Rex Ryan on the Battle to Overtake the Patriots

Oct 14, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan on the sidelines against the Indianapolis Colts during the second quarter at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

Rex Ryan has made no bones of his intention to win a championship with the New York Jets, as we have all heard on multiple occasions. He came here with the notion that the “Same Old Jets” were no more, and that he would be the coach to break the drought of championships for the Jets.

He knows, that the first step is to win the division, and that means to take out the New England Patriots. This has been Rex Ryan’s goal from day one, from when he said he wasn’t here to “kiss Belichick’s rings”. His goal is to beat this team. Rex wants these guys bad, as do we. So much so, that he has admitted that roster moves are made with New England in the back of their minds:

I think as a competitor, you want to win. You’re always trying to win your division first, and that will set you up for everything else. You have to match up. I think that’s the way you kind of look at it. We’ve built our team up on the backend to match up with them. When you have Cromartie and (Darrelle) Revis and guys like that (and) Kyle Wilson, you draft Kyle Wilson in the first round, it’s to match up with those guys. We’re one of the, maybe, the only team in the league that can try to play them in man coverage, where most guys will back off and play zone after zone, down after down. I think we, maybe, present different challenges. Obviously, they present a huge challenge to us. The way they’re running the football too, is different than in the past.

One of the positions it has made an impact was at safety, as Rex alluded to:

Well, we obviously needed to add some safeties and things. We’re fortunate that we were able to get both Yeremiah (Bell) and LaRon (Landry) to go with Eric Smith. (We) drafted a couple young guys that we think are going to be good players as well. That’s definitely an area that we thought we needed to grab some guys, and that’s what we did.

It’s clear that the Jets have made moves with New England in mind, and there is nothing wrong with that. They need to have home playoff games, and that means beating this team. And the rivalry? To me it’s the best one in sports right now, and it is great fun to watch.