{"id":12226,"date":"2012-05-01T10:06:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T14:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=12226"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:11:25","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T14:11:25","slug":"play-like-a-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2012\/05\/01\/play-like-a-jet\/","title":{"rendered":"“Play Like A Jet”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upon hearing he was drafted in the 3rd<\/sup> round by the New York Jets, Demario Davis was quoted as saying \u201cAll I can say is, I am ready to play like a Jet\u201d.\u00a0 So it got me to wondering what exactly that phrase means.\u00a0 It\u2019s become a bit of a running joke in my family.\u00a0 As one of my kids heads out for a soccer or lacrosse match, I will often tell or text them to \u201cPlay like a Jet\u201d.\u00a0 I am pretty sure I know what Rex thinks it means.\u00a0 When Ryan was introduced to the media as the New York Jets new head football coach, he made one statement that immediately convinced me things could finally be different for Jets fans.\u00a0 He said “We want to be known as the most physical football team in the NFL, the players will have each other’s backs, and if you take a swipe at one of ours, we’ll take a swipe at two of yours\u201d.\u00a0 I have to be honest, that made my hair stand up, because I had not heard that level of bravado in many years.\u00a0 And it is partly why I live with the Super Bowl predictions and everything else.<\/p>\n

Now that we know what it means, upon further examination, have the Jets and Ryan lived up to those expectations?\u00a0 Certainly the defense has improved statistically, but I think it\u2019s fair to say they have come up very short on the type of football Ryan wants from his team.\u00a0 In fact, The Ryan coached Jets biggest problem may be their inability to compete against the more physical teams in the NFL.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Jets have lost their last two contests to the Baltimore Ravens, and maybe looking scared is too strong, but they certainly were not ready to compete physically in either game.\u00a0 The second game against the Miami Dolphins in 2010, the Tony Sparano coached team pounded their wildcat running game down the Jets gullet.\u00a0 In January 2011 the Pittsburgh Steelers took the opening possession, ran 15 plays for 92 yards, and used 9:06 of the clock.\u00a0 36 of those yards were pounded off tackle by running back Rashard Mendenhall.\u00a0 The Steelers defense dominated the Jet\u2019s offense in the first half, setting the tone for the rest of the game.\u00a0 Clearly Ryan still has some work to do.<\/p>\n

Whenever an article that points out the shortcomings of a team or coach is published, most writers secretly hope the piece ends up on the desk of whom it\u2019s critiquing.\u00a0 In my case, my hope is motivated by two things, vanity and winning.\u00a0 I think I have all the answers and I want a Super Bowl more than anything.\u00a0 Except in this case, as I thought about this \u201cPlay like a Jet\u201d motto, I truly believe a reminder of how Ryan predicted the Jets organization would be perceived is the exact culture that could turn this franchise back in the right direction after a disappointing 2010-2011 campaign.<\/p>\n

With the draft behind us and free agency slowing down, it is time to focus on what the 2012 New York Jets will look like.\u00a0 Will they continue down the path of sketchy focus, untimely penalties, broken leadership, inconsistent execution, and poor tackling? \u00a0Or will they take the phrase \u201cPlay like a Jet\u201d seriously and become a hard-nosed, physical football team that puts the NFL on notice; The New York Jets are committed to excellence.\u00a0 The 2012 Jets will undoubtedly have some new faces that will have to contribute to make them a great football team.\u00a0 From day one the coaches and veterans must lead by example for LaRon Landry, Quinton Coples, Stephen Hill, Demario Davis and all the new Jets.\u00a0 From the opening kickoff until that final whistle, The New York Jets are going to hit you again and again.\u00a0 Running backs should lose heart when facing our defense, receivers should hear footsteps as every passed ball approaches, special teams returners should worry more about holding on to the ball than changing the game with a big return.<\/p>\n

Rex Ryan came to New York and his first order of business was to give his new football team an identity.\u00a0\u00a0 As far as I am concerned, he can continue to predict Super Bowls and be bold and brash with the media every chance he gets.\u00a0 As long as he keeps his promise to make this team \u201cthe most physical in the NFL. If he does that, \u201cPlay like a Jet\u201d can mean something special or it can be a joke a father repeats to his kids as they run out the door.\u00a0 Which will it be Rex?<\/p>\n

Tell us what you think it means to Play Like a Jet in our NY Jets message board<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon hearing he was drafted in the 3rd round by the New York Jets, Demario Davis was quoted as saying \u201cAll I can say is, I am ready to play like a Jet\u201d.\u00a0 So it got me to wondering what exactly that phrase means.\u00a0 It\u2019s become a bit of a running joke in my family.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-editorials"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-3bc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12226"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12241,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226\/revisions\/12241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}