Updated, 7:00 p.m. ET
Resiliency is a word many are using today to describe Geno Smith's performance in our 18-17 win Sunday over the Buccaneers.
But the word is being used all around MetLife Stadium and the Atlantic Health Training Center these days, and it's not to describe any one player in particular.
I posed the question to Nick Folk after the game: Which kick did he enjoy more? The gamewinner over the Cowboys in 2011 or the kick that just beat the Bucs?
"Each year is so different," he said, deftly turning the question away from himself. "We just have a totally different team from two years ago. We have a great resilient group of guys in here that want to succeed, want to do well, and I think we will do well this year."
"Man, we talk about a resilient group," head coach Rex Ryan said. "We certainly have one."
And where does resiliency spring from? Togetherness, bonding — and there's been a lot of that talk around the locker room these days as well. For instance, Demario Davis after his game-saving tackle of Vincent Jackson at the Jets 26 with 1:04 to play, said his play was the result of his God-given speed plus one other thing.
"It's not just me, man. We've got 11 guys to the football," he said. "We've got fast guys. You see guys like Antwan Barnes takes off from the other side of the field and Sheldon Richardson, who can get to the ball every play. We've got a lot of players like that. Anybody else in that position, they would make that same play."
Sheldon tracking down Jackson like Davis just did a short while before? Well, maybe. As tackle Austin Howard explained:
"That can carry you a long way, it can. It's a mindset. It's a band of brothers. It took us a while to figure that out. Now we're on that track."
"There are a lot of guys with chips on their shoulders. They feel disrespected," explained TE Konrad Reuland. "It's in our hands to control what we do out here this season. This past victory, especially, the scene in the locker room, I feel, showed the guys are really coming together. We care about each other. And this is not something you see every year with every team."
Either the Jets players have become a cult, or they've become a band of brothers who are saying a lot of stuff that won't pan out in the weeks ahead.
Or else they're onto something. They're aware of that secret that seems able to be unlocked best in a football environment, so that once a season or so, some team gets "on that track," understands that it can become greater than the sum of its parts and can aspire to great things.
Which is it for these Jets? It's too early to tell yet, of course. Win or lose at New England won't resolve the question, either. But we'll know shortly.
Meanwhile, Rex Ryan was asked at his news conference today if he had anything to say to those critics who ranked us as the No. 32 team in the NFL this season. His answer hinted of resiliency and togetherness, with a dash of us against them.
"We never ranked ourselves 32nd. We said that from day one," he said. "We're a confident football team. We know how to prepare how to work, all that stuff. We feel good about us. Outside is what it is. Maybe we'll be 31st this week. We'll just keep working our way and we'll see."
Quinn's Back In
As expected, we announced the re-signing of QB Brady Quinn to the active roster after he was signed, then released last week. To make room, LB Danny Lansanah was released from the active roster. And WR Rahsaan Vaughn, a late-training-camp signee, has been added to the practice squad.
"Inside the Jets"
Our weekly radio show, "Inside the Jets," starts up again tonight from 7–8 p.m. from the Grasshopper Off the Green restaurant in Morristown, NJ, with the simulcast on ESPN New York 98.7FM. Host for the show is "Voice of the Jets" Bob Wischusen, and Demario Davis and Nick Folk are scheduled to be Bobby's guests.
