Barring a total collapse, the New York Jets will make the NFL playoffs. Barring an improvement on both sides of the ball, they won’t be there for long.
A week after being embarrassed by the New England Patriots, the Jets look to get back on the winning track when they host the Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon.
The Jets suffered one of the biggest losses in Monday Night Football history when they were dominated by the Patriots 45-3.
The loss dropped New York (9-3) out of the AFC East lead and carved a path that would make the brash-talking Jets a wild-card team in the playoffs.
Jets coach Rex Ryan called it the most humiliating loss of his coaching career, but in typical Ryan fashion he vowed the Jets would regroup and make a run at a Super Bowl berth.
They’ll need help if they want to win the division, and they’ll also have to prove they can beat quality teams. Of New York’s nine wins this season, only one came against a team with a winning record (New England in Week 2).
And even though New York entered Monday night’s game riding a four-game winning streak, the Jets were far from dominant in that stretch, beating Cleveland and Detroit in overtime and posting an unlikely comeback win against Houston.
Even Ryan’s vaunted defense was exposed by Tom Brady and the Patriots on Monday and has slid down the NFL ranks.
New York suddenly appears to have warts on both sides of the ball. LaDainian Tomlinson, in the midst of a career renaissance, hasn’t scored a touchdown in six games and quarterback Mark Sanchez has 11 interceptions against eight touchdowns in the last seven outings.
Sanchez hopes to rebound against Miami. He threw for 256 yards and three touchdown passes as New York won at Miami 31-23 earlier in the season. Tight end Dustin Keller caught two of the scoring passes.
The Dolphins (6-6) have rotated wins and losses for the past nine weeks and are coming off a 13-10 setback against Cleveland last week.
While the defense was stout, quarterback Chad Henne and the Dolphins had little success moving the ball. Henne was intercepted three times in the game, including one in the final minute that allowed the Browns to kick the game-winning field goal on the final play.
Miami has won three of the past four meetings between the two teams, including a 30-25 win at New York last season when Ted Ginn returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in the third quarter.
Henne, who threw for a career-high 363 yards in the game, recorded a career-low 37.8 passer rating in last week’s loss.
Some of it wasn’t his fault.
The Dolphins played without star wideout Brandon Marshall (hamstring) and Brian Hartline (hand), leaving Davone Bess as the lone experienced receiver. Hartline is out again this week while Marshall returned to practice on Wednesday.
Recently signed cornerback Al Harris was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.
Defensively, Cameron Wake hopes to make Sanchez’s life difficult in the pocket. Wake leads the NFL with a dozen sacks on the season.
Miami ranks 29th in the NFL in scoring (17.9 ppg).