by Rex Ryan
The matchup against Buffalo is what they call a classic trap game. We opened the season on Monday Night Football against the Ravens and got beat by a point. Then we had New England and then a huge Sunday-night game against Miami. So already we had three big games right out of the gate. In reality, they were probably the biggest games in the NFL at that stage of the season, and we were involved in all three of them. Now we are headed to play a team that we are physically and strategically better than, so people think it’s an automatic win. That’s a trap game.
We were in the same situation in 2009. We won our first three games against Houston, New England, and Tennessee and then played at New Orleans and ended up getting beaten. We threw six interceptions and lost. That’s why I made it a point to never look past ANYONE. We can’t assume we will get a victory, because it doesn’t always work out the way you plan. Fortunately, in this case it did. The 38-14 win over Buffalo was another great divisional win for us.
The second of the five prime-time games we had scheduled for the season was against the Minnesota Vikings right here at home. The hype surrounding this game was inevitable due simply to the fact that Brett Favre played here for a year in 2008. So here he was, back to take on his former team, and the media storm began. Of course, in the days before our game the focus had shifted from his return to New York to a new scandal involving Favre and one of our former employees. When the story broke, it was like a Tiger Woods media frenzy all over again. To add to the hype, the Patriots made an unexpected change to their roster and traded Randy Moss back to the Vikings. I thought to myself, “Why did Belichick have to trade him this week? Couldn’t he have waited until after we played them?”
It made me laugh, but in all seriousness, if there is one person you don’t want to have to face twice it’s Randy Moss. He is a freak of an athlete, and we already had to prepare for him once that month. All I could think about was whether I was going to see another ridiculous one-handed catch like he made against us in Week 2.
Fortunately for us, the game went our way. We were dominating the game, yet not scoring touchdowns—just kicking field goals. Games like that you usually lose. Plus, you have Brett Favre on the other side and all you keep thinking is “Oh man, I know any second now this guy’s going to get hot.” We really seemed to drown everything out and focus on the goal, though. When we got an interception to wrap it up and the game was ours, I looked over at Matt Cavanaugh, one of our offensive assistant coaches, and he was smiling because I had predicted that exact ending. We ended up beating the Vikings 29-20 in one hell of a game.
Despite the off-field distractions—the hour-long delay of game, the brutal weather conditions, and a total change to our game plan because of Randy Moss—we still managed to beat what I considered, at that point in the season, to be one of the most talented football teams in the league. Brett Favre is as good as they get in terms of an experienced quarterback, and while he didn’t have a 2010 season anything like he expected, there’s still nothing more nerve-racking as a coach than watching him start to scramble.
Our next matchup was against the Broncos. Denver is a difficult place to play for us. Not only is it a long trip, but the conditions are not anything like we are used to in New York. I don’t care what anyone says, it takes a while to get used to playing in high altitude like that. We left earlier than we usually would for this reason. To sum it up, we walked away with our fifth win of the season, beating the Broncos 24-20. We now had the best record in the league, at 5-1, and it sure felt good. Yes, we definitely made some mistakes against Denver, but I think Bill Parcells is right when he says, “The best record reflects that you are the best team.” I have always agreed with that; I was just waiting for other people to see it, too.
Coming off our bye week, we played Green Bay at home on Halloween night. The Packers handed us our second loss of the season, embarrassing our offense in the process, shutting us out, 9-0. I have to give Green Bay all the credit. They were unbelievable on that day, far better than we were. On a positive note, I thought our defense was outstanding. We held them to only 14 percent on third-down conversions. Overall, we just couldn’t pull it together as a team.
Mark Sanchez couldn’t throw the ball for the first half of the game, and then once he found his rhythm in the second half our receivers couldn’t catch the ball. Nick Folk missed field goals that he usually could make in his sleep. All the way around, we were a mess. It’s frustrating to watch a team you know is so damn good just throw it away like that.
My immediate reaction after a loss is to want to get that moment back. Unfortunately, in this league there are no do-overs. I can spend all day going over the things we could have done differently. We just had a ton of errors, like Steve Weatherford calling for a fake punt when we were fourth and 18 on our own 20-yard line. I love Weatherford; he’s an aggressive athlete, and by giving the guys an option to call their own plays on occasion, they can sometimes get too excited and act before they think.
All of those things contributed to our opening loss against Baltimore, and here they were again. What was disappointing was not only that we tarnished our record, it’s that we lost on our own turf. Losing at your place, that’s never okay. It was the first time all year that we didn’t play like Jets, and the worst part was that our fans had to see it live.
Going up to Detroit after that loss, I was glad to see how we handled the game mentally. Sometimes after teams suffer a loss, they can become mentally defeated, which takes a long time to overcome. Not us. We were still there to take it all. We came away with a 23-20 victory in overtime. I thought this was a huge turnaround for us. This game was all about mixing it up. We took a different approach and ran the ball a lot more, which is something Brian Schottenheimer, our offensive coordinator, and I had been talking about for some time.
I thought Mark did a great job, especially on the last three drives. He was calling two plays in the huddle and our guys were ready to go. We executed well and had so much confidence in our two-minute offense. Going into overtime, Sanchez came up to me and said, “Coach, if we get the ball back, can we stay in that two-minute mode?”
I said, “Heck, yeah, kid. Go for it! If that’s what you want, you go ahead.”
He was so confident, and I thought that was a great changeup for us. Mark proved more than once this year that he can lead this team to victory when we’re behind in the fourth quarter. It was cool to watch him each game as he got better and better. I know people want to rip on us for barely beating a team like Detroit, saying that we didn’t play well and we just got lucky. The way I look at it, we still won. We were 6-2 and felt like there was a lot more gas in the tank.
Sibling rivalry—there’s nothing better. Playing Cleveland, I went head-to-head against my twin brother, Rob, the defensive coordinator for the Browns. Both of us had been looking forward to this match-up all season. It was do-or-die all the way. Rob wasn’t our only connection to Cleveland, though; we were also going up against Browns head coach Eric Mangini, the head coach of the Jets just before me. The entire week leading up to this game, Rob and I did nothing but give each other hell. It was great. Rob and I are so competitive. We would call and rip on each other’s coaches. We would put each other on speakerphone and just go at it. I even went as far as to dress up like Rob in a press conference. The media gave this a lot of attention, but to me, it was just a way to keep things light for my players and to have a little fun. As you’ll see in this book, I think it’s vitally important to have fun with what you do—especially if you’re lucky, like me, to have a job you really love. That’s why I put on that wig and stuffed my shirt with a pillow. If you need a good laugh, look for it on YouTube.
In all seriousness, though, I knew that Cleveland game was going to be a great game. Rob is among the most creative defensive minds in the league; he and Mike Pettine are about as creative as it gets. They are unbelievable in putting their players in positions where they can be most successful. Rob doesn’t worry about what a play
er can’t do. He focuses on what he can do.
Against the Browns, we were able to win our second overtime game of the season, this one 26-20. At the end of the day, I think it’s remarkable that Cleveland pushed us into overtime. I thought we were in total control of that game, but the scoreboard didn’t show what I was feeling. The game showed us that we couldn’t keep relying on fourth-quarter points to pull us through. We had to find a way to score in the red zone. We had the opportunity in the first three quarters, but for some reason we couldn’t make it happen. We had fallen into a bad habit of not scoring until the end of the game. Cleveland really exposed what a problem that was for us.
For the week after Cleveland, we worked in practice on becoming a more aggressive offensive team. It’s a good thing, because when we faced the Texans the following Sunday we scored 30 points—but we gave up 27! Beating the Texans put us at 8-2, a terrific start. It’s safe to say that the standout of that game was Santonio Holmes. He grabbed a six-yard scoring reception with 10 seconds left. He finished the game with seven receptions, 126 yards, and two touchdowns. He’s a stud. There’s not much more you can say.
The next week was Thanksgiving, and in the NFL nothing says “Thankful” better than a win on Thanksgiving Day in front of a massive TV audience. Cincinnati was a great win for us. That game was won because of our special teams and Brad Smith. Our defense did an awesome job, too. Although we rushed for 171 yards, our offense lagged behind a little, at least for our standards. We got off to a slow start, which like I said had been our routine those past couple weeks. But in this case, I felt during the second half that the momentum was shifting in our favor and we were about to take control of the game. Sure enough, that’s what happened. We won 26-10 and felt like things were rolling in 2010 just as we had envisioned. We were confident.
We started into that following week with a laser focus on preparing for our biggest road game of the year—our second matchup against the New England Patriots. Both teams were 9-2, and this Monday Night Football game was being billed nationally as an epic battle. It felt like a critical point in our season.
I’m going to take a break here and come back to this moment. So much happened in 2010 and before. Stick with me—there are a lot of details and stories I need to fill in.
2. Blunt-Force Trauma
I’ve always said that one big hit can change the momentum of a game faster than anything else—faster than a turnover, faster than anything that happens on the football field. I’ve always believed that, and that’s the way we’ve built our teams. I build them with the picture that big hits are part of our game plan.
I want 11 guys who will run to the football, bottom line. Actually, they better haul ass to the football. That’s what I want on every single play, every single down. Make a statement. Knock the snot out of somebody. Not only do I want big hits, which set the tone, but I also want turnovers that are generated from those big hits. We know how to take advantage of turnovers, too. Not only will we get an interception or a fumble recovery, we want to score off our opponent’s mistakes. I create plays off turnovers. Everyone looks at me like I am a dumbass: “Oh, how is this going to work?” It does work.
Midway into the 2010 season, we led the NFL with a plus-10 turnover differential. Our cornerback, Dwight Lowery, iced consecutive wins over Minnesota and Denver when he made good with turnovers. He returned a Brett Favre interception for a touchdown to foil a possible Minnesota Vikings comeback in Week 5 and recovered a bad Denver Broncos snap to stuff a potential game-winning drive in Week 6. We also had recovered nine fumbles at that point, tied for the league lead.
We’ve got players who know exactly what they are going to do with the football when turnovers happen. Take an interception, for example. There are a series of events that automatically happen. We block the intended receiver, and that guy becomes the trailer for the pitch. If you want to pitch the ball there needs to be a trailer, and the trailer needs to be four yards wider and behind the guy carrying the football. That way when you turn and pitch it, you know who you are pitching it to. You could pitch it blind, and that guy would still be there. That’s a relationship you want to keep when you are trailing a play. Then we set edges as fast as we can to give more room for the returner. These are designed plays that we practice. Not a lot of defensive coaches approach the game this way. For us, it’s not enough just to stop our opponent; we want to “traumatize” them from both ends. Ultimately, you have to score.
I remember we blocked a field goal while I was with Baltimore. Our cornerback Ed Reed picked it up and started to return it upfield, and then pitched it back to Chris McAlister. Ed probably could have scored if he hadn’t pitched the football, but he turned and pitched it to Chris anyway. The officials ruled it a forward lateral, but it really wasn’t. We had it schemed perfectly. The point is we will always want to score off a turnover. Our first objective on defense is not to let them score—to keep their points to a minimum. Our second one is to create turnovers off big hits. And our third objective is to score off those turnovers. When a defense scores off a turnover, it is extremely difficult for an opponent to overcome it. It can squeeze the life out of a team and demoralize it. You can see it in an opponent’s body language. That’s why it’s so important for us to try to score when we create turnovers.
Each game we might also designate an opposing player with a dot. Players don’t want to be dotted by the New York Jets, because that means we want that dude knocked out of the game. Of course, it has to be legal and by the rule book. We don’t play dirty, and no way will we intentionally hurt a player with an illegal, cheap shot. We dot players fair and square. There are players out there who think they are badasses, and you just might see two of our players knock the hell out of him. Pow! Pow! That’s our mentality. Everything we do is aggressive and, hey, we may make a mistake, but we will go one hundred miles per hour and we will knock the hell out of you. Big hits create turnovers. You haven’t been Punked—you’ve been Dotted!
I know when people read about dotting players that they will immediately think of my father. It has been written that where Buddy Ryan led, trouble often followed. He coached the Eagles in the so-called Bounty Bowl in 1989, when he was accused of offering a reward to any Philadelphia player who injured Cowboys kicker Luis Zendejas. “I wouldn’t want to hurt him,” my father told the media. “He couldn’t kick. I wanted to be sure he was in there.” (Zendejas left the game with a concussion after being tackled.)
Michael McCrary, a former Ravens defensive lineman, told The New York Times Magazine: “I loved that Buddy was strictly a defensive guy. I heard from some Cardinals that offensive players hated him. If defensive players got fines, he’d pay them. Offensive guys, he wouldn’t even talk to them. Hated them. Rex used to be the same way. Don’t let him fool you. But he wasn’t as blatant as his father was. Now the whole team’s going to love him; he’s there for everybody.”
That’s right. I am there for everybody, and everybody knows how I want to play the game. We are going to try to intimidate opponents—and how do you intimidate them? You do it with big, vicious hits in your pursuit of the football. Again, that’s part of our game plan. We want our guys and our opponents to know each Sunday will be a double-chinstrap game. Fifty percent of all NFL games are decided by eight points or fewer, which means big hits can change the game’s momentum. That’s an edge I want each week.
I think every team in the NFL preaches about running to the football. We talk about it one time and we don’t talk about it again. We don’t coach effort. If you don’t play with effort on the New York Jets, we will not coach you for long. You might be good enough to play in this league, but it won’t be for us. We run to the football as hard as anyone in the league. If a player doesn’t run hard, he sticks out like a sore thumb when we review game film. We only have one speed—full speed. The Jets don’t have “thud” drills in practice, where defensive players wrap up the offensive player with the ball. It’s always at full speed. We al
ways go at full speed. As far as I see it, there is no point in practicing at half speed. If you want to get better, the only way to do it is full out, every single time—so that’s the way we work.
Big hits happen, but they are coached, too. My defensive coordinator, Mike Pettine, and I are like two peas in a pod. We know each other’s thoughts at all times during a game. We don’t dance around each other, either, because there’s not enough time. If you ever heard us on the headsets during games and what was said to each other, it’s stuff that might end friendships. Not ours. We are shoulder-to-shoulder after wins, smoking cigars, drinking a beer, laughing. We are like brothers. We both get it and see the same things on the football field. We might fill an entire white board in our office with schemes and formations, all great stuff, but the key is to condense it into a plan that makes sense to the players. Mike takes all that information, organizes it, and then we implement it into our game plans.
My defenses when I coached in Baltimore—and in New York, for that matter—were a force of relentless, unpredictable mayhem founded on my premise that “whatever you do best, we’re going to take away from you.” There are six basic defensive fronts in football, and teams usually play one of them. The two most popular are the 4-3, with four down linemen and three linebackers, and the 3-4, with three linemen and four linebackers. We might use all six, each packaged with dozens of variations. We might often line up the defense in one front and then shift to another before the snap. We are going to get to the player with the football and knock him silly.