You walk around the Jets’ locker room and ask their defensive players if they can pinpoint exactly when, why and how their defense made the turn from being weekly doormats to the disguising, disruptive unit it has become in the last three games, and no one gives you the same answer.
A look at the calendar, though, gives you a pretty clear picture.
The bye week, which came a month ago, appears to be the turning point. Prior to the bye week, the Jets had allowed 193 points in eight games, an average of 24.1 points per game. Since the bye week, the 6-5 Jets have allowed 35 points in three games entering Sunday’s game against the Packers in Green Bay, an average of a mere 11.7 points per game.
That kind of defense, if continued in the next five weeks, will earn the Jets a playoff berth.
Guaranteed.
With the way the Jets are playing defense right now, winning four of five against the Packers (4-7), Bills (5-6), Vikings (5-6), Dolphins (5-6) and Raiders (2-9) hardly seems impossible. What has happened to this once-predictable defense that made every running back look like a reincarnation of Jim Brown?
“We’re having fun, that’s the most important thing,” safety Kerry Rhodes said.
“It just took longer for guys to pick it up,” linebacker Matt Chatham said of Eric Mangini’s 3-4 defense.
“We’re just feeling more and more comfortable with the scheme,” linebacker Victor Hobson said. “As the coaches feel more comfortable with us and we feel more comfortable with the system, it gives everyone a lot more freedom.” Indeed, the Jets’ defense has gone from a relatively flat and predictable read-and-react group to one that has proven it can disrupt offenses with blitzing (see the New England and Chicago games) and confuse them by disguising the blitz and staying in its base (see Sunday against Houston).
Chatham, who played for Mangini in New England before signing here this season, pointed directly to the bye week as the turning point.
“One of the biggest strengths of what they did up there (in New England), and it’s what Eric is bringing here, is reacting to what you do wrong,” Chatham said. “They’re really good at selfscouting.
They’re really good at trying to minimize mistakes, trying to put ourselves in the best position to win.
“What bye weeks do is give you a chance to self-scout a little bit more. When games are rolling eight, nine in a row, it’s very difficult to step back and say, ‘We’re not very good at this; this is what we need to go back and change.'” Mangini now refers to the final practice of the bye week as a time when he saw a collective light go on from his players.
“The days we had during the bye, we got a lot done,” Rhodes said. “We went back to the basics with everything and whatever we did wrong we pointed it out.
We just knew we had to stand up for each other and be accountable.
We weren’t holding up our end of the bargain as good as we would have liked to.
“So we wanted to come and put a complete game and complete effort together and we’ve been doing that.” The results have been dramatic.
With deference to Chad Pennington’s terrific performance Sunday against the Texans, the improvement of the young offensive line and the consistently outstanding performances of wide receivers Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery, the defense has led the way toward this final stretch.
And it’s going to take the defense to close this deal, to carry this team to the postseason.
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.
