Herman Edwards has a vision for his Jets – a very real, tangible goal. He wants to forge a defense so smothering, so stifling, it hardly matters who’s playing offense. He looks at Baltimore and turns green not with Jet pride but professional envy. Edwards admits the Jets have a ways to go, but tomorrow’s game in Miami will serve as a pretty good measuring stick.
The Jets (6-3) will face the Dolphins (6-2) with first-place in the AFC East on the line. Despite the Jets’ seven-game winning streak against the Dolphins, Edwards said tomorrow is the kind of game that tells a coach what kind of team he has.
“It’s going to be a fun game for us, one that you want your team to play,” Edwards said. “If you do things right, it continues. The next week is always bigger. That’s great. Your team has to go through that to see how they’re going to function in a situation like this. That’s a process you go through to find out where you’re at.
“It’s going to be an emotional game early. What we have to do is keep our poise and stay focused. They’ll be fired up. We have to withstand that energy they’re going to have; then the game starts. If you get overwhelmed, you fall behind.”
It sounds much like the Jets’ season. After six games, they were 3-3, had given up 200-yard rushing performances to both San Francisco and St. Louis and had statistically the worst defense in football. But since becoming more cohesive and more attack-minded the last three weeks, they’ve given up just 28 points – and seven of those came on a fumble return.
“It builds a lot of confidence,” said free safety Damien Robinson. “Now we’ve got guys knowing their jobs and their roles. Early in the season, guys were caught thinking [what to do]. Now they know their roles and what they have to do. When you get an opportunity to play free, you can just act, not react. You can make the plays you know how to make.”
Robinson should know the system; the free agent came from Tampa Bay, where Edwards had been his secondary coach. He had a career-high six interceptions last year, including sealing a 16-13 win over Miami by picking off Jay Fiedler with :14 left on the Bucs’ 9-yard line in Week 14.
He doesn’t have any INTs this year, but the Jets still lead the NFL with a plus-17 turnover ratio. Since they’ve mixed in more man with their double-zones, and since the players have grasped the system, they’ve been even better.
“If you can create a rush with four, five guys, it’s fun to play defense, because [the other team is] gonna screw it up,” Edwards said. “They’re gonna not be patient enough to take the things that you’re giving them. They’re gonna try that little extra, hold the ball a little longer, or they’re gonna try to fit it in there and it’s an interception.”
