Nope, the Jets head coach showed up to practice Monday with a silly new tattoo and the same confidence that he brings every year. While that might not be particularly surprising to anyone, the way that he spoke about the Patriots is sure to cause a little stir in New England.
“I think we have to find somebody out there to beat New England besides us, and I think that would help,” Ryan said at his news conference. “Anybody out there that wants to sign up for it? Are you good enough as a team to beat the New England Patriots. Forget about us — are you good enough to go out and beat the New England Patriots? I’m challenging the league.”
The Jets, of course, won their playoff matchup with the Patriots 28-21 in Foxboro, though the game was never really that close. That game’s obviously fresh in Ryan’s mind, as he doesn’t appear to recall the Jets-Patriots game from a month prior to the playoff meeting, when the Patriots won 45-3.
Overall, in Ryan’s two years in New York, the Jets are 3-2 against the Patriots (2-2 in the regular season), with New England outscoring New York 120-89.
The coach always believes his team will win the Super Bowl, despite the fact that the team hasn’t won a Super Bowl. Still, like last year (when the Jets didn’t win the Super Bowl), Ryan feels this year’s roster is good enough to win the Super Bowl because the roster is as good as last year’s (when, again, the Jets did not win the Super Bowl.)
“We had a great roster last year,” Ryan said, “and it was one of those ‘I told you so’ rosters that maybe some people never really believed it was that good until it actually fell into place. I feel the same way about this one.”
