The problem with Rex Ryan is that he’s so colorful, so quotable, so easy to like and so easy to root for, it’s been easy to overlook just how much he’s grown as a head coach in his first year, in just 18 games, 11 of which he has now won.
At the start of the season, Ryan had the usual snafus most rookie head coaches have, starting with clock management, extending to an uneasy transition to being THE GUY, an unsure relationship with the offense as a defensive specialist his whole life. We tended to focus on MarkSanchez’ growing pains as a rookie quarterback, but Ryan’s learning curve was equally inconsistent.
But just as there’s seemed to be a light bulb that’s gone off in Sanchez’ head the past few weeks, allowing him to be an effective field leader (and that rifle shot he landed in Dustin Keller’s chest early in the fourth yesterday was the seminal moment of the game; the difference between taking a 10-7 lead there and settling for a field goal and a 7-6 deficit was probably the difference between winning and losing), Ryan has grown by leaps and bounds as well.
Just in the playoffs alone, Ryan has shown an acumen for milking the clock when necessary and bleeding it when necessary, for lengthening some aspects of the game and shortening others. He made the bold step of taking a more active role in the offense, a move that could have alienated Brian Schottenheimer but instead seems to have closened their relationship. He always had the power to motivate men and, of course, to craft brilliant defensive schemes. It’s the other stuff that’s developed in a hurry.
And that’s no small victory. Just look at beleaguered Norv Turner, who will surely endure another round of criticism in the aftermath of another season meltdown, who was hailed as an offensive genius when he was a coordinator but is now on his third team as a head coach and has yet to prove that being a top-flight coordinator translates. He was especially brutal yesterday. It isn’t easy to do.
Rex Ryan has just made it look that way so far.
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LT is not AOK: Maybe the most shocking acoustic sound at Qualcomm Stadium Sunday was the uncomfortable buzz that filled the place every single time LaDainian Tomlinson touched the ball — a noise that became a full-blown booing by the end. Tomlinson is clearly almost finished as a player, and officially done as the iconic local figure he used to be.
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Same Old Jets? Now the New Bold Jets: According to my column in this morning’s Post, anyway.
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Look Who’s Still Alive: Is there any more delicious possibility left in this tournament than the Jets and Brett Favrerunning into each other in 20 days in Miami? We may need to figure out a way to have 3-4 back pages per day during Super Bowl week if that puppy happens.
