"We came here for a reason," said a triumphant Rex Ryan, still glowing just minutes after his Jets finished off a 28-21 win in New England. "We said, you know, maybe everybody else didn't believe in us or whatever, but we believed. We worked too hard to get back here, and we came for a reason."
That reason, of course, was revenge. It was only a little more than a month ago that the Jets flew to New England, only to be handed the most embarrassing loss of their lives. Though this rematch was filled with a week's worth of off-field drama, it wasn't decided by any of that. It was, quite simply, a matter of execution, and when it mattered most, the Jets played better.
"I think [the Patriots] were a little bit cocky, thinking they could come in with the same game plan," said linebacker Bart Scott, who made his loose-lipped coach look shy by comparison. "We showed them that we can make adjustments. We did it the first game. Check. In the second game, they came in and beat us. Check. We came in when it counted the most. Check — checkmate."
Wide recever Braylon Edwards, who said in the wake of that 45-3 loss that the Patriots ran up the score, couldn't deny that the sting of that loss helped inspire Sunday's win.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," said Edwards, when asked if he was thinking about the Dec. 6 matchup heading into the rematch. "They beat the brakes off of us. There is no way around that, and it hurts. … They embarrassed us … and we put that in the back of our minds tonight."
If it was in the back of their minds, execution was on the forefront. Mark Sanchez played better than Tom Brady, Ryan game-planned better than Bill Belichick, and the Jets were able to shock most folks — Brady included.
"It's like you're on the treadmill at 10 miles per hour, and then someone just hits the stop button, said Brady, who finished 29-for-45 for 299 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. "I think we certainly expected to play better."
So did just about everyone else, but not necessarily the Jets.
"We're a confident group," said LaDainian Tomlinson, whose season had been ended by the Patriots in the playoffs twice before. "We always felt like we had the better team, and we just had to go out and prove it.
"I can't tell you how many times they put me out," Tomlinson added. "It feels good to finally put them out."
Though the Jets may have played better than the Patriots, they didn't do it without a little help. That assistance came from Dennis Byrd, a former Jet whose career was cut short in 1992, when he suffered an injury that left him unable to walk. He was brought in to the Jets' hotel Saturday night, where he talked to the team and even presented them the jersey that was cut off his body after the injury.
"It was the most inspirational thing that I've ever heard in my life," said Edwards, who carried two defenders on his back to score a touchdown that gave the Jets a 14-3 lead at halftime. "He basically said he would give anything in his life to be able to play one more play. Not even a game — he said one more play.
"I just felt Dennis Byrd as I was going into the end zone. I'm not trying to get cheesy or anything like that, but it's honest. I felt his spirit and the things that he talked about."
It may sound like hyperbole, but football is an emotional game. Something that may seem like it has nothing to do with the action on the field may have been as significant as anything on Sunday night.
"I'll tell you what — he's a Jet and he'll always be a Jet," Ryan said of Byrd.
Yet, inspirational speeches aside, the Jets came out and did what they wanted, pretty much all night long. They pressured Brady nearly every time he dropped back, they won the turnover battle and they played the bend-but-don't-break defense to perfection. Still, while the Jets were quick to discuss in great detail their win over the Patriots, they weren't getting too far ahead of themselves.
"This is a win; this isn't our goal," Scott said. "Our goal is still ahead of us. We still got a lot of work to do."
That work begins with a trip to Pittsburgh, where the Jets beat the Steelers less than a month ago. They said they respect Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu and that a win won't come easy, but the head coach wasn't ready to start working on his game plan just yet.
"I'll tell you what," Ryan said when asked of his thoughts on playing at Heinz Field. "I'll tell you [Monday] or the next day. I am going to enjoy this one.
"We've got to go into Pittsburgh, I told players last game [in December] — make your marks, because we are coming back here. I said the same thing about going to New England. So, for some reason, I don't know — maybe I'm not always wrong about everything I say."
Ryan definitely wasn't wrong this week, and for now, for him and the Jets, it's on to the next one.
