to help us. We have to get there first, obviously, but that could make us dangerous.

“The fact that we’re the No. 1 red-zone scoring team in the league. The fact that we’re built to win games in December and January with the way we attack people offensively.… And then our defense, we’re starting to hit our stride.”

Some of the Jets’ biggest talkers have been more muted in recent weeks as the team has struggled to regain its equilibrium after the one-two punch of losses to New England and Denver over a five-day stretch in mid-November. The Denver loss was particularly deflating because the Jets played 55 minutes of outstanding defense, only to lose down the stretch when Tim Tebow directed a 95-yard scoring drive to steal the victory for the Broncos.

Two weeks later, Jets guard Matt Slauson confided: “There was a point after the Denver game there where it did seem like the panic button had been pressed a little bit.”

So far, pushing that button has worked. Clearly, the Jets recognize the urgency of the situation and that they have the potential to do some damage in the playoffs with the way the AFC appears to be so wide open.

Denver leads the AFC West, and no one knows how far the Broncos can go without a consistent passing attack. Houston, which won the AFC South, has a rookie quarterback in T.J. Yates who’s largely untested. New England has Tom Brady and a dazzling record of success, but also the league’s last-ranked defense. Ben Roethlisberger is dealing with a bum left ankle, and Pittsburgh might have to start Charlie Batch in San Francisco on Monday.

As it stands, Baltimore looks like the most complete team in the conference, and the Ravens stomped the Jets in Week 4, 34-17, scoring three touchdowns off Sanchez turnovers. The Jets didn’t have Pro Bowl center Nick Mangold in that game, so that played a part in their inability to handle the Ravens’ rush.

In his first year as Jets coach, Ryan mistakenly thought his team was eliminated from the playoffs after a home loss to Atlanta in December 2009. He was barbecued for that in New York, considering the Jets were not only still alive but also went on to reach the postseason.

This time, it’s some of his players who are managing their expectations, making sure they don’t get too far ahead of themselves.

“We’re still trying to play our best football,” Scott said. “We’re still trying to play completely as a team.… You just don’t wake up and say, ‘We’re a Super Bowl team.’”

Coming from the chest-thumping Jets, that’s growth.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

twitter.com/LATimesfarmer

Read More: Shonn Greene (RB – NYJ), New York Jets

The New York Jets have had an up and down 2011 season and part of that has been due to the immense struggles of running back Shonn Greene. the Jets number one back has not had an awful year, but he simply has not been able to get much positive momentum going. Entering Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins, Greene had only two rushing touchdowns on the season and was averaging four yards per carry. Four yards each carry equates out to league average.

Sunday, he finally had a monster game for fantasy owners. Although Greene’s 88-yard rushing total wasn’t spectacular, he added three rushing touchdowns to the mix. After weeks and weeks of waiting, fantasy owners finally benefited. There has been some concern of Joe McKnight and Ladanian Tomlinson grabbing carries from Greene, but he might have re-established his place in the pecking order with that game.

The Jets have some intriguing matchups over the remaining few weeks. They face a Chiefs rush defense that is a bit up and down, and then they follow that up against a poor Eagles rushing defense. As fantasy owners head into their playoffs, Shonn Greene is not a fantastic option, but he has some decent matchups.

For more on the Jets, check out Gang Green Nation. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A sense of urgency is driving the struggling Buffalo Bills and New York Jets these days.

Mounting losses. Injuries. Fading playoff chances.

They’ve all combined to turn a pair of promising teams that once appeared poised to dethrone the New England Patriots in the AFC East into scuffling squads desperate for a victory.

“It’s a must-win game for us,” Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes said. “We know what’s at stake right now. We have to come out firing just like we did against these guys the last game we played them.”

The Jets (5-5) host the Bills (5-5) at MetLife Stadium in a game New York coach Rex Ryan said marks the start of his team’s playoff push. It was only three weeks ago that the Jets won their third straight game by dominating the Bills 27-11.

Neither team has won since. Two bad losses by New York; three straight for Buffalo.

“They’ve been in a little slump as well as we have,” Holmes said. “We know it’s another game on the schedule and they get paid just as well as we do, so they’re going to be ready to come out and put a real good stamp into our playoff chances right now. So we have to be on high alert right now.”

That’s for sure. But, so do the Bills. As far as both teams are concerned, their playoff chances depend on it.

“I think especially the last (few) weeks have been hard on us,” Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “The biggest thing for us is we’ve really fallen down early, fallen behind and taken big deficits. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to come back from those.”

Fitzpatrick’s play has been one reason. Since signing a six-year, US$59 million contract extension on Oct. 28, he has mostly struggled with four touchdowns and eight interceptions in four games following a terrific start. In Buffalo’s last three losses, the Bills have been outscored 106-26 — including a 35-8 thrashing at Miami last Sunday.

“Well we’re not playing the way we were playing earlier in the season and it’s not necessarily (Fitzpatrick), even though I think he believes he can play a little bit better than he has been playing,” Bills coach Chan Gailey said. “But we can all do better, every one of us can, me included. I watch him play and it seems like we’ve had a different offensive line in there each week for the last three or four weeks and it seems like we’ve had different receivers going out there each week, so it’s been hard on him.”

There will be some more of the same lineup shuffling this week for the Bills as running back Fred Jackson, their biggest offensive star, was placed on injured reserve with a broken bone in his lower left leg. That means the speedy C.J. Spiller will get more playing time in the backfield instead at wide receiver, where he has been lined up a lot this season.

“We lost a great player, but this season’s far from over,” Spiller said. “I’ve just got to elevate my game to a higher level. I’ve got to play at kind of a level that Fred was playing at. Of course, we won’t replace him, that’s obvious. So we’ll just have to try our best and go out there and execute.”

Andy Levitre struggled to replace the injured Eric Wood at centre, so Kraig Urbik will be moved to centre this week while Levitre slides back to his normal left guard position. Starting cornerback Terrence McGee and wide receiver Donald Jones were placed on injured reserve because of injuries, and starting safety George Wilson (safety), wide receiver Naaman Roosevelt (shoulder) and kicker Rian Lindell (shoulder) are sidelined for the game against the Jets.

“We’ve had a good amount of guys go down, but to be honest, the way that this team is structured a lot of the guys that have gotten the chance to play and to prove themselves had to do it by waiting their turn in line,” Fitzpatrick said, trying to put a positive spin on things. “A lot of young guys that are hungry and ready to get out there are really looking forward to the opportunity.”

The Jets are a significantly healthier bunch than the Bills, but running back LaDainian Tomlinson and rookie wide receiver Jeremy Kerley were both questionable with sore left knees that kept them out of New York’s last game.

Both are understandably itching to play, especially with how important the team considers this game Sunday. The Jets are in the middle of a muddled AFC playoff picture, but have some winnable games on the schedule — starting with this one against Buffalo.

“If we win the rest of our games, we’ll be fine,” linebacker Calvin Pace said. “I think that’s the mindset we have to have going in. Stop putting ourselves in a hole, hoping somebody kind of slips up.”

They’re in this position again, as it seems they are every year under Ryan, where they need to play their best football down the stretch just to get into the playoffs.

“That’s the story of our seasons these past three years,” Pace said. “We’ve had to make these miraculous pushes at the end when it should’ve never come to that.”

After all, finishing 5-1 and 10-6 overall might not be good enough this season.

“Six-and-oh,” Pace said of the team’s goal. “Sometimes when you get caught losing to teams you’re not supposed to lose to, you end up kicking yourself in the (butt) saying, ‘Man, we put ourselves behind the 8-ball. These are games we should win.’”

The Jets are still trying to get over letting one slip by them last Thursday night, when Tim Tebow drove the Broncos 95 yards for the winning touchdown. The defence insists it’ll be better, as does the offence with a fired-up quarterback Mark Sanchez, whom Ryan took a few snaps in practice from as a motivational ploy — which worked last season.

Both the Jets and Bills know if they lose this game, the focus will suddenly be on looking ahead to next season rather than finishing in the playoffs.

“Whether people believe about the Jets on the outside or not, we believe in ourselves, and we’re going down swinging,” Ryan said. “If we go down, we’re going down swinging. But we think that we have a good enough team to where we can right the ship and get back to winning and get in those playoffs. That’s what it’s all about.”

Role reversal for soaring Jets, struggling Pats

By Dennis Waszak Jr. / Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Rex Ryan challenged the rest of the NFL during training camp, asking if there were any teams other than his New York Jets good enough to beat the New England Patriots.

Well, Buffalo answered the call in Week 3. Pittsburgh and the Giants did, too, in the last two weeks. Now it’s the time for the Jets to back up their brash coach’s big words.

“The two years I’ve been here, obviously New England has won the division both times,” Ryan said. “They’ve beat us already. So, we know what this game represents. We’re not afraid to talk about it. It’s not one of these, “Well, if we don’t, there’s still a lot of season left.’ We’re approaching it like we have to have this game.”

The suddenly soaring Jets (5-3) take on the struggling Patriots (5-3) in a showdown for first place in the AFC East on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium. The winner will have at least a share of the top spot, with Buffalo (5-3) taking on Dallas earlier that day.

“We want to win our division,” Ryan said. “We think it goes through New England. That old saying, “To be the champ, you have to beat the champ.’ And they’re sitting right in front of us. I respect the job that Pittsburgh and the Giants and Buffalo did in defeating New England. That’s no easy task. And right now, we’re going to say we think we’ve improved as a football team, and we’re going to find out on Sunday, because this is a measuring stick right here.”

That’s how most teams approach playing Bill Belichick’s Patriots, given their consistent winning ways during the last decade. But, Ryan’s No. 1 charge when he took over as the Jets coach was to knock the Patriots off their pedestal. New York has made it to the AFC championship the past two seasons, but has done it the hard way by playing all of its postseason games on the road. Winning the division is the only way to guarantee to have at least one home game, and this one could go a long way to determining who’ll be hitting the road when the playoffs start.

“This is right where we want to be,” quarterback Mark Sanchez said, “and there’s no better team that we’d want to play than a division rival and a divisional opponent, for a game that looks to set us up real nice in the division if we win.”

The last time these teams met back on Oct. 9, the Jets were sent to their third straight loss and appeared to be in disarray. Meanwhile, the Patriots were cruising along with a high-powered offense behind Tom Brady.

Funny how things change in just a few weeks.

New York has won three in a row, beating Miami, San Diego and Buffalo along the way. New England has lost two straight and is in danger of its first three-game skid since 2002, when the Patriots lost four straight, finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs.

“No doubts around here, and that’s me being honest,” wide receiver Deion Branch said. “We see in the film what we’re doing wrong.”

So did the Bills, Steelers and Giants, who were all able to come up with game plans that worked — and won. It’s a simple but not easily executed formula: Put pressure on Brady, take away the edge and shut down the running game and let the defense — ranked 32nd in the league — make its mistakes, especially in the shaky secondary.

“They’re not invincible,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “They’re a great football team, but they’ve got beat by some pretty good teams, as well. I don’t think they’re going to panic up in New England, and we’re not going to feel sorry for them, either.”

Beginning with the last meeting, the Jets have gone back to their run-first “Ground-and-Pound” approach on offense, and having Nick Mangold back from a badly sprained ankle has certainly helped. So has the defense, which is starting to show signs of dominance again with forced turnovers, quarterback pressures and confusing offenses.

“They’re a tough team to prepare for,” Brady said. “They’ve got a lot of stuff, they’ve got a lot of really good players, good scheme. They play well at home. It’s a great challenge.”

Brady is having another typically good season, but his interceptions are unusually high. After throwing four all last season, he’s got 10 this year — including four in his last three games.

“Just decision making,” Brady said. “I’ve just got to make better decisions.”

And that won’t be easy, especially with a secondary led by Darrelle Revis, who’s off to another All-Pro-caliber season with four interceptions. Brady has a 15-5 record against the Jets, including the playoffs, but is 3-3 in the last six with 10 touchdowns and five INTs.

“The guy is a tremendous quarterback, clearly,” said Ryan, refusing to say Brady looks vulnerable. “Without Peyton (Manning) playing, I’d say he’s the best quarterback in the league right now.”

After all, the Jets know better than to get too overconfident against Brady and the Patriots. Not in a rivalry that has been so intense and evenly played lately — the series is tied at 52-52-1. The teams have alternated wins and losses during the last six games, starting with the Jets’ season-opening win in 2009 and including New York’s 28-21 playoff victory last season.

“Oh, it’s fantastic,” Mangold said. “The New York-Boston rivalry, it spans across different sports. We’ve been going back and forth since my time coming in. We’ve had some great games and that’s what makes sports awesome when you get rivalries going. It makes for exciting football.”

Especially when the foes are so familiar and played each other only a month ago.

“It’s one of those deals,” Belichick said, “where they know that we know that we know that they know that we know.”

Got it?

“I said it right after we played them that they were the better team then,” Ryan said. “We’ll see who the better team is now.”

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Read More: Tom Brady (QB – NEP), New York Jets, New England Patriots, New England Patriots at New York Jets, Nov 13, 2011 8:20 PM EST

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan is never at a loss for words, especially when it comes to the rivalry between the Jets and Patriots. Everyone’s aware of his infamous ring quote, “I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick’s rings,” Ryan said. “I came here to win, let’s put it that way…. I’m certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else.”

This is Ryan’s third season as coach of the Jets, where he sports a career 3-3 record against the Patriots, including 1-0 in the playoffs. In Ryan’s first two seasons as Jets coach, they’ve made it to the Conference championship game before being eliminated.

The Jets and Patriots will face off this week on Sunday Night Football. Both teams are 5-3, but the Patriots are coming off back-to-back losses, including Tom Brady’s first regular season home defeat since 2006. 

The Patriots are 1-0 against the Jets this season, but the Jets are 4-0 at home, where they’ll host New England on Sunday Night Football. Below are a few quotes from Rex Ryan’s Thursday press conference. 

On if the Patriots are more dangerous because they lost two straight games: 

We don’t care what difficulties they’re in or anything else. We face the same exact thing heading into their place and hope it’s the same result – that we end up finding a way to win. But that’s going to happen almost every team. Green Bay, I don’t know, they’re rolling pretty good. But I think each team will face it at some point. You’ll go through kind of dips in the road a little bit.

On if they measure themselves against the Patriots:

Yeah, I think you do because they’re the ones that are winning your division. So I think if that really is an ambition of yours to win your division, then, yeah, you want to see where you stack up with them. Obviously that first game, they were better than us. I said it right after we played them, they were the better team then. We’ll see who the better team is now. I think we’re a better team than we were then. I’ve said it the whole time. We’ll see if we’re ahead of them right now.

On if the relationship between the Jets and Patriots now is similar to the relationship between the Ravens and Steelers when he was in Baltimore: 

Yeah, very similar. That was the one. No offense to Cleveland or Cincinnati. We expected to beat those guys every time. You knew it was going to be, and sometimes you won it, but you knew it was going to be a war against Pittsburgh. You knew the same thing that is going to be a huge game against New England. There is no doubt.

On if he still feels that it is him against Bill Belichick when the Jets play the Patriots:

I don’t feel that way as much. This one’s about how much our team has improved. We’re going to judge the winner of this game. If we don’t win this game, we’re in trouble for the division and we understand that so this one is a big game. We don’t deny it. Is it me and all that? As a competitor, you want it that way, but I think this is the whole group of us. This is our football team against theirs. We said after we played them in the playoffs it had nothing to do with me, it was really about our players and our coaches.

Visit Gang Green Nation for complete Jets coverage throughout the season and our team page for schedules, statistics, news and more.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP)—Antonio Cromartie(notes) dares Tom Brady(notes) to throw in his
direction all day.

Go ahead, the New York Jets cornerback says. He’s ready for the challenge.

“I hope I’m a target this game,” Cromartie said with a smile. “I want to
be a target every game.”

Well, he better be careful what he wishes for, especially with the way the
New England Patriots’ offense is playing. The struggling Jets (2-2) have to
figure out how to stop Brady, Wes Welker(notes) and the high-scoring Patriots (2-2) on
Sunday, and know it won’t be easy—whether Cromartie is up to the task or not.

“We use the phrase, `chasing ghosts,’ and sometimes you have to do that,”
defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said Thursday. “You don’t really know what
their formations are going to be, what their personnel groupings are going to be
and you might work against something all week and not see it, see something
totally different. So you have to be very flexible in your approach when you
play New England.”

The Patriots are ranked No. 1 in overall offense, along with being the top
passing team in the NFL. Their running game isn’t too shabby, either, ranking
ninth overall. And that’s what’s making things so tough for opponents early on:
Will they pass or run?

“They were tough enough when they were one-dimensional,” Pettine said.
“Now having the threat of running the football certainly presents a problem.”

Not that the Jets are intimidated, of course.

“You realize he’s one of the great quarterbacks of this generation,”
linebacker Aaron Maybin(notes) said. “At the same time, nobody’s going to be out there
with their spectator hat on and wanting to give him praise for how great he is.
We want to go out there and make it hell for him.”

That’s much easier said than done, as the numbers show. Brady is off to a
sensational start, throwing for a league-leading 1,553 yards and 13 touchdowns,
while Welker already has 40 catches—13 more than Dallas’ Jason Witten(notes), who
ranks second in the NFL. Throw in a running game that’s averaging nearly 123
yards a game, and that’s a lot to deal with for opposing defenses.

The Jets are No. 2 against the pass, though, but are a stunningly low 28th
against the run. New York typically has used a smaller lineup with more
defensive backs against the Patriots.

“I don’t know if that plan will be able to hold up for the entire game,”
Pettine said. “So our menu is a little fuller this week because they are a
flavor-of-the-week offense and it’s smart because it’s typically something you
haven’t practiced against.”

It all starts with Brady, of course, and putting pressure on him. Rex Ryan’s
team has done a pretty good job of that in his five previous games against the
Patriots as Jets coach. New York has won three of those matchups, including in
the playoffs in January when the Jets sacked him five times.

“If you just play standard coverage against him, you’ve got no chance,”
Ryan said. “I mean, zero. You better hope for a hurricane or something because
that might be your only chance. Quite honestly, I’ve been in the sideline
wishing there was a hurricane because he’s that kind of guy. He’s as good as it
gets right now.”

The Jets players agree, and they all respect what Brady can do on the field
— and that includes Cromartie, who made headlines in the playoffs when he called
the Patriots quarterback an expletive and then said earlier this week that those
comments still stand.

The Jets aren’t revealing their defensive strategy, but Ryan said he’s
“sure” All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis(notes) will match up with Welker at times.
Cromartie might be on him, too. And, who knows who else? It might take a few
guys to shut him down.

“It’s him and Tom,” Revis said. “They have a 1-2 punch with each other,
great chemistry. They work well together. He’s got 40 catches already, over 600
yards, so he’s Tom’s go-to guy. He’s always looking for him. He’s tough in the
slot. He’s probably the toughest receiver to cover in the slot.”

Oh, and then the Patriots also have Deion Branch(notes), Chad Ochocinco(notes) and tight
end Rob Gronkowski(notes) to contend with.

“To beat the hell out of their receivers, that’s our game plan on the
outside,” Cromartie said. “It’s to try to mess up their timing routes as much
as we can.”

Or, Brady can turn around and hand it to New England’s three-headed
backfield with BenJarvus Green-Ellis(notes), Stevan Ridley(notes) and Danny Woodhead(notes).

“Coach Ryan said it best: If anybody’s got as good a formula for trying to
beat the Patriots, it’s us,” said Maybin, a newcomer to this rivalry who saw
plenty of the Patriots during his first two seasons in Buffalo. “We’ve been
able to have some success defensively in the past.”

That certainly doesn’t make the Jets less concerned heading into this game.
They know Brady, coach Bill Belichick and the rest of the Patriots have had that
playoff loss in the back of their minds for months.

“The easy thing to say is, `Well it worked the last time we played them,’
and then just blow the dust off of that one and just use it,” Pettine said. “I
know there were more than a few days in Foxborough, whether it was over the
lockout or since the season started, preparing for our defense, knowing that we
had success against them in the playoff game.

“It’s a challenge for us to make sure that we kind of forge ahead with some
new things, but at the same time, not get away from what’s been successful
against them in the past.”

You’re not going to believe this, but New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan has expressed a great deal of confidence in his football team.

While taking in a Knicks game over the weekend, Rex offered up his prediction for next season (should it exist).

The Gang Green coach told the [New York] Post “there’s no way we don’t get it done next year,” and said to MSG’s Jill Martin at halftime that “next year I know we’ll win it.”

Hey, why not? In his first two years on the job, Rex has been to two AFC Championship games. Clearly, his “Look how great we are!” strategy is effective.

If he wants to wake up every day and predict that Mark Sanchez(notes) will win 11 Super Bowls, a Nobel Prize for mathematics and the Grammy for best new female artist, then he can go right ahead. His previous two predictions of Jets Super Bowl victories (this is kind of an annual tradition for him) have come up short, but hey, calling Super Bowl winners is difficult.

Not everyone agrees with Rex, of course. The NFL Network’s Charles Davis(notes) believes that the Jets will be one of the teams to slip out of the playoffs in 2012, and Vegas will tell you that the Jets have about a one in sixteen chance of winning the whole enchilada.

Related: Mark Sanchez, New York Jets

What a year it’s been for the New York Jets.

No, I’m not referring to Gang Green’s 11 regular-season wins, upsetting victory over the Patriots in New England during the playoffs or their five edge-of-your-seat wins within five points or fewer.

I’m talking about feet, HBO, text messages, catcalls, DUIs, the teenage dating scene and more.

From Hard Knocks clips to a potty-mouth head coach to 17-year-old Eliza Kruger, the Jets made headlines in every way possible. It started with a Braylon Edwards‘ DUI. Then came Ines Sainz, followed by the Jenn Sterger/Brett Favre saga. Shortly thereafter, the world found out about head coach Rex Ryan‘s favorite extra-curricular activity.

Thanks to Eliza Kruger, the Jets’ whirlwind season came full circle, as the tri-state teenager came clean to Deadspin and the New York Post about “hooking up” with Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, earlier this week.

Luckily for you, NESN.com was there every step of the way for the Jets’ 2010-11 sideshow, as seen in the links below.

Photo from New York Post

Throughout training camp and the beginning of last season, one of the main never-ending stories around the New York Jets was whether the team could get cornerback Darrelle Revis(notes) to sign an extension and back onto the field. That, of course, finally happened in September when he signed a four-year deal worth $46 million and then went on to make 32 tackles this season.

His cornerback partner, Antonio Cromartie(notes), had 42 tackles and three interceptions this season and is supposed to become an unrestricted free agent in a still-confusing NFL labor world.

Revis tells ESPN New York that signing Cromartie is imperative: “It will be very important, we need him,” said Revis. “(Cromartie) has made a lot of plays for us. … He’s a great corner.”

Of course, Cromartie brought the Jets some bad PR this year on a few occasions, calling New England Patriots QB Tom Brady(notes) a nasty word before the playoffs and doing the same to the NFLPA and NFL owners, among other things.

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Source: ESPN New York

Related: Darrelle Revis, Tom Brady, New England Patriots, New York Jets