THESE Herman Edwards Jets have talked about making their own history, and this is the time for them to walk the walk.
“If you think you’re a good team,” Edwards was saying yesterday afternoon, “you gotta make your move.”
The 6-1 Jets think they’re a good team.
Make your move.
Walk the walk stride for stride with the Patriots and Steelers and Broncos and walk the walk to keep ahead of the Jaguars, Colts, Chargers, Texans and Chiefs in any wild-card race.
Walk the walk now, behind a head coach Reggie Jackson would dub Mr. November, so you don’t have to make a desperate run to the playoffs in December, when the Steelers and Patriots surface on the schedule.
Edwards is 10-2 in November and if he can beat the Bills Sunday in Buffalo then the Ravens at home, then the Browns and Cardinals on the road, the Jets will, at the very least, be in position to land a playoff game at Giants Stadium.
“That’s what I call ‘moving month,’ ” Edwards said.
Make your move.
The Jets titillated New York and made America sit up and take notice Monday night when THEY PLAYED TO WIN THE GAME on both sides of the ball and destroyed the will of a club fighter of a football team looking for a place to fall.
Two years ago, when the Jets were 2-5, Edwards roused his team with his now-famous YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME fire-and-brimstone in the press room.
The date was Oct. 28. Last week, behind closed doors, he exhorted his players with essentially the same message.
“I said, ‘It’ll be our attitude that will determine where we go,’ ” Edwards said.
And what must that attitude be?
“To be focused, to be determined and to be relentless every time we step on the football field,” Edwards said. “You go play, and make sure there’s nothing left when you play.”
YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.
You let Chad Pennington stretch the field and take shots. You get LaMont Jordan into the game. You send everyone short of the 82nd Airborne at the quarterback. The four Herminators up front are starting to remind Edwards of Sapp & Co. in Tampa. “They’re always agitated,” Edwards said, smiling.
The Jets reacted the way champions react after a showdown loss for the division lead. Now they must react the way champions react after a blowout victory on the road against a 2-5 team.
“Your team starts reflecting who you are after they’ve been with you,” Edwards said.
Edwards was consistent, disciplined, energetic, passionate, competitive, hungry, classy and an overachiever. “I always tell guys, God gives you talent,” Edwards said. “Whatever talent you have you gotta
overachieve with it. If God gives you great talent, you become a superstar.”
What tickled Edwards was the change in his team, into stonecold killers, after the Dolphins tied the game 7-7. “It’s almost like they went, ‘OK, we gotta pick this thing up now,’ ” he said.
In his book, YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME, Edwards offers his Profile of a Winning Team: “A winning team feeds on itself, not just by attracting better talent, but by raising its own level of confidence and passion for the team.
“A winning team plays to win, not to lose. That is often the difference between success and mediocrity.
“A winning team keeps improving. Team members know that if they stop improving, their time is finished.
“A winning team is made up of players who make their teammates successful. Few people are successful unless a lot of people want them to be.”
Add this one: A winning team makes its move in November.
