One win from the Super Bowl, don’t expect the Jets to change now.
“We’re coming after ‘em. They’re coming after us. And the best team will win,” Rex Ryan said today of the Colts, the opponent in Sunday’s AFC Championship.
The same Colts who helped the Jets get into the playoffs by taking out their starters in the second half of a Week 16 game, blowing a undefeated season in the process.
“If we don’t beat them now, nobody’s going to care about all that other stuff,” Ryan said. “They can say, ‘Well see, they could have beat you and all that.’ Well, that’s a different day. This is a completely different day. We’ll never know what would have happened then.”
What did happen is this: The Colts, leading 15-10 in the third quarter, took out most of their stars, most importantly quarterback Peyton Manning. The Jets rallied to win 29-15, and with some help, got into the playoffs as a wild card, where they have beaten Cincinnati and San Diego on the road to get to Indianapolis again.
“The fact is that we won that game by 14 points,’’ Ryan said. “It wasn’t like we squeaked it out by one point or something like that. We played well. Granted it was the Colts JV team or whatever they want to call it, they still had the Colts uniform on.’’
It seems every Jets player is OK with playing the Colts, even though a Ravens victory on Saturday would have put the Championship game at the Meadowlands.
“This is the perfect script for us, man. We couldn’t have asked for a better script right now, getting a chance to play the Colts again,” Damien Woody said. “Everybody talkin’ about oh, they laid down for us and all that type of stuff, well now we have a second opportunity again against the Colts at their place again.
“Like I said, this could be a redemption factor for us. The guys are pumped up, psyched, ready to go to it and beat a really good Colts football team.”