JLC: Jets will cruise to AFC East title

[Big Bid'Ness]

From:NFL.com

By Jason La Canfora NFL Network


You have to hand it to Rex Ryan. He might grate on you some with his bluster, and the Jets might not be the most popular team on a national scale, but the big man backs it up, more often than not.

OK, so that Super Bowl prediction thing hasn't worked out so well for him yet. But for the third straight year, he appears to have righted his team at a time of potential crisis. And it's hard to imagine the playoffs without this wacky bunch back and making noise again.

Every year I watch Mark Sanchez struggle for a spell and see this team look patently mediocre and wonder where the natural pass rushers are and figure this over-the-hill gang will start to spiral in the standings. But then they rally and get into the postseason and play their best football on the biggest stage.

I can't doubt them this time around. You know, that 'ol fool-me-once routine. I still wonder about the quarterback and whether guys like LaDainian Tomlinson and Plaxico Burress will hit the wall, but after sandwiching huge wins over Buffalo and San Diego around the bye, New York is positioned to be a factor again. (And yes, I hear you about the Bills and Chargers not exactly being the mid-'90s Cowboys, but those are crucial AFC wins with tiebreaking potential).

If the Jets take care of the suddenly reeling Patriots this weekend, then the rest of their AFC journey sets up quite nicely for Rex and the boys. They go to Denver, and don't leave the East Coast after that at all, with remaining conference games against Buffalo, Kansas City and Miami. And they'll face Buffalo on extended rest coming off the Thursday night game at Denver.

Yeah, this is looking familiar to me. They lost three in a row to fall to 2-3 and were out-muscled by Oakland and Baltimore in the process. But center Nick Mangold got healthy, Rex did his Rex In Crisis thing, and now they've won three in a row. In 2010, they got blown out by New England, lost to lowly Miami the next week and faced a daunting December trip to Pittsburgh. They ended up beating the Steelers. In 2009, Rex himself declared them essentially out of the playoffs after a December loss to Atlanta, but then who can forget the debut of Curtis Painter and the Colts resting their starters and the 9-7 Jets ended up in the AFC Championship Game.

I doubted them back then. Won't be fooled again.

The Jets are going to beat the Patriots and make a power move in this division and ended up hosting a playoff game for a change (ditto for the Ravens, who have been stuck behind Pittsburgh the way the Jets have been behind New England). The Jets went ahead and got the adversity out of the way in October this time around, and I foresee relative smooth sailing by the time the holiday season arrives this year. Heck, Rex won't know what to do with himself if he's sitting on a two-game lead as the schedule winds down. Unchartered territory there.

It's cliché and all, but this group thrives on being doubted and even seems to enjoy a little bit of drama. If this defense continues to play as it has for the past six quarters or so, the Jets are going to pull away from the 5-3 pack in the AFC East. I don't believe they'll get over that AFC Championship hump -- I need to see more consistency from Sanchez, and more accuracy, and still have some concerns about the run game as well -- but this group is playoff-tested and they will be in the mix again.

The Patriots and Bills will battle it out for a wild-card spot (the Bengals will have something to say about that as well), but this is New York's year in the AFC East. I absolutely, positively, guarantee it. Take it to the bank. Well, OK, that was my inner Rex writing there. While I'll leave the guarantees to the gregarious coach, I have a strong feeling Jets fans are going to enjoy the second half of the season.