Rex Ryan’s Jets Played with a Chip on Their Shoulders

Sept 9, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan and New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) talk during the pre-game warmup for their game against the Buffalo Bills at MetLIfe Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE

Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez, and the New York Jets went into yesterday’s game with a lot of doubters. The way the offense played during the preseason, people wondered how long it would take before the offense imploded, and all hell broke loose. So how did they respond? With a 48-28 drubbing of the Buffalo Bills.

When a team is collectively angry, it makes them even tougher to beat. The Jets played like an angry football team, that was tired of being criticized. At least that is how head coach Rex Ryan felt:

I certainly do, absolutely. I feel like we had a chip on our shoulder, but that’s each week, you have to play with urgency. Maybe not a chip, but urgency is a better word. You only get 16 regular season games, and we’re excited to play, especially in front of our fans, against a divisional opponent. We were up for it, there’s no question about it. I think vindication, or chip on the shoulder, maybe that’s not the right thing. We were just excited to play. We feel good. We think we did a lot of good things at training camp. This week with preparation, I thought was tremendous. It came down to the way our players executed and our assistant coaches. I thought they did a tremendous job this week.

Rex, like Mark, felt confident in his offense going into the game yesterday:

I had a pretty good feeling that we were going to play well. I told the guys before the game that I had that kind of confidence. They know I might not always be right, but they know I don’t tell them something I don’t believe. I really felt we were going to have a big game. It was really just the work I saw during the week and everything leading up to this point. I felt very confident. When Mark has time to throw the football, he can throw it with anybody. We have plenty of weapons. I was happy to see my draft pick (joking), Stephen Hill, get two touchdowns. That was tremendous. Hopefully, (Mike) Tannenbaum will lean on me more we are drafting receivers. (joking)

It’s one game, let’s not put them in the Super Bowl yet, but it certainly is a good sign. When the Jets said that there was a lot of that offense that we haven’t seen, they were absolutely right. We can only hope that it continues next week.