NEW YORK JETS DAILY CLIPS

October 27, 2013

1 | P a g e

Table of Contents

ASSOCIATED PRESS ................................................................................................................................................ 1

Bengals try to hold AFC North lead against Jets (Joe Kay) ........................................................................................ 2

Jets-Bengals Capsule (Staff) ....................................................................................................................................... 3

NEWSDAY .............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Jets need Jeremy Kerley to come up big again (Kimberley Martin) .......................................................................... 4

Odd couple off field, D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Willie Colon work together on it (Anthony Rieber) .................... 5

This might be Rex Ryan's best coaching effort (Kimberley Martin) .......................................................................... 8

STAR-LEDGER ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

Three matchups to watch for the Jets as they face the Bengals (Darryl Slater)........................................................ 9

Jets kicker Nick Folk relies on meticulous routine, separation of work and home life (Darrl Slater) ...................... 11

NEW YORK POST .................................................................................................................................................. 13

Jets will be viable contenders with Bengals win (Steve Serby) ............................................................................... 13

Jets see-saw season lands in Cincinnati (Brian Costello) ......................................................................................... 14

HS coaches recall Richardson’s determined NFL dream (Kevin Kernan) ................................................................. 17

Geno Smith’s anti-fumble drills working (Brian Costello) ....................................................................................... 19

Jets could be in first place by Monday (Mark Cannizzaro) ...................................................................................... 20

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ...................................................................................................................................... 21

Geno Smith is making NY Jets fun to watch (Mike Lupica) ..................................................................................... 21

NY Jets looking to lean on Geno Smith and passing game vs. Bengals (Seth Walder) ............................................ 24

NY Jets face the Bengals needing to end the win one, lose one cycle (Manish Mehta) ......................................... 25

NY Jets at Cincinnati Bengals: Geno Smith and Gang Green head to Cincy in search of consistency (Hank Gola) . 27

NEW YORK TIMES ................................................................................................................................................ 28

One Play Saved a Game and May Have Saved the Jets’ Season (Ben Shpigel) ........................................................ 28

ESPN NEW YORK .................................................................................................................................................. 30

99 Days: Super Bowl tailgating? Um ... (Jane McManus) ........................................................................................ 30

Fewer kicks the better for Nick Folk (Matt Ehalt) ................................................................................................... 31

If the Jets can win it, they're in it (Ian O’Connor) .................................................................................................... 32

METRO NEW YORK .............................................................................................................................................. 33

Jets vs. Bengals: 3 things to watch (Kristian Dyer) .................................................................................................. 33

SATURDAY’S SPORTS TRANSACTIONS .................................................................................................................. 34

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Daily Clips Cont.

2 | P a g e

Bengals try to hold AFC North lead against Jets (Joe Kay) Associated Press October 25, 2013

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=h7w9ctR9

CINCINNATI (AP) - By winning a pair of close games on the road with last-second field goals, the Bengals have taken control of the AFC North and won over many of their doubters.

Can they win over their home crowd this week?

Cincinnati (5-2) has a two-game lead in the division as it gets ready to host the resurgent New York Jets (4-3), who also are coming off a last-second win. Even so, the Bengals had thousands of tickets unsold less than a week before kickoff. The game finally sold out Thursday.

It's their history.

They haven't won a playoff game since the 1990 season, a stretch of futility tied for seventh longest in NFL history. They haven't done very well at home in recent years, going 11-13 at Paul Brown Stadium from 2010-12.

They might finally be establishing a home-field advantage. They're 3-0 at home this season and packing the place.

Quite a change.

"I still remember kicking the field goal to win it against Buffalo (23-20 in 2011) and there was about 10 people in the stands," left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. "We've had some ugly, ugly shows, and enough to where sometimes the other team's got more fans in the stands than we do.

"We've started to create that environment. Hopefully we can continue."

The Jets will want to keep 'em quiet by clamping down on Andy Dalton, who's had two of the best games of his career back to back, and giving rookie quarterback Geno Smith enough time to get rid of the ball against one of the NFL's top defensive lines.

Smith threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown last Sunday, but overcame it and led the Jets to a 30-27 overtime victory over New England that left them a game behind the Patriots in the AFC East. Smith has made the usual rookie mistakes - eight touchdowns, 11 interceptions - and also pulled off comebacks that seemed beyond his less than a year of experience.

He's the first quarterback since the 1970 merger to have four winning drives in the first seven games of career.

"We are a confident bunch, but it does help us going forward," he said of the latest comeback. "Hopefully, we can string together some more wins and just start building momentum as the season goes along."

Five things to watch at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday:

MORE GOOD THAN BAD FROM GENO? The second-round pick has shown a knack for overcoming his mistakes and doing something good at the end. Trouble is, sometimes the mistakes are too much. How will he do against a defense that has brought out the worst in Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady this season?

The Jets need some consistency out of him Sunday.

Daily Clips Cont.

3 | P a g e

"I know with that consistency at the quarterback (position), it usually leads to success with the team," Smith said. "That's something I'm trying to do, something I pride myself in - being a consistent decision-maker. That's what I have been trying to do and it's something that has really hit home with me as of late."

GENO VS. GENO: One of Smith's problems has been holding onto the ball too long. He's been sacked 25 times, the fifth-most sacks allowed in the league, and will be the focus of a defense led by tackle Geno Atkins, who has four sacks.

He's facing a defense that's ranked No. 9 in the league but lost top cornerback Leon Hall to injury last week.

"We have such a great defensive line, they are going to do their job to get back there," linebacker Vontaze Burfict said.

ANDY'S DANDY STRETCH: Dalton has played two of the best games of his career, leading the Bengals to a 27-24 win in overtime at Buffalo and a 27-24 victory in Detroit. He threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns in each game - only the second time he's done it in back-to-back games. His passer rating of 135.9 at Detroit was the highest of his three-year career.

"I felt really comfortable out there," Dalton said. "I thought the ball was coming out of my hand well, and the guys made some big catches."

GETTING THEIR KICKS: Both teams have really needed their kickers lately. Mike Nugent kicked a 43-yarder in overtime at Buffalo and a 54-yarder in Detroit on the last play of the game. Nick Folk made 42-yarder in overtime for Jets' win over New England, leaving him 16 for 16 on field goal attempts.

It won't be a surprise if the kickers are front and center again on Sunday.

"Points come at a premium in this league," Nugent said. "Every single point matters."

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: The Bengals haven't had a winning record at Paul Brown Stadium since 2009, when they went 6-2. The last three seasons, they've gone 3-5, 4-4 and 4-4. They can improve to 4-0 at home on Sunday and make a few more inroads on getting those fans back.

"We haven't had as good of a home record around here as we should," Whitworth said. "Some of that was not having a lot of people here and not being able to create that environment, and some of it is just being able to go out and prove that you can continuously win at home."

Here's their chance.

Back_to_Top

Jets-Bengals Capsule (Staff) Associated Press October 26, 2013

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=KYhYi95J

NEW YORK JETS (4-3) at CINCINNATI (5-2)

Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET, CBS

OPENING LINE - Bengals by 7

RECORD VS. SPREAD - New York 5-2, Cincinnati 4-2-1

SERIES RECORD - Jets lead 17-7

Daily Clips Cont.

4 | P a g e

LAST MEETING - Jets beat Bengals 26-10, Nov. 25, 2010

LAST WEEK - Jets beat Patriots 30-27, OT; Bengals beat Lions 27-24

AP PRO32 RANKING - Jets No. 13, Bengals No. 8

JETS OFFENSE - OVERALL (15), RUSH (11), PASS (21t)

JETS DEFENSE - OVERALL (4), RUSH (2), PASS (10)

BENGALS OFFENSE - OVERALL (12), RUSH (18), PASS (9)

BENGALS DEFENSE - OVERALL (9), RUSH (8), PASS (13)

STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES - Jets have won four in row and nine of last 10 against Bengals, including playoffs. In last trip to Cincinnati, they won 24-14 in opening round of 2009 playoffs. ... Both teams are coming off wins on last-second field goals. Nick Folk kicked 42-yarder in overtime for Jets. Mike Nugent was good from 54 yards on final play in Detroit. ... Folk is 16 for 16 on field goals. ... Second-round pick Geno Smith is only QB since 1970 merger to have four winning drives in first seven games of career. ... WR Santonio Holmes has missed last three games with hamstring injury. He leads NFL with average of 24.3 yards per catch. ... RB Chris Ivory had his first 100-yard rushing game as Jet, carrying career-high 34 times for 104 yards against New England. ... DE Muhammad Wilkerson leads Jets with six sacks and has three straight games with sack. ... Bengals lead AFC North by two games. They're trying to improve to 6-2 for first time since 2011. ... Cincinnati is 3-0 at Paul Brown Stadium. Bengals haven't won four home games in row since 2009, when they won five straight. ... Andy Dalton is in one of best stretches of three-year career. He's thrown for 300 yards in each of last two games, only second time in career he's done that. He's had three TDs in two straight games for second time in career as well. ... RB Giovani Bernard leads all rookies with 497 yards from scrimmage.

Back_to_Top

NEWSDAY

Jets need Jeremy Kerley to come up big again (Kimberley Martin) Newsday October 26, 2013

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/jets-need-jeremy-kerley-to-come-up-big-again-1.6325960

The cameras descended upon Jeremy Kerley in the locker room as a crowd of reporters focused their attention on the Jets' 5-9 slot receiver.

Again, Kerley is here, headlining an unproven receiving corps for the second straight season. And again, he seems unaffected by all of the attention.

"I don't worry about that," he said when reminded that he isn't yet a household name. "That's life. I'm always underrated. It's all good."

On paper, it might appear as though quarterback Geno Smith has only retreads and no-names at his disposal. But last week's overtime win over the Patriots was proof that Marty Mornhinweg's patchwork offense can deliver results.

The Jets (4-3), however, will need a superior performance from Smith and Kerley to beat the Bengals in Cincinnati Sunday. They'll be without Santonio Holmes (who hasn't played since Week 4 because of a hamstring injury), center Nick Mangold (ribs) and tight end Jeff Cumberland (hamstring). They'll also

Daily Clips Cont.

5 | P a g e

have to figure out how to be productive against defensive tackle Geno Atkins and defensive end Carlos Dunlap.

Smith's rookie campaign has gotten off to a good start, but the Jets have yet to win back-to-back games, and Paul Brown Stadium won't be an easy environment for the road team to escape with a victory. The Bengals have the ninth-best defense in the NFL and are eighth against the run and 13th against the pass.

But if last week's win over New England was any indication, Kerley could prove to be a big key. The slot receiver believes he's a game-changer.

Sure, Stephen Hill was the Jets' second-round pick last season. But it's Kerley -- a fifth-round pick out of TCU in 2011 -- who's emerged as Smith's most trusted weapon, quietly leading the Jets in receptions (24) and receiving yards (319).

Six of his eight receptions (including a 12-yard touchdown) in last week's 30-27 overtime victory came on third down. It was the most third-down conversion catches by a Jets receiver since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, according to the team.

"Jeremy and I, we've been doing a lot off the field," Smith said of Kerley, who, despite missing Week 2 against the Patriots, is tied for second in the NFL with 15 third-down receptions.

" . . . It's kind of like a symbiotic relationship; he's thinking one thing and I'm thinking the same. When we're on the same page, it's kind of hard for defenses to stop us."

Receiver David Nelson also stepped up last week, catching four passes for 80 yards. Newly signed kick returner/wide receiver Josh Cribbs received a game ball in his first outing as a Jet.

"He helped us win that ballgame," Mornhinweg said of Cribbs, who was used on special teams, as a wideout and in the Wildcat.

Kerley was the Jets' primary punt returner the previous two seasons. Asked if he's happy to have some of his special-teams load removed from his shoulders, he replied: "I'm a tank. I don't care what's thrown at me. I'm ready for everything."

He's come a long way since 2012, when he began the season in Rex Ryan's doghouse and wound up leading the Jets with 56 receptions after injuries to Holmes, Hill and former teammate Dustin Keller.

"Kerley was a huge part of what we were going to do offensively [against the Patriots]," Ryan said. "He made the plays during practice, and when we got to the game, it was no different. We've seen games like that from him before, so it's really no surprise, but he's certainly a weapon for us."

Kerley's short-area quickness and attitude set him apart from most receivers. Asked if he was surprised by his production last week, he said matter-of-factly: "Every third down, I feel like the ball's coming to me, as [is the case] with every play. So I just made sure I made the catch, secured the position and got the yards."

Back_to_Top

Odd couple off field, D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Willie Colon work together on it (Anthony Rieber) Newsday October 26, 2013

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/odd-couple-off-field-d-brickashaw-ferguson-and-willie-colon-work-together-on-it-1.6325802

Willie Colon whips his head back, letting his shoulder-length dreadlocks fly. He is controlled chaos. A devilish grin wearing a scraggly beard.

Daily Clips Cont.

6 | P a g e

And he's everything D'Brickashaw Ferguson is not.

The clean-cut Ferguson is measured. Often bland. And he's the ultimate over-thinker.

But together, they form one hilarious union.

"They're like an old married couple," right tackle Austin Howard said. "It's the funniest thing, cause Brick does Brick, and Willie doesn't like the way Brick does Brick."

Just a few locker stalls separate Colon and Ferguson, a pair of New York natives with Long Island ties who are worlds apart in their demeanor, upbringing and outlook on life.

Their vantage points on the field are as divergent as their backgrounds. But the Jets' success lies in how well the two can help protect rookie quarterback Geno Smith.

Drafted together in 2006, both Colon (a Bronx-born Hofstra product) and Ferguson (the pride of Freeport) have earned millions during their eight-year careers. But for all their similarities and shared experiences, right guard Colon and left tackle Ferguson spend most of their time inside the meeting room, and outside of the facility, squabbling over their inherent differences.

Colon, 30, is fiery and always at full speed. Ferguson, 29, is deliberately slow with an even keel. Colon is a free spirit, a frenetic wild child whose favorite sport seems to be getting under Ferguson's skin. And he always wins.

"I respect Brick to the utmost," Colon said. "I have a problem with the way Brick says and does things sometimes that annoy me.

"Brick is very logical. Conventional. Traditional," he added before flashing a mischievous grin. "He believes in morals. And I'm way right of all that. I'm like chaos. It's bad. But we get along."

Their animated discussions typically are rooted in genuine curiosity. But when either 300-plus-pound lineman refuses to alter his stance, "the conversations get rowdy," Ferguson said.

Said center Nick Mangold: "Willie has a loud enthusiasm, which is fun to have in the room. Especially when him and Brick have an 'airing of grievances,' which they usually do. It's very Festivus-like."

Their disagreements are indicative of their brotherly bond, Colon said.

"Oftentimes I call him my 'frenemy,' " Ferguson said.

It's just good comedy

Their personal battles are waged far from the trenches. And neither is willing to give the other an inch -- especially when it comes to their home turf.

Colon, who signed a $1.2-million deal in March, was Ferguson's training-camp roommate in Cortland. And their "Long Island vs. the boroughs" debate was the first of many spirited conversations to come.

"I'm like, 'Look, man, you might have been born in the Bronx but you chose to come to Hofstra, so obviously you wanted to live that Long Island lifestyle,' " said Ferguson, who has a nearly two-mile stretch of South Ocean Avenue in Freeport named after him.

" . . . So that's where the friction begins."

Known as "The Politician" to his teammates, Ferguson draws out every syllable of his sentences. The words that flow from Colon are colorful in nature, occasionally irreverent and always sincere. And the

Daily Clips Cont.

7 | P a g e

former Steeler, who is highly intelligent in his own right, is known for taking a far more visceral approach to life.

Said Howard: "Willie is like the friend who wants to get you in trouble all the time."

Colon questioned Ferguson's toughness on Friday after he spotted the left tackle wearing a long-sleeved shirt in sub-60-degree weather. "Offensive linemen don't wear sleeves in games, but in practice, I think you can have a different mentality," the left tackle explained by phone after practice. "But he decided to get on me about that today."

Colon's constant pestering is "a daily-type thing," Ferguson said. But beneath all the bickering is an undeniable bond.

It's all love, they insist.

"Maybe Brick got a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich and maybe Willie thought he should have gotten a turkey sandwich. Something like that," explained Mangold, who also was drafted in 2006.

"It's just good comedy. You sit back and enjoy it, try to decipher who started it and what they're actually arguing about -- 'cause a lot of the time, no one really knows."

Ferguson -- selected fourth overall out of Virginia -- entered the league to much hype and lofty expectations. Since then, he's been named to the Pro Bowl three times. Colon was taken in the fourth round (131st overall) out of Hofstra. But he has the one thing most of his new teammates covet: a Super Bowl ring.

Colon now finds himself trying to resurrect his injury-filled career after seven years with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And Ferguson must prove he can regain his Pro Bowl-caliber production. But their common ground on the gridiron isn't enough to bridge the gap between their contrasting personalities.

"I don't think either one is willing to fully accept the other person's side," Ferguson said. " . . . It's a constant discussion over why one person's right and one person's wrong."

They boldly go where . . .

The fictional characters are an extension of the player, Matt Simms explained.

The first-year quarterback admitted it's "weird" that he, Colon and Ferguson have such a strong affinity for the recently released video "Star Trek Into Darkness." But after a while it becomes apparent. Colon is "Captain Kirk," the leader who doesn't believe in rules and does his own thing. And Ferguson, of course, is "Commander Spock."

"Spock is very logical," Colon said. "If it's not the truth, it doesn't make sense. But they're best friends, they get along, they love each other. So that's kind of how me and Brick's relationship is."

And Simms?

"They say I'm like that little weird guy that hangs out with "Scotty" , so I don't know," Simms said.

Their debates range from the silly to the introspective. One time they discussed the concept of time travel at length. On a different day, they took turns answering the question "What superhero would you want to be?" (Answer: Ferguson would be "Magneto" from X-Men "because his ability to manipulate metal makes him versatile." Said Colon: "I said I wanted to teleport or something like that.").

Debates with Ferguson, a religious studies major, often last all day. But everyone knows no one can match Colon's mouth.

Still, Ferguson admits his new right guard is exactly what the Jets needed.

Daily Clips Cont.

8 | P a g e

"I don't know if we've had guys that are that fiery,'' he said. "We've had very animated, great players like Bart Scott and Kris Jenkins. But this is the first time in a while where we've had this on the offense, and particularly in the offensive line room."

Most offensive linemen are "unheard characters" who just do their jobs, Ferguson said. But Colon demands to be both seen and heard.

"He can do that because he's been in big games," Ferguson said. "He's been through the struggles, he knows what it is to play in this league. So it gives him that credibility where people listen to him. It's not just hot air. He knows about that life. It's good to have that type of energy."

Back_to_Top

This might be Rex Ryan's best coaching effort (Kimberley Martin) Newsday October 26, 2013

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/bob-glauber/this-might-be-rex-ryan-s-best-coaching-effort-1.6325788

Here are Rex Ryan's Jets, off to a 4-3 start with a rookie quarterback and coming off a win over the Patriots that has them within a game of first place in the AFC East. The playoffs still are a long way off, but the fact that we're even considering the idea that the Jets might play into January was almost inconceivable just a few weeks ago.

And the reason the Jets are even in the conversation is largely Ryan, who is doing what might be his best coaching job in his five seasons with the team. And that's saying something, considering he went to the AFC Championship Game his first two years on the job.

But Ryan demurs when you ask him if he thinks it's his best work. In our conversation at the Jets' training facility this past week, Ryan talked more about the job his coaching staff as a whole is doing.

"I just think I got a great staff, and I think collectively we've done a great job of teaching and I think that's what it's about," he said. "When you come into this year, you have seven new starters on defense, five rookies starting, it tells you the type of teachers we have, what the guys that coach with me are doing. It's about teaching."

But it's also about believing, and Ryan has always believed in his teams and in himself. Which is why he harbors no doubt that despite what appears to be a tenuous situation, he will be here beyond this season. For a long time beyond this season, in fact. "Absolutely,'' he said. "I've always thought that."

He says this despite the fact that he's in a situation that is potentially uncomfortable because he has inherited a new general manager in John Idzik. Recent history has not been kind to coaches in similar situations, with the Bears' Lovie Smith, the Packers' Mike Sherman and the Browns' Eric Mangini getting fired a year after a new general manager was hired. But Ryan is convinced he'll buck that trend, mostly by ignoring it.

"I'm just focused on the job at hand and I think that's where my attention is," he said. "I don't think about that one bit, not one bit. I just know if I do a good job, everything will work out."

Besides, he likes Idzik and feels a certain kinship with the first-time general manager. Both men are sons of coaches, Ryan the son of former NFL head coach and defensive coordinator Buddy and Idzik the son of former NFL assistant (and one-time Jets offensive coordinator) John. And both the coach and general manager played college football.

Daily Clips Cont.

9 | P a g e

"The fact John and I have similar backgrounds professionally is good," Ryan said. "I know. I see how competitive he is and how he wants to win and how he's trying to build this football team, and so I feel good with it. I feel comfortable."

He should. Idzik has done a masterful job of plugging holes and dealing with a bloated salary cap, giving Ryan a competitive roster in the process. The trade for Darrelle Revis has worked out just fine. In return, the Jets got a first-round pick and took defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson, arguably the best rookie this season. Cornerback Dee Milliner has dealt with injuries but looks as if he'll develop into a fine player. Idzik traded for running back Chris Ivory, who pounded the Patriots' defense last weekend. And he took Geno Smith in the second round; the quarterback has shown plenty of promise.

The Ryan-Idzik duo has worked out better than expected. The fact that Ryan finally got it right with his offensive coordinator, Marty Mornhinweg, only adds to the sense that the Jets' turnaround is legitimate.

"Marty has been there and done that consistently through the years," Ryan said. "He doesn't need to put a square peg in a round hole. He's flexible enough. He can take what he has and use it, and I think that's something I've really been impressed with. We've got [Santonio] Holmes down, this guy down, that guy down, but he still finds a way to move the football efficiently. He's supposed to be a guy that throws the ball every down, but he'll take what we do best at a particular time. That's very impressive."

Ryan also made a smart move by getting back to calling plays on defense. There are few men more qualified to do so in the NFL, and Ryan's expertise already has paid dividends. The Jets figure to get better on that side of the ball, although big challenges lie ahead Sunday in Cincinnati and at home next Sunday against the high-flying Saints.

But Ryan isn't getting ahead of himself. Nor is he about to start puffing his chest publicly about his team. He's already learned that the guarantee stuff can backfire on him.

"I think I've learned publicly that that's probably the best thing and most prudent thing to do, now, is not make guarantees," he said. "Now, privately, I end up being very similar to what I've always been with my guys. Inside the building, you might see a different guy if you were in here. It might be more of the same, but publicly, I've learned that there's no sense trying to put more pressure on my players. I don't want to add pressure on my players by any stretch of the imagination.

"Before, I thought it would just put pressure on me," he said. "Pile on me. That's one of the reasons I did it. As it turned out, it wasn't just coming down on me, which it was, but it was coming down on my players, too."

Besides, he's unwilling to say this is a playoff team yet.

"We're so far away from that," he said. "We have to improve by leaps and bounds before we ever even think about that. We have to improve by leaps and bounds to win this game . That's where the challenge is."

No need to do any more talking than is necessary. What his team is doing on Sundays says all you need to know about the job Ryan has done. And the job he believes he'll be doing for many more years ahead.

Back_to_Top

STAR-LEDGER

Three matchups to watch for the Jets as they face the Bengals (Darryl Slater) Star-Ledger October 25, 2013

Daily Clips Cont.

10 | P a g e

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2013/10/three_matchups_to_watch_for_the_jets_as_they_face_the_bengals.html

THREE MATCHUPS TO WATCH

CB ANTONIO CROMARTIE

VS. WR A.J. GREEN

Green is one of the best receivers in the NFL, a third-year pro who has a bright future ahead of him. He is averaging 88.4 yards per game this season, four better than he averaged last year. Green is tied with Tampa Bay’s Vincent Jackson for the NFL lead with 75 times thrown at. He ranks eighth in the NFL in receiving yards per game. But Andy Dalton has also thrown four interceptions while targeting Green, the fourth-highest such total in the NFL. So there will be opportunities for Cromartie, who has struggled at times this season, to make plays in this game. Cromartie made the Pro Bowl last season but has said he doesn’t think he is playing at that level this year. He’ll have to today.

QB GENO SMITH VS. BENGALS’ SECONDARY

The Bengals have a strong rushing defense. They rank eighth in the league with 97.9 rushing yards allowed per game. The Jets ran for 177 yards in last week’s overtime win over the Patriots, as rookie quarterback Geno Smith threw the ball just 15 times after the first half. The Jets handed off to Chris Ivory 34 times in the game and 21 times after halftime. But the Patriots’ front seven was without nose tackle Vince Wilfork and middle linebacker Jerod Mayo. It might be tougher for the Jets to replicate that success today. Then again, Smith could have opportunities in the passing game, since Bengals cornerback Leon Hall is out for the year after tearing his Achilles tendon in Sunday’s win over Detroit. Smith has eight touchdowns and 11 interceptions through seven games.

QB ANDY DALTON VS. COACH REX RYAN

Ryan obviously won’t be out there on the field, but the Jets’ head coach will be calling the defensive plays – something he has done a masterful job of for most of the season. Dalton is having a strong year (65.9 percent completions, 274.9 yards per game, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions). But as with Smith, he might have to win this game with his arm. The Jets’ rushing defense is even sturdier than the Bengals’. The Jets rank second in the NFL with 77.7 rushing yards allowed per game. Dalton is 10th in the league in passing yards per game. If the Jets deny the Bengals’ running game, it will be interesting to see what Ryan throws at Dalton, in terms of coverage or blitzing bluffs, to confuse and/or harass him in the passing game.

DID YOU KNOW?

Since the last time the Bengals won a playoff game, in 1990, they have just one win against the Jets. That came in 2007 in Cincinnati. Other than that, the Jets are 9-0 against the Bengals since 1990. That season, the Bengals beat the Jets, finished 9-7, topped the Houston Oilers in the AFC Wild Card round, and then lost to the Raiders – the Los Angeles Raiders, that is – in the Divisional round. The Bengals’ only playoff appearances since came in 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2012. They went one-and-done in all four years. The Jets last played the Bengals in 2010, and their current four-game winning streak against Cincinnati includes back-to-back victories in 2009 – the regular season finale, and then the Wild Card game, as the Jets advanced to their first of two straight AFC title games.

THE NUMBER

4.4

Daily Clips Cont.

11 | P a g e

Average margin of victory for the Jets and Bengals in their combined nine wins. The Jets have won by one, two, three in overtime and seven. The Bengals have won by three, three in overtime, four, seven and 10. Both teams also have a three-point loss – the Jets to the Patriots, the Bengals to the Bears. The Jets’ other losses were by 25 points at Tennessee and by 13 to Pittsburgh. The Bengals’ second loss was by 11 at Cleveland. Something has to give today, as both teams have been mostly successful in close games.

Back_to_Top

Jets kicker Nick Folk relies on meticulous routine, separation of work and home life (Darrl Slater) Star-Ledger October 26, 2013

www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2013/10/jets_kicker_nick_folk_relies_on_mJets kicker Nick Folk relies on meticulous routine, separation of work and home lifeeticulous_routine_separation_of_work_and_home_life.html

Years from now, twin brothers Gage and Davis Folk will want to hear about the career their father, Nick, enjoyed as an NFL kicker.

The stories surely will include the eventful first half of a season that began shortly after their lives did.

Through seven games this year, Folk has kicked three game-winning field goals for the 4-3 Jets — from 48 yards out in the opener against Tampa Bay, from 43 on a Monday night in Atlanta and from 42 in overtime last Sunday against New England.

Each required a cool demeanor that has not wavered throughout this season of personal and professional change for Folk. He has made all 16 of his field goals after having to fend off preseason competition from Billy Cundiff and Dan Carpenter.

Now, no other kicker in the NFL this season remains perfect through as many attempts.

His kick against the Patriots required him to flush the memory of what happened moments earlier, when he missed a 56-yarder that would have tied his career best. He got another chance because of a 15-yard pushing penalty on the Patriots’ block attempt.

Gage and Davis easily should be able to locate video footage of those kicks. They can even hold the footballs their dad kicked, because Folk keeps all of his game winners — mementos of his dedicated routine, diligent record-keeping and steely focus.

But if they really want to know what allowed their dad to thrive in a professional kicker’s high-pressure existence, they can persuade their mom, Julianne, to unearth the video from the day they were born.

On Aug. 7, Folk stood alongside Julianne in the hospital delivery room, calmly encouraging her as she gave birth. Folk had a GoPro camera strapped to his head. He originally planned to turn it off during the more intense moments of the delivery. But he forgot, and he and Julianne later decided to keep the footage.

"So now we have everything documented," Julianne said. "He was such a champ throughout the whole thing."

BY THE BOOK

Gage and Davis’ recorded arrival into this world is unique among Folk’s archives. He documents every arena of his life. At home, he handles all of the family’s bills and categorizes them in yearly binders. In

Daily Clips Cont.

12 | P a g e

the Jets’ locker room, he stores 70-page, spiral-bound notebooks in his backpack so they are always handy.

The notebooks contain every aspect of Folk’s football life. He begins writing in them on the first day of training camp and stops when the season concludes. He fills about 3½ during a season. He tracks every day, writing down how much he kicked during practice, his weight-lifting schedule, even what he ate.

Few jobs in sports are as tied to mental and physical repetition as kicking. Each time Folk trots out for a field goal, the motions are the same. He and his holder, punter Ryan Quigley, locate their spot. Folk points his right foot to the precise location where he wants Quigley to place the ball.

Folk nods at Quigley when he is ready. Quigley flashes his hand at long snapper Tanner Purdum, to signal for the snap. And then Folk performs the few-seconds task that he spent hours preparing for.

"For Nick, nothing ever changes," Quigley said. "He’s just so steady and consistent. He has his routine."

Folk is not particularly superstitious, though he prefers to keep his head tightly shaved during the season. His every task during the week — from the strenuous, leg-focused weight lifting he performs the day after games to the omelets and oatmeal he eats before early-afternoon kickoffs — is recorded in his notebook and aimed toward those seconds that define his job.

"I don’t tie my shoes one way or the other," Folk said. "I do what I do because that’s what gets me ready to play."

Last season, Folk made 21-of-27 field goals — a 77.8-percent clip on par with his first two years as a Jet (76.9 and 76 percent). But he didn’t feel as fresh toward the end of the season. During the final seven games, he hit just nine of 14 field goals.

The Jets’ special teams coach last year was Mike Westhoff, whose knowledge is well-regarded. Folk said Westhoff had him kick 100-110 field goals in practice every week — an approach Folk disagreed with.

"That’s a ton of balls," Folk said.

He talked to other NFL kickers who told him they kick about 60 a week. Folk began keeping his notebooks last season so he could show Ben Kotwica, who replaced the retired Westhoff, how rigorous the routine was under Westhoff. Kotwica cut Folk back to 65 field goals per week this season.

"I just see a more consistent, powerful ball striker this year," Kotwica said.

'HOME IS HOME’

Unlike most other positions in football, a kicker usually does not need to study film or a playbook after leaving the team facility. Folk prefers this separation. It prevents his job from mentally taxing him.

"You don’t want to be thinking too much about it, where you’re overthinking things and over-complicating things," Folk said. "Kicking is pretty simple."

During his first NFL stop, in Dallas from 2007 to 2009, Folk received advice from punter Mat McBriar that stuck with him: "Just leave work there. Don’t worry about it. Home is home. You don’t take work home, especially for our position."

Sometimes, like after the Patriots game, Folk relaxes by fishing on the players’ day off. He is an avid fly fisherman and wants to open a shop with his brothers where they craft flies. But most often these days, Folk compartmentalizes his work and home life with a routine centered on his family.

Daily Clips Cont.

13 | P a g e

Upon arriving home from the Jets’ facility, Folk lies down and uses his iPad for an hour inside his inflated hyperbaric chamber, which his wife said "looks like a coffin" but that promotes muscle recovery by delivering extra oxygen.

Then he picks up his sons and holds them, even if they are asleep — the eagerness of first-time parenting trumping any restlessness that might result. He and Julianne eat dinner and watch their favorite television shows, including "Homeland" and "Sons of Anarchy."

"When he’s at home, it’s easy for him to not think about things," Julianne said.

LIFE AFTER FOOTBALL

Even with this mental separation, Folk aspires to analyze, to carry his meticulousness past football. He turns 29 years old next month and probably has significant NFL time ahead of him, especially if he continues to kick well. But when this career ends, he hopes to pursue a professional life similar to his father, who is an accountant.

Folk, a former soccer player, long has loved the sport. After he and Julianne met at a Dallas restaurant, they arranged a first date of kicking around a soccer ball. Folk’s post-NFL dream is to work on the business side of a high-level European club.

"I could see us moving over there and living a few years in Europe, and him trying to work for a team," Julianne said.

That is likely a while off. There are still more notebooks to fill, more game-winning balls to perhaps collect and more of a budding home life to organize.

The Folks just bought an offseason house in Dallas, near Julianne’s parents. During the Jets’ off week, after next week’s game against the Saints, they will travel to Dallas and begin setting up the home.

Folk hopes to find a shelf to display his three game-winning balls from this season, which began with him having to kick for his job, just as his sons were born. Someday, they might ask him how he handled it all.

"I didn’t take it personal," Folk said. "I didn’t care. If I do what I need to do, day in and day out, I don’t have to worry about what the other guys are doing."

Back_to_Top

NEW YORK POST

Jets will be viable contenders with Bengals win (Steve Serby) New York Post October 26, 2013

http://nypost.com/2013/10/26/jets-will-be-viable-contenders-with-bengals-win/

CINCINNATI — If you are the New York Jets, this is how you earn their stripes in the NFL:

You beat the Bengals at their place after you beat the Patriots at your place and win back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Your rookie quarterback beats a team neither Aaron Rodgers nor Tom Brady could beat at Paul Brown Stadium.

You don’t need the zebras to enforce a new rule that gives you a second chance to kick the winning field goal in overtime and listen to the loser coach intimate you didn’t deserve the game.

Daily Clips Cont.

14 | P a g e

You recognize you didn’t win the Super Bowl by beating the Patriots, you still are a game behind in the division race, but very much in the playoff picture and wild-card conversation, taking into account either the Broncos or Chiefs will grab one spot.

The field:

Ravens (3-4): The bye will help Ray Rice, who has had a brutal start. John Harbaugh is the defending champion coach.

Chargers (4-3): Philip Rivers has enjoyed a renaissance under Mike McCoy and Ken Whisenhunt.

Dolphins (3-3): The arrow is pointing down, largely because there is no protection for Ryan Tannehill or the semblance of a running game.

Titans (3-4): Jake Locker is back, although his receivers scare no one, but they do own the tiebreaker over the Jets.

Bills (3-4): Mario Williams has returned to Beast Mode, but Thaddeus Lewis at quarterback? Good luck.

Browns (3-4): Josh Campbell? Forget them.

Steelers (2-4): Don’t ever discount a Mike Tomlin team.

Playoff teams earn their stripes by beating teams like this, by winning games in jungles like this.

Even with a rookie quarterback who needs to break the up-and-done cycle.

“He made a believer in me when he first walked in,” Jets receiver Jeremy Kerley said. “He’s a guy that you kinda lean on to make the big throw and to make the right decision. He’s starting to prove that he can do that. And the chemistry me and him is crazy.”

Playoffs? Playoffs? The Geno Smith Jets?

“We can’t go there yet,.” Willie Colon said. “We still gotta play Miami twice, we still gotta play Buffalo one more time, and then we gotta play New Orleans next week, so there’s a lot of games ahead of us that we can’t think we’ve done anything. Obviously, the Patriots was a good win, it was a solid win, we needed it, but we still got a lotta more fights ahead of us.”

All true. But November is when the true contenders begin to position themselves in the hunt. Big difference between 5-3 and 4-4. Critical game in the conference.

“A lot of our swagger, so to speak, is just put your foot in the middle of the ring, and let’s have at it,” Colon said. “That’s the attitude I have, and I think that’s the attitude we gotta have. They’re an AFC North team, the top of their division, we’re trying to be the top of ours, so why not?”

Colon knows enough about the Bengals from his Steelers days to expect a slugfest.

“It always is with these guys,” Colon said. “This is not a team that you can just walk up there and think you’re just gonna blow through. This is a tough outfit, and … it’s gonna be a slugfest.”

How critical is this game?

“Any game that we have going forward is critical for us,” Austin Howard said. “We have goals and aspirations for postseason play. That’s something we missed out the past two years.”

Earn your stripes.

Back_to_Top

Jets see-saw season lands in Cincinnati (Brian Costello)

Daily Clips Cont.

15 | P a g e

New York Post October 26, 2013

http://nypost.com/2013/10/26/jets-see-saw-season-lands-in-cincinnati/

CINCINNATI — One week they’re up. The next week they’re down. The week after that they’re back up again.

The Jets’ season is enough to make any fan dizzy. The see-saw Jets have alternated wins and losses through their first seven games. They hope to break that string with a win Sunday against the Bengals.

It is a mystery to the Jets why they have not been able to put consecutive good games together.

“I don’t know, but if anybody’s got any answers, I’ll be willing to listen,” coach Rex Ryan said this week. “This will be our fourth shot at it this year. The fact that we’re playing Cincinnati doesn’t help matters. That’s for sure. They’re playing about as well as anybody right now.

“We know it’s going to be a huge challenge playing in Cincinnati and things. Again, our mindset’s going to be, ‘It’s all about this opponent.’ We’re going to focus like crazy, attention to detail on the practice field, in the classroom, and then head to Cincinnati and put our best out there, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

The 5-2 Bengals are the second straight first-place team the Jets are facing. The 4-3 Jets dispatched the Patriots a week ago and would gain huge momentum if they found a way to win this one. But the Bengals are strong on both sides of the ball. Their defensive line, led by Geno Atkins, is one of the best in football. On offense, wide receiver A.J. Green might be the best receiver in the AFC, and quarterback Andy Dalton is coming off back-to-back 300-yard passing performances.

Jets quarterback Geno Smith is part of the reason the Jets have not won two in a row. He looks like he’s arrived one week and then a rookie the next. He played one of his best games last week against the Patriots, but had an interception returned for a touchdown. It will be tough for the Jets to run on Cincinnati, so a lot of pressure falls on Smith.

A look inside the game:

MARQUEE MATCHUP

Bengals DT Geno Atkins vs. Jets Gs Willie Colon and Brian Winters

Atkins is one of the best interior pass rushers in football and the task of stopping him will fall largely on the Jets guards. Colon has seen Atkins plenty of times from his days with the Steelers and is better equipped to stop him. Winters, a rookie making his fourth start, could be in for a long day.

“A lot of his sacks come from being one-on-one with the guards,” Colon said. “He’s not a very tall guy, very low to the ground, strong as an ox. He’s disruptive. It’s going to be a good test for me and Winters.”

Atkins has 24 sacks in his past 39 games, including four this year. The Bengals gave him a $55 million contract extension before this season, showing how valuable he is. Winters had a rough outing last week, allowing two sacks. If he can’t slow Atkins, it will be a long day for Geno Smith and the Jets.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

The Jets are getting a lot of attention for their third-down defense, which is fourth in the league, but that success has been set up by what they’re doing on first down. The Jets are allowing a league-low 3.44 yards per play on first down, which is putting opponents in second-and-long and third-and-long.

Daily Clips Cont.

16 | P a g e

“I think theygo hand in hand,” Jets defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman said of first- and third-down defense. “If you can stop the run and you put an offense behind the sticks, so to speak, then a lot of them don’t like third and long. No offense likes third and long. They would rather be in third and manageable, for which most people is third and 5, third and 6, third and 4, somewhere in there, where it makes it easier, obviously a shorter throw to get a first down.”

GROUND AND POUND?

The Jets showed some of their old style last week with 52 rushing attempts against the Patriots. Will they do it again this week? It’s unlikely they will be able to run like they did on the Patriots. The Bengals are eighth in the NFL in rush defense, allowing 97.9 yards per game.

Chris Ivory had his breakout game last week, gaining 104 yards. Bilal Powell is healthy, so expect the two of them to split carries and Josh Cribbs also to run some Wildcat again.

Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict said this week the Jets have “regular running backs.” Don’t think that didn’t get back to the running backs room.

‘D’ NEEDS TO STAY LATE

As good as the Jets defense has played this year, and they are fourth in the NFL in yards per game, they have slipped late in games. It happened again last week against the Patriots when New England drove down the field with less than two minutes in regulation to kick the game-tying field goal. They have faltered against the Buccaneers, Bills and Falcons late, too.

Is the defense tired? In prevent schemes?

“I don’t know,” linebacker Calvin Pace said. “It’s something that we don’t obviously go out and try to do. But it’s tough trying to play at such a high level. Teams have playmakers, too, and they get paid to play. Our job is just to be better in certain situations. I think we’ve gotten better. I wish we started a little faster sometimes. I think for the most part we’ve been able to keep our composure and do pretty decent down the stretch.”

THE CINCINNATI ARSENAL

WR A.J. Green draws most of the headlines, but the Bengals’ offense has a bunch of guys that could pose problems for the Jets defense today. WRs Mohammed Sanu and Marvin Jones take defenders away from Green. The Bengals have a pair of tight ends — Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert — who can cause headaches. Traditionally, the Jets have struggled against tight ends. At running back, rookie Giovani Bernard and veteran BenJarvus Green-Ellis are a tough pair. Bernard also is dangerous catching pass out of the backfield. He has two TD receptions this season.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

16

Consecutive field goals made to start the season for Jets kicker Nick Folk. He has kicked a game-winner in three of the four Jets wins.

10

Largest margin of victory for either team. Four of the Bengals’ five wins have been by a touchdown or less. Three of the jets’ four wins have been by a field goal or less, and the other was by a touchdown.

Game-winning drives by Jets quarterback Geno Smith in the fourth quarter or overtime, the most by a quarterback in his first seven games since the 1970 merger.

Daily Clips Cont.

17 | P a g e

COSTELLO’S CALL

The Jets are a team searching for consistency, making them tough to figure out. I think this is a bad matchup for them. The Bengals defense will give Geno Smith problems, and their offense will break a few big plays.

BENGALS 28, JETS 10

Back_to_Top

HS coaches recall Richardson’s determined NFL dream (Kevin Kernan) New York Post October 26, 2013

http://nypost.com/2013/10/26/hs-coaches-recall-richardsons-determined-nfl-dream/

ST. LOUIS — The pregame walk from the gym, up the hill and across the street to the football field is a ritual here at Gateway Institute of Technology High School.

“You’re coming up the same trail Sheldon walked for four years,” Melvin Walls, Sheldon Richardson’s high school coach, told The Post last week.

The walk gives players time to think about what they want to accomplish. For Richardson — the Jets’ 6-foot-3, 294-pound rookie defensive end who already has made a huge impact on the team — the goal was clear from the time he was a high school freshman.

“I’ll never forget this statement,’’ Walls told me. “He told the other kids on the team, ‘Look, you all are looking at this as a game. I’m looking at this as a life.’

“That’s when I said, he’s really serious about this. I’ve put other kids into Division 1 programs, but I never had a kid like Sheldon. He’s the best athlete I ever had.”

Walls, 49, coached high school football for nearly three decades.

“When Sheldon left, I left,” Walls, who remains a P.E. teacher, said with a smile.

Gateway proved to be the perfect place for Richardson. The magnet school was an oasis, a home where he could let his athletic talents bloom as well as his personality. A few miles away is the Gateway Arch, which represents St. Louis’ role in westward expansion.

Gateway, a school of 1,300 students, is a place to expand your horizons.

Modal Trigger

“Sheldon was always at school,” Walls said. “Things didn’t always go great for him [academically], but he was always here. He never got in any trouble. He always hung out with the athletes.”

Richardson comes from an neighborhood where it is not easy to climb the ladder of success.

“Honestly, I’m from the part of St. Louis that nobody wants to be a part of,” Richardson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before the NFL Draft. “I represent what a lot of kids don’t want to represent. I’m just happy to be here. It’s a blessing and it’s a privilege, and I’m proud of myself and having my family supporting me — my father and my mother and my brothers, my cousins, aunties, everybody. They’re always coming to my football games and telling me to stay on it. They see a lot in me. And it’s finally coming together.”

Walls knows all about the challenge.

Daily Clips Cont.

18 | P a g e

“Sheldon lived in one of those neighborhoods where a lot of kids don’t make it,’’ Walls said. “It’s not unusual to read the paper or see the news where a kid has been shot the night before or they found a body behind a Dumpster.’’

Richardson survived. Family, football and Gateway, led him to success. “His parents [Michael and Zelda] took good care of him,’’ Walls said. “Both of them have good jobs, and they put him in all the camps that he could go to, so kids all over the county knew of him.’’

“It was rough,’’ Richardson told Post colleague Brian Costello of his St. Louis neighborhood. “You had to be thick-skinned. If you’re playing sports, street ball guys wanted to get in your face and talk smack. You had to have thick skin.’’

Coach Walls used Richardson in all phases of the game, including punt return. He recognized immediately what kind of unique talent he had and put Richardson on the varsity team as a freshman.

“He told me he was a fullback when he came in as a freshman, and I said, ‘OK, if you’re a fullback, let’s see,’ ” the coach recalled. Richardson soon was moved to tackle. His sophomore year he was moved to tight end, and that’s where he started to blossom. He played both ways and special teams.

From playing basketball and football conditioning, Richardson, who came into school at about 6-foot-1, 300 pounds, began to tone up and get noticed as an athle

“That’s when people started saying, ‘Gateway’s got a freak,’ ” Walls explained with a laugh, noting that 54 D-1 schools came through to see Richardson.

“He just put me on the field and let me make plays,’’ Richardson said of Walls. “I returned kicks. I played linebacker, any position I needed to play for us to be effective. I played tight end, fullback, running back, slot receiver. I done played it all.

“My senior year [Coach Walls] let me control the team a little bit. He gave me leeway and we went to the championship. We finished a game short. I got a chance to see the game from every position. I actually learned the game of football back then. There’s not too much I haven’t seen.’’

Jim Greenlee, 41, teaches world history at Gateway.

“Sheldon was a lot of fun to have in class,” he said. “He had the smile that was half devil and half angel. And he was good with a bear hug. He’d like to come behind you on occasion when you were standing in the hallway and pick you up. ‘All right Sheldon, welcome to class.’ ”

The memory makes Richardson smile.

“High school was fun,’’ he said, “a bit too much fun they’d probably say.”

“He was a true athlete, but he persevered in class,” Greenlee recalled. “I also coach track and field and he threw shot put for us, he was always a leader. He never got into a fight or had any trouble. I don’t ever remember seeing him angry. The smallest, weakest guy on the team got just as much attention from him as the biggest.”

Richardson’s big personality is perfect for New York. He has 19 tackles and 2 ¹/₂ sacks. He will take on anybody, including Tom Brady as he did before the Jets beat the Patriots on Sunday.

“I remember on draft night, I heard some boos,” Walls said, “but I knew they would fall in love with him as a player and a person. He’s a special player.”

When you walk into Gateway’s front door you pass through a metal detector, manned by two security guards. Bring up Sheldon Richardson’s name and the room brightens.

Daily Clips Cont.

19 | P a g e

“The thing that stuck out about Sheldon is that from the first day he walked through that door, he was determined,’’ explained Officer Annette O’Neal. “I guess determination pays off. He made it.”

Noted principal Dr. Elizabeth Bender, “His counselor said he walked in as a freshman the first time and said, ‘I’m going to be a professional football player.’ ”

The hallways sparkle here and the sense of Gateway pride is everywhere as you walk through the school. Up on the right-hand side is a glass case with pictures of Gateway graduates who have gone on to college football success. The first picture you see is Richardson leading out the Missouri Tigers with the notation: “First Team All-SEC.”

Perhaps NFL rookie of the year will be added to the list.

The Gateway Jaguars sported new uniforms this weekend for homecoming, and the word around school is Richardson purchased the new attire.

This is where it all started.

“I’ve been telling them for a while now,” Richardson said of his longtime plans of NFL stardom. “It’s about time it came true.”Back_to_Top

Geno Smith’s anti-fumble drills working (Brian Costello) New York Post October 26, 2013

http://nypost.com/2013/10/13/physical-steelers-knock-geno-smith-off-his-game/

The Jets added something to rookie quarterback Geno Smith’s practice regimen four weeks ago after he fumbled twice against the Titans — ball security drills designed for running backs.

“It’s kind of dreadful,” Smith said this week, “but I know it makes us better and it makes me better as a player. It’s important to secure that ball. That’s first things first, above all else. It’s something we must do in practice and we’ve been getting better with it.”

What makes it dreadful?

“It’s tiring,” Smith said.

Running backs coach Anthony Lynn chuckled when told of Smith’s “dreadful” description. After the Titans game, Lynn taught quarterbacks coach David Lee three or four ball security drills he uses with his running backs.

Lynn typically does one a day with his backs. Lee has the quarterbacks doing all of them in one practice.

“I think that’s the dreadful part,” Lynn said. “They go through the whole gamut.”

The drills seem to be working. Smith has not lost a fumble since the Titans game and he has been effective running the ball. Lynn said Smith has taken to the teaching points.

“Like all ball carriers, he’s not perfect,” Lynn said. “He makes mistakes carrying the football from time to time. But I’ve been really impressed with his awareness now and how he’s paying attention to how to carry the football. When he leaves the pocket, you can see that he’s very conscious of where that ball is. That’s what you want. I think he’s done a hell of a job with that.”

Lynn studies all of the fumbles in the NFL after each season. He said last year quarterbacks losing the ball after they left the pocket was the second-leading cause of fumbles. It makes sense that it is increasing with the number of designed quarterback runs teams are now using .

Daily Clips Cont.

20 | P a g e

“A lot of quarterbacks have never practiced it, so they don’t know how to carry the football when they leave the pocket,” Lynn said. “They carry it with one hand. I told Geno earlier he was carrying it like a Coca-Cola. They expose it to the defense.”

Smith has tucked it away now thanks to some dreadful drills.

LB Calvin Pace turns 33 tomorrow, and his teammates don’t let him forget it. The oldest player on the Jets hears it from the younger players, and he also has seen it reflected in his playing time. Pace, who had been an every-down player in years past, has played in 78 percent of the Jets’ defensive snaps this year, down from 94 percent a year ago. He only played in 49 of the team’s 76 snaps last week against the Patriots.

“I’m fine with it. I think the last couple of years I’ve been getting worn down toward the end of the season. Something me and Rex [Ryan] talked about,” Pace said this week. “I’m fine with it. I’m happy with it.”

On a Jets defense known for its youth, being the elder statesman brings some abuse.

“As Quinton Coples likes to call me: old man Calvin,” Pace said. “I’m not a spring chicken in this game anymore. I don’t have to play every snap. We got enough guys to rotate to get me some plays off.”

Back_to_Top

Jets could be in first place by Monday (Mark Cannizzaro) New York Post October 26, 2013

http://nypost.com/2013/10/26/jets-could-be-in-first-place-by-monday/

The Jets will be in Cincinnati going through their pregame preparation for their 4 p.m. Sunday game against the Bengals, but they will have an eye on the scoreboard or locker room televisions, curious about the result of the Patriots-Dolphins 1 p.m. game in New England.

Though it is not that late-season time of year for intense scoreboard watching with playoff berths and divisional races hanging in the balance, that game at Gillette Stadium is as relevant as a Week 8 game can be for the Jets.

After an overtime win against the Patriots last week inched the Jets to within a mere game of New England for first place in the AFC East, they can fly home from Cincinnati on Sunday night tied for the division lead.

A win by the 4-3 Jets over the 5-2 Bengals and a loss by the 5-2 Patriots to the 3-3 Dolphins would make for quite a yard sale in the AFC East, with the division title completely up for grabs and half a season still to play.

The question is this: Can the Dolphins, losers of three in a row after their surprising 3-0 start, beat a Patriots team that still is seething over its controversial loss to the Jets a week ago — largely because of a new penalty called for the first time in league history?

The odds and recent history do not point to a Miami win. The Patriots are a 6 ½-point favorite and have owned the Dolphins of late, having beaten them six consecutive times with series sweeps the last three years. A win this Sunday will give the Patriots their longest winning streak in the regular season against Miami.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is 16-6 in his career against the Dolphins, including 10-1 at home.

Daily Clips Cont.

21 | P a g e

A look at the NFL statistics and where Brady is ranked, though, is eye-opening and leaves the appearance that the Patriots, losers of two of their last three, are vulnerable. Brady has a pedestrian 75.3 rating, which is 26th in the league. He’s completed just 55.4 percent of his passes, which ranks 29th.

Despite the struggles of Brady and the Patriots, though, the Dolphins are not falling for it.

“I’m not buying any of that. This guy is one of the best ever, they are playing well, and we have to expect them to play extremely well at home,” Dolphins coach Joe Philbin said.

“You’re playing the division champs, the beasts of the last 10 years,” Dolphins receiver Brian Hartline told South Florida reporters this week. “I know that to say you treat a week any different than another week is probably wrong, but it’s just the feeling you get when you understand this has been a dominant team in the division for a while, so that should create more attention to detail.”

After their fast start, the Dolphins have looked shaky at quarterback and on offense in general. Second-year quarterback Ryan Tannehill has seven turnovers (five interceptions, two lost fumbles) in the past three games. That is not a good combination considering the Patriots have created at least one turnover in 34 consecutive games — the longest streak in the NFL.

A big part of Tannehill forcing things is the fact the Dolphins have been unable to generate much of a running game, leaving Tannehill to try to do it on his own. The result has been 26 sacks in six games, with most of them coming in the second halves and fourth quarters with the Dolphins already having bailed on the running game.

Further stacking the odds against a Miami win Sunday is the Patriots’ dominance in the month of October, during which they are an NFL-best 36-9 since the 2003 season. The Patriots are 21-1 at home in October during that span.

A Patriots win would give them a 3-1 division record — a key potential tiebreak factor — with remaining December games in Miami and at home against the Bills. The Jets are 2-1 in the AFC East, with a split with the Patriots and a win over the Bills, with two remaining games against Miami and one in Buffalo.

What happens Sunday in Foxborough with the Jets watching intently from Cincinnati will not decide matters in the AFC East, which the Patriots have won 10 of the last 12 years, but it will have a significant impact on the division going forward.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Geno Smith is making NY Jets fun to watch (Mike Lupica) New York Daily News October 26, 2013

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/lupica-geno-qb-jets-start-good-article-1.1497897#ixzz2iv0LGwYB

Geno Smith is in Cincinnati today and so are the Jets, who try to do something they have not yet done this season, which means win two games in a row. They try to do that with the Saints coming into MetLife Stadium next week and before they go on the road to play the Bills, who have shown up as a tough out themselves this season.

So you know what that means for Geno and for the Jets? It means this is their biggest game since their last big game, one week ago against the Patriots.

Daily Clips Cont.

22 | P a g e

But you also have to know that if they do beat the Bengals, it doesn’t mean they’re finally taking the AFC East from the Patriots and on their way back to the AFC title game, look out Broncos and look out Chiefs.

If they lose today, go to 4-4 and face the prospect of being under .500 by next Sunday for the first time this season? It doesn’t mean they’re bums, that the season is lost, that Rex still has to go. Come on. That is just analysis that ought to be strapped to a weather vane.

For now, all we really know about the Jets is this as they reach the halfway point of what has been such an entertaining season: You want to watch this game against the good, tough Bengals team today. You want to see how a young, athletic defense does against Andy Dalton, talented young Bengals quarterback, want to see if Antonio Cromartie can cover A.J. Green, one of the best receivers on the planet.

Mostly you want to watch Geno, see if the kid can have two big games in a row.

You know how it has gone for the Jets so far, whether they’ve played well or thrown in a stinker. Especially when they throw in a stinker, because as soon as they do, we read and hear that if they’re not as bad as we were told they were going to be by some of the wonks before the season, they’re really not very good, more a product of luck and a soft schedule than anything else.

And guess what? Maybe the luck does run out, and soon. The second half of the season could turn out to be a bit of a disaster. If the Jets lose today and the Giants win, the Jets would be 4-4 and the Giants would be 2-6 and who knows where both of them are in a month as they fight for the mythical championship of MetLife Statdium?

Put it another way: The Giants play the Eagles on the road and their next game is vs. the Raiders at home after their bye. Who knows, maybe they’re 3-6 at that point and the Jets are trying not to fall to 4-6 when they go to Buffalo and November looks completely different around here in pro football than it did in September and October. Sometimes it’s whole seasons, for both teams, that blow around like weather vanes in a hard Meadowlands wind.

So Geno is on the line again today. So that is the way it will be for him all season. Not trying to be what Andrew Luck was to the Colts last season or Russell Wilson was to the Seahawks or RG3 was to the Redskins, three rookie quarterbacks who recorded a historic triple, all of them taking their teams to the playoffs. Just trying to show that the Jets have found a quarterback who can not just bring them back this season, but maybe bring them all the way back, and make them a contender again for the Lombardi Trophy, the way they were when Mark Sanchez was the rookie quarterback.

This rookie quarterback for the Jets is more fun to watch. Here is what the kid said the other day:

“I just enjoy playing the game. I’m pretty confident in myself and my teammates, that’s where that comes from. I know that with this defense we always have a chance. With the offense, I think we have been moving the ball pretty well, if we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”

He throws an interception that becomes a touchdown and comes back from that and the Jets beat the Patriots, mostly because the game changes on a pick-six thrown by Tom Brady. He throws three fourth-quarter interceptions against the Patriots in Foxborough and comes back the next week and throws for 331 yards and two touchdowns against the Bills. So in many ways, even a team still built around defense, has been its rookie quarterback:

Hasn’t stayed down for more than a game.

So far.

Daily Clips Cont.

23 | P a g e

After today, half a season in the books, he knows the Jets come home next week to face the best team they have faced all season. That means the Saints, Rex’s defense against Drew Brees, Geno against Rex’s brother, Rob, the Saints’ defensive coordinator, the Ryan Bowl at MetLife Stadium.

The challenge doesn’t change for the Jets week to week. They continue to try to prove that they are more than the world thought they could be. Today they try to win an even harder road game than they did against the Falcons on Monday Night Football.

“It would be huge,” Rex Ryan said the other day.

They’re all huge for him, for the Jets, for the rookie quarterback. A hundred percent. Biggest game of their season since their last biggest game, last Sunday at one o’clock.

Saban run amuck, porr lil' A-Rod & let's debate...

-Maybe you missed this over the past couple of days, but the University of Alabama actually suspended some block-seating privileges for some of its student groups the other day because Nick Saban, head football coach, was unhappy that some fans were leaving games early.

“My sense of it is, I always say the fans are a part of the team,” Saban said on his radio show, according to the Anniston Star newspaper. “Everybody else should have the same sort of commitment. You don’t have to do the work all week, you don’t have to practice, you don’t have to come in at 7 in the morning and leave at 11 at night, you don’t have to do any of that stuff.”

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow, what an awesome responsibility it is being Saban, no kidding.

This guy does it all at Alabama, he’s not just coaching his football team, he’s coaching…….the whole university!

“Everybody else should have the same commitment?”

Really, coach?

When does he start doing bed checks for the business majors?

This really is Nick Saban, a great football coach, doing something they talk about in network television when even hit shows lose their way and start doing really dumb stuff:

This is him jumping the shark here.

And acting as if we’re supposed to give him some sort of medal for the hours he keeps to earn the kind of money he makes coaching his team.

Saban needs to make his own commitment now to shut up about people who come to watch him trying to win another national championship.

He coaches, fans watch, that’s the deal.

What, if they leave early he thinks he can take scholarships away?

They lose their redshirt status?

It’s not weird that Saban said these things.

It’s actually weirder — like, by a lot — that he actually thinks them.

-One of Alex Rodriguez’s lawyers has stated that his client had only a “consulting relationship” with Anthony Bosch, even if Rodriguez’s side now wants to make Bosch out to be worse than a war criminal.

Daily Clips Cont.

24 | P a g e

So here is a question for anybody following this story who has bought into the notion that Rodriguez is a victim of selective prosecution because his suspension was so much longer than any of the Biogenesis All-Stars:

If you believe that he and Bosch were only consulting, what won’t you believe?

This isn’t about right or wrong anymore, this is all about Rodriguez being able to claim he was a victim whatever happens at the end of this arbitration, whether the 211-game suspension either gets upheld or knocked down.

And for his defenders to claim victory.

You want to debate the length of that suspension, have at it.

But if you actually believe this guy is a victim, then you just come off looking like another one of his tools.

Somehow all those living high off the Bank of Alex Rodriguez continue to act as if they can win their arbitration case in the New York media, by creating as much chaos as possible so they don’t have to talk about the evidence against their client.

Anthony Weiner must wish he had hired these people, maybe he could have gotten by with a “consulting” defense.

Maybe the best part of it all?

If you think he is a drug cheat, you are supposed to have some kind of agenda.

Really?

How come you need an agenda to go after Rodriguez but never needed one with Lance Armstrong when the governing bodies of his sport were chasing him?

Let’s see what happens when Rodriguez testifies in his own defense, if he testifies.

See what happens when and if he gets to act as his own “consultant.”

Considering how much Knicks’ ticket-buyers had to help out with the remaking of the Garden, shouldn’t those new bridges at the top of the place be named after them?

-You sort of had the feeling that the second debate between Joe Lhota and Bill de Blasio was going to turn into a rockfight, and it did.

The shame of it is this:

The campaign and the debate we saw from the two guys the other night was the campaign and debate we should have been having all along.

By the way?

When do we start blaming Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly for the Yankees not making the playoffs this season, it seems as if he’s being blamed for everything else these days?

Eventually Alex Rodriguez will blame Barney’s for his problems, too.

The Mike Lupica Show can be heard Monday through Friday at noon and Sunday at 9 a.m. on ESPN 98.7.

Back_to_Top

NY Jets looking to lean on Geno Smith and passing game vs. Bengals (Seth Walder)

Daily Clips Cont.

25 | P a g e

New York Daily News October 26, 2013

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/gang-lean-geno-passing-game-article-1.1497578#ixzz2iv21sk5e

Following last week’s 30-27 overtime win, Rex Ryan joked that he was worried about his pass-happy offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg after the Jets ran the ball 52 times compared to 33 pass attempts.

It’s easy to see why Mornhinweg took such a tact. The Patriots were missing key run stuffers Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo, allowing Chris Ivory to spring for 104 hard-nosed yards. But against Cincinnati this week, no such weakness exists. The Bengals rank eighth in the league in rushing yards allowed per game, with a defensive front led by two-time All-Pro defensive tackle Geno Atkins.

If the Jets are going to beat the Bengals Sunday, expect an entirely different game plan from the one that led to their upset over New England a week ago.

“They’re big and long on the edges,” said Mornhinweg. “They have just an excellent run defender inside (Domata Peko). They have an excellent pass rusher inside that plays the run as well (Atkins). (He is) highly underrated at the defensive tackle spot. (He is) very, very good.”

This probably won’t be a repeat performance for Ivory. The Jets (4-3) will likely lean on their rookie QB, Geno Smith, Sunday in Cincinnati.

Though the Bengals are ranked 13th in pass defense, CB Leon Hall (torn Achilles) is out, which should open up the secondary for Gang Green. Hall was rated by ProFootballFocus as the team’s best defensive back this season.

And though Smith did throw one pick-six against New England, the rookie has been cutting down on his mistakes.

“Other than that (pick-six), I thought he played a heck of a game, with very few exceptions,” said Mornhinweg. “His eyes were great. His feet were great. I went back through that the other night. He’s becoming outstanding.”

Outstanding is probably pushing it. Developing seems to be the case, however. The Daily News reported earlier this week that Smith began calling players-only meetings for the receivers and quarterbacks several weeks ago to help build that dynamic, something the rookie felt was working. Whether or not Smith’s fairly strong play in two of the last three weeks can be attributed to the meetings, he’s already proven he can be the reason the Jets win a game — even without receiver Santonio Holmes.

“I feel like when I first got here, there were a lot of question marks as far as if this receiving group could handle what the defense was going to be throwing at us,” said David Nelson, who joined the team in Week 5. “(The receivers) really take it upon themselves so we can be a strength of this team, not a weakness.”

Back_to_Top

NY Jets face the Bengals needing to end the win one, lose one cycle (Manish Mehta) New York Daily News October 26, 2013

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/mehta-jets-show-bums-article-1.1497573#ixzz2iv2PAtOT

Daily Clips Cont.

26 | P a g e

Rex Ryan has racked his brain to explain his team’s dizzying inconsistency for the better part of two seasons, puzzled why his players can’t stand prosperity.

The Jets surge six days at a time. On the seventh day, they get smacked squarely in the jaw.

It’s been a maddening cycle for a star-crossed franchise hoping to rekindle Ryan’s magic from a few years ago. The 4-3 Jets, fresh off an adrenaline-pumping overtime win over their most hated rivals, will try to accomplish a seemingly Herculean feat (for them) against the AFC North leading Bengals on Sunday: Win two in a row.

It’s easier said than done for a franchise that has only one two-game winning streak in the past 26 games, dating back to the last month of the 2011 season. The Jets are 1-8 following wins dating back to the start of the 2012 season. Since the Jets reached back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2009 and 2010, Ryan’s teams have lost 12 of 17 games following wins. They’re 0-3 this season.

Why?

“I don’t know,” Ryan said. “If anybody’s got any answers, I’ll be willing to listen.”

The head coach insists that his team will “focus like crazy” to finally put a stop to the start-stop craziness. Otherwise, the Jets will be nothing more than playoff pretenders.

“We’re kind of in a see-saw thing right now,” right guard Willie Colon said. “The good teams stack wins.”

The Jets have already proven that they don’t belong among the league’s bottom feeders, but they’ll have to string together consecutive wins to have any chance of breaking their two-year playoff drought and eliminate any doubt that Ryan will be back next season.

The wild week-to-week swings through the first two months aren’t entirely surprising. A rookie quarterback’s growing pains reverberate. The team feels Geno Smith’s pain.

Smith’s inconsistency has been one of the tangible reasons for the Jets’ inability to get out of neutral. He’s had nine of his 14 turnovers and a 51.6 quarterback rating following wins. The Jets, who are 31st in the league with a minus-11 turnover margin, have committed twice as many turnovers (10) in their three losses as their four wins (5). Ryan’s team has had only one turnover-free game.

“Sometimes we don’t handle adverse situations in the best manner at some points in the games,” veteran outside linebacker Calvin Pace said. “The games we’ve done well, we’ve handled it. In the games we haven’t, we just crumble and something bad happens.”

The sluggish starts following victories have also contributed to the up-and-down season. The Jets haven’t scored a first-quarter touchdown in the three losses, getting outscored 20-6 in the opening 15 minutes. Ryan’s team has followed up its wins by being outscored by an average of 14 points the next week.

“We have to fix ourselves,” Ryan said. “The improvement that we’re making is kind of little-by-little. I see us getting better each week. Clearly, we’re not where we need to be, but we’re starting to make that climb.”

The problem is not falling off the mountain.

“When you look back at the tape,” Colon said, “sometimes it’s our lack of details and execution… things that we know we can do better. But for whatever reason, we’re not getting it done.”

The Jets’ lack of discipline — they lead the league in penalties — has been holding them back. Youth has been a blessing and curse.

Daily Clips Cont.

27 | P a g e

“When you have a young football team, from week to week you really don’t know what you’re going to get,” defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman said. “You kind of anticipate or you want to think that you know. There’s times before games where they’re jumping up and down in the locker room and you feel like they’re on fire. Then you come out and we’re flat. There’s times they act like a veteran team… (and) then they come out and play really well and excited with a ton of enthusiasm.”

That can’t happen in the next two weeks against the Bengals and Saints. The Jets need to be above .500 by their Week 10 bye to be a legitimate playoff contender even though their post-bye schedule appears soft on paper.

Maybe Ryan’s team is destined to stay on the season-long see-saw because it simply doesn’t have enough talent yet to be playoff contenders.

The Panthers are the only team currently with a winning record that the Jets will face in the final seven weeks. The next two games could turn the Jets into more than just an overachieving feel-good story. It could turn them into legitimate contenders.

It’s time to get off the roller coaster.

Back_to_Top

NY Jets at Cincinnati Bengals: Geno Smith and Gang Green head to Cincy in search of consistency (Hank Gola) New York Daily News October 26, 2013

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/playbook-jets-4-3-bengals-5-2-article-1.1497500#ixzz2iv2o7Q52

JETS AT BENGALS, PAUL BROWN STADIUM, 1 P.M.

LINE: Bengals by 6 1/2

TV: Ch. 2 ( Kevin Harlan , Solmon Wilcots )

RADIO: WEPN 98.7 FM (Bob Wischusen, Marty Lyons), in Spanish on WEPN 1050 AM (Clemson Smith Muniz , Oscar Benitez), Nationwide on USA Radio (Larry Kahn, John Robinson )

FORECAST: Partly sunny, low 50s with 5 mph winds

INJURY REPORT

Bengals CB Leon Hall blew out his Achilles last week and is gone for the year. He will be missed most as the slot corner in the nickel. DT Devon Still (elbow) is out. CB Terence Newman (ankle) and LB Rey Maualuga (hamstring) should be ready to go. Jets WR Santonio Holmes (hamstring) is out again. C Nick Mangold (ribs) was limited in practice but will play. WR Jeremy Kerley and TE Jeff Cumberland also have hamstring issues that won’t keep them out of the game.

KEY MATCHUP

WR A.J. Green vs. CB Antonio Cromartie

The Jets need Cro to be last year’s Cro, in other words, the shutdown corner he has not been this year. Cromartie showed improvement last week with his physicality at the line of scrimmage, but the man he shadows Sunday is a much taller task. Green, with 42 catches for 619 yards and five TDs, is one of the elite receivers in the game. He has sprinter's speed and competes for every ball. The back-shoulder-throw from Andy Dalton has become the staple of the Bengal attack.

Daily Clips Cont.

28 | P a g e

SCOUT SAYS

“The Bengals corners like to play a lot of press man coverage. They will force Geno Smith to fit the ball into some tight spots. Cincinnati’s defensive front matches up with anybody and Nick Mangold will have to at least get a stalemate out of his matchup with DT Geno Atkins . (Defensive coordinator) Mike Zimmer will give them a lot of looks and fronts and send the blitz on third down. Their linebackers are slow, however, and the Jets will test them with Jeff Cumberland . When you play the Bengals, you have to stop yards after the catch. Andy Dalton doesn’t have a lot of arm strength. It’s a typical West Coast attack plus they flex their tight ends. They’ll try to force the safety over to A.J. Green and then get either Jermaine Gresham or Tyler Eifert on a linebacker.”

INTANGIBLES

The Jets have been stuck in a win-one, lose-one mode all year and have won back-to-back games only twice over a 31-game span. They’ll come into Cincinnati off a fortunate but gigantic win over the Patriots, playing their way through the toughest part of their schedule with the Saints up next. Morale in general has to be good after defying preseason projections to get to 4-3, in the thick of the playoff race. Still, they need to find consistency. The Bengals come home after two straight road wins. They play a lot of close games but they’ve also been winning them and they own wins over the Packers and Patriots at Paul Brown Stadium. People keep waiting for them to bust out.

PREDICTION:

BENGALS, 26-17: Bengals’ defense is the best the Jets have faced so far.

Back_to_Top

NEW YORK TIMES

One Play Saved a Game and May Have Saved the Jets’ Season (Ben Shpigel) New York Times October 26, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/sports/football/one-play-saved-a-game-and-may-have-saved-the-jets-season.html

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — At the time, in the afterglow of the Jets’ season-opening victory, the play was hailed for what it was: a paragon of hustle and relentlessness and effort, of the way Coach Rex Ryan expects his team to compete on every snap. Enthusiasm lingered for about a day, the video clip shown in meetings and highlighted in the “Play Like a Jet” montage, and then it waned, lost to the churn of the season.

In Week 1, Jets linebacker Demario Davis, right, chased down Tampa Bay’s Vincent Jackson. The Bucs settled for a field goal.

Demario Davis’s teammates and coaches, though — they remember. Seven weeks after Davis rescued the Jets from probable defeat by chasing down Tampa Bay receiver Vincent Jackson to prevent a fourth-quarter touchdown, his tackle was revisited in the Jets’ locker room. It was hailed for what it had become.

“The biggest play of our season,” linebacker Nick Bellore said.

If not for Davis, the Jets would have needed a touchdown to defeat the Buccaneers on Sept. 8, not the field goal drilled by Nick Folk. If not for Davis, players said, the Jets would have lost. They would not be 4-3, contending for a playoff berth, trusting that they can win every close game.

Daily Clips Cont.

29 | P a g e

“We lose, and who knows how it affects us moving forward?” Bellore said.

“I mean, who knows what would have happened?” Calvin Pace said.

“I don’t even want to think about it,” Ryan said.

When that question was posed to Davis, he answered without hesitation. He says he believes that everything happens for a reason — that other moments have played just as critical a role in the Jets’ success, but that he was meant to track down Jackson after blown coverage elsewhere; that he, the last line of defense, was meant to travel an estimated 40 yards to stop Jackson, one of the faster receivers in the league, with a diving tackle.

Davis’s speed was one of his most enticing attributes when the Jets selected him in the third round of the 2012 draft. They wanted a linebacker who could stop the run and remain on the field on third downs, covering tight ends or running backs flaring out of the backfield.

“Anytime you have a linebacker who can do that, you can pretty much do anything,” the linebackers coach Brian VanGorder said.

To Davis, that defining sequence, which occurred with 1 minute 45 seconds remaining and the Jets clinging to a 15-14 lead, feels as if it happened “decades ago.” It is far more vivid to some of his teammates and coaches, who recalled the swing of emotions, how third-and-10 at the Tampa Bay 37 went from “oh, no” to “thank goodness” in six seconds.

The ball was positioned in the middle of the field, not on a hash mark, which affected the Jets’ defensive call. Just as safety Antonio Allen finished creeping toward the line of scrimmage from the middle of the field, Ryan lurched forward on the sideline.

“We weren’t lined up how I anticipated us being lined up,” he said.

The call, Ryan realized, had been interpreted two ways. He considered using one of his three timeouts and in hindsight, he said, he should have. Instead, his thoughts turned to one of his favorite sayings: “As long as you sing out of the same hymnal, you’ll be just fine.” He hoped, right then, that all 11 players recognized the tune.

And then the ball was snapped. Allen and Isaiah Trufant blitzed from the right side, leaving Jackson uncovered in the slot.

“Uh-oh,” Trufant said.

“You knew something had gone wrong,” Bellore said.

“We just turned their best receiver loose,” Ryan said.

Recognizing the breakdown, quarterback Josh Freeman fired a pass to Jackson, who jumped to grab it at the Tampa Bay 45. Nine Jets defenders were behind him. Another, Dee Milliner, was engaged on the opposite sideline, leaving only safety Dawan Landry. Coming from the deep middle, Landry arrived just as Jackson’s feet touched the turf. Juking him with a spin move, Jackson rolled off Landry’s attempted tackle. He regained his footing after a barely perceptible stumble and sprinted toward victory.

The Jets perform pursuit drills at every practice. Either Ryan or the defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman throws the ball, and every player turns and runs to it. That is the abiding principle: do not watch the ball; just turn and run.

And so that is what Davis did. He had lined up on the far hash mark, between linemen Sheldon Richardson and Muhammad Wilkerson and on the other side of the formation from Jackson, before

Daily Clips Cont.

30 | P a g e

dropping into coverage. When Jackson spun off Landry at the Tampa Bay 47, Davis was about 11 yards away. He said he did not realize that he was the closest player to Jackson.

“We know Demario can run,” Bellore said, “but I don’t think any of us thought he could get him.”

That included Ryan.

“There’s no way,” Ryan said he thought. “As fast as Demario is, he should not be able to make that play.”

Davis, charging from Jackson’s right, drew closer.

“I knew he was going to get him,” Richardson said.

And closer.

“Like an antelope chasing a deer,” the defensive line coach Karl Dunbar said.

And closer.

“When I’m on the field and somebody has the ball,” Davis said, “I always feel like I can get him.”

Davis started his dive at the Jets’ 31. He clipped Jackson’s left leg, dragging him down at the 26. The Buccaneers went ahead, 17-15, on a field goal with 34 seconds left. The Jets won, 18-17, on a field goal with two seconds left. A game ball resides in Davis’s locker stall, a reminder of the Jets’ most important tackle so far, the moment that stabilized their season.

“I’m sure it’ll be shown as an example of a great hustle play for years to come,” Bellore said. “He saved us.”

Back_to_Top

ESPN NEW YORK

99 Days: Super Bowl tailgating? Um ... (Jane McManus) ESPN New York October 26, 2013

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york//post/_/id/1761/99-days-super-bowl-tailgating-um?ex_cid=espnapi_public

Each day from now until Feb. 2, ESPNNewYork.com will take you inside the challenge of staging the most unpredictable NFL title game ever. There are 99 days to the Super Bowl.

Each week, Jets or Giants fans load their grills into cars, cover marinating meat with foil and fill the cooler with beer for a pregame tailgate. At the Super Bowl on Feb. 2, there just won’t be a lot of room for that.

Super Bowl host committee president and CEO Al Kelly said the 28,000 parking sports normally reserved for MetLife Stadium ticket holders will be slashed to 12,000.

The reason? The NFL and security officials mandate a buffer zone outside any stadium hosting a Super Bowl. So the committee is already working on a Plan B.

“We are calling this the public transportation Super Bowl,” host committee co-chairman Jonathan Tisch said. “It’s important to note that we are losing half of our parking spaces due to the security perimeter around the stadium. People should really start to think about the bus they’re going to take, the train they’re going to take.”

Daily Clips Cont.

31 | P a g e

The security perimeter will also host the check points for fans to come through. Those checks can be extensive, and the same one-bag policy will be in effect for the Super Bowl as has been implemented in the rest of the league. So no purses and backpacks, just a small clear bag for each ticket holder.

There will be extra buses for fans on game day, although the trains that run from Manhattan to East Rutherford are also an easy choice. That is, barring any kind of snow or freezing rain. During the week before the game, the committee recommends visitors get to know the New York subway system.

So get ready, New York. Not only will the traffic snarls, competition for empty cabs and fully-booked restaurants confront you all week, but the subways will be filled with out-of-towners trying to find Super Bowl Boulevard on a map. It might be a small price to pay for hosting the NFL’s championship game.

Back_to_Top

Fewer kicks the better for Nick Folk (Matt Ehalt) ESPN New York October 26, 2013

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york-jets/post/_/id/30021/fewer-kicks-the-better-for-nick-folk?ex_cid=espnapi_public

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- As he talked to fellow kickers and special-teams players in the offseason, New York Jets kicker Nick Folk found out Jets practices were different from most in the NFL.

The approximate 110 kicks a week he did last year weren't matched by fellow players, who said they felt fresh throughout the course of the season with lighter workloads.

Folk presented his findings to first-year special-teams coach Ben Kotwica, who took the information and created a less intensive training regimen for Folk. It's a new schedule that Folk and Kotwica believe has had a positive effect: Folk hasn't missed a field goal this year.

"I think [Kotwica] sees a little bit of a difference in kind of where we are," Folk said.

Folk said he has decreased from approximately 110 kicks a week last season to roughly 65-70 this campaign. Wednesday is a light day for Folks as he kicks about 15-16 balls, and he has a heavy day on Thursday when he boots about 40. Friday is another light practice with about 15 kicks.

The veteran kicker equated a kicker to a pitcher in regard to how they prepare. Much like a pitcher, Folk said, he puts everything he can into a kick, which wears on him over time. If he's kicking an extra point, he's going to approach it as if it's a 60-yard field goal. There's no variation or decreased energy.

"You can say we're just going to hit extra points today. OK, well that's great, but I'm not going to go out there and just take a one-step kick," Folk said. "I'm going to do the full thing because I don't want to get out of any type of rhythm."

With fewer kicks each week, Folk said he feels fresher for obvious reasons. He's able to get all the necessary work, but he's not overworking his leg. Kotwica said he's monitoring the volume of kicks Folks does each week as the second half approaches.

"One of the things we're looking at -- we have the bye coming up here, this one [versus Cincinnati], then we have the Saints," said Kotwica, who replaced longtime coach Mike Westhoff. "So, [we'll say,] 'Hey, what are we doing during the bye so we can finish the year strong?'"

Folk is off to the best start of his career -- he's a perfect 16-for-16, including three game winners, the latest in Sunday's 30-27 overtime win over the Patriots. Kotwica also complimented Folk for the job he has done on kickoffs. He said Folk is consistently striking the ball with power.

Daily Clips Cont.

32 | P a g e

Folk isn't taking any satisfaction in his perfect start to the season.

"The only kick I'm worried about is the next one, which I have on Sunday," Folk said. "Whatever I've done in the past, you can build off that confidence and build off those experiences and go from there. I can't really look back on it and dwell on it, can't let it creep into my mind. The only important kick I have is on Sunday, whenever that is, and go from there. Anything that I can help this team do to win, I'm going to do."

Back_to_Top

If the Jets can win it, they're in it (Ian O’Connor) ESPN New York October 26, 2013

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/9880777/if-new-york-jets-win-sunday-john-idzik-consider-deal?ex_cid=espnapi_public

Seven games deep into a year best defined as a pleasant surprise, John Idzik still has reasons to do absolutely nothing with his roster before Tuesday's trade deadline, and none more convincing than this one:

His New York Jets have not proven to him that they are for real. In fact, even after their conquest of the Bradys and Belichicks, the Jets haven't proven to anyone that they are for real, if the definition of for real includes any team with a credible chance of making the playoffs and winning games once it gets there.

In other words, a team capable of getting hot enough to reach a Super Bowl that happens to be scheduled for the Jets' backyard.

Rex Ryan has yet to win two consecutive games this year, and the general manager who inherited him, Idzik, saw what he saw when the Jets were blown out by the Titans, when they failed to score a touchdown against the then-winless Steelers and when they lucked out against the Buccaneers and (to a lesser extent) the Patriots.

The GM saw a team strong enough to hurdle the painfully low bar many set for it in the preseason, and yet flawed enough to finish the season at or around .500, not good enough to qualify for the tournament.

And not good enough to justify the trading of a draft pick over the next three days to give the Jets the playmaker they desperately need if they want to be considered, you know, for real.

But the Jets can change all that Sunday in Cincinnati, where they play a 5-2 Bengals team that has won three in a row. If they score this road upset a week after beating Tom Brady, and a week before facing Drew Brees in what would suddenly be advertised as a very big game, the Jets wouldn't only move their critics (this one included) to reevaluate who they are; they might move their GM to try to make that trade.

To offer that draft choice for Josh Gordon of the Browns, or Hakeem Nicks of the Giants, or Tony Gonzalez of the Falcons, or some other difference-maker on Geno Smith's side of the ball.

"I think [Idzik] should consider that if his team is 5-3 at the halfway point," said a league source close to the Jets. "Winning is so precious in professional sports, and if the price isn't prohibitive, it's worth taking a hard look at."

If the Jets want Idzik to give strong consideration to a trade that would aid their current cause, they should know that athletes send messages to their bosses in different ways. By publicly declaring his

Daily Clips Cont.

33 | P a g e

desire to enter free agency in July, Carmelo Anthony applied pressure to the Knicks' new GM, Steve Mills, just in case Mills planned on taking Melo's stated preference to stay put to the bank. Anthony was telling the front office to improve the cast around him and give him a fighting chance to win a title, or else.

By beating the Bengals and establishing their first winning streak of the year, the Jets would be making a statement to Idzik with their helmets and pads, not their mouths. They would be giving the GM a reason to believe they could actually make something of a New York football season that was supposed to be dead and buried once the Giants started coming undone.

"It would be huge," Ryan said of an unlikely victory over the Bengals. The Jets coach called Cincinnati one of the league's better teams.

"We have to be at our very best, there's no question," Ryan said, "to have a chance to beat these guys."

Antonio Cromartie has to shut down A.J. Green, and Muhammad Wilkerson and friends have to get to Andy Dalton more than Geno Atkins and friends get to Geno Smith. Of greater consequence, Smith has to be the rookie who was poised enough to outplay Brady, and not the rookie who has thrown three more interceptions than touchdowns in his first seven starts.

"I like Geno a lot," the source close to the Jets said, "but it's going to come down to how he handles the ups and downs of the season, and the challenge of not getting too high or too low, especially in New York.

"But if he doesn't turn the ball over, the Jets will be hard to beat because of that defense. Like Kansas City, the Jets are physical and have a good, strong front seven in a league where nobody plays defense. They have two running backs who can really play, and the best kicker in the NFL, and that formula will keep you in games. It's hard for me to imagine Cincinnati not being a one-score game in the fourth quarter."

And what if the Jets end up on the right side of that one-score game? What if Smith beats Dalton the way he beat Brady and Matt Ryan, and makes everyone forget, again, that Rex Ryan got Mark Sanchez knocked out for the season on a senseless choice in August?

Idzik will have until 4 p.m. Tuesday to answer those questions. He's got a defense, and an offensive line, and an intriguing young quarterback, all assets that make the 4-3 Jets a mildly interesting act, and something of a juggernaut when measured against the 1-6 Giants.

Only in a fast-breaking league, the Jets' lack of firepower at receiver reduces them to the equivalent of a half-court team. They're just not going to rip through the AFC side of the bracket if Jeremy Kerley is their most dangerous outside threat.

Chances are, Idzik will decide a relatively high draft pick for a better short-term receiver is too steep a price to pay for a rebuilding team he hopes and suspects is two years away from legitimate title contention.

But if the Jets believe they are capable of something magical right now, capable of giving New Yorkers a show before they get to the Knicks and the Nets, they have one last chance here to change Idzik's mind.

They can beat the Bengals, and put their own GM on the clock.

Back_to_Top

METRO NEW YORK

Jets vs. Bengals: 3 things to watch (Kristian Dyer)

Daily Clips Cont.

34 | P a g e

Metro New York October 26, 2013

http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/nfl/2013/10/26/jets-vs-bengals-3-things-to-watch-2/

After their latest statement win, the Jets are eying perhaps a bigger win this Sunday against the 5-2 Bengals.

It will take a complete effort from the top team in the AFC North, who have won three straight and have wins over Pittsburgh, Green Bay and New England. It will be a tough test for the Jets, especially on the road, as the Bengals are 3-0 at home.

Three things to watch for …

1. Bengals go Green

Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green is putting together a complete performance in what should be his third Pro Bowl appearance. He leads the Bengals in receptions (43), receiving yards (619) and touchdowns (five) and accounts for 32 percent of their passing offense.

“What does the kid not have? He has size, speed, athleticism, route running, great catching radius,” Jets head coach Rex Ryan said. “Like I said, in my opinion, he’s probably the best receiver in the AFC. There are some good receivers, but in my opinion, he’s probably the best.”

2. Grounding it

A big part of the Jets’ win in Week 7 over the Patriots was their ability to get the running game going. Chris Ivory stepped up with his biggest game as a Jet, with 34 carries for 104 yards. That rushing total was more than his past four rushing totals combined.

“He’s a very physical back. He’s getting much better at pass protection,” Ryan said.

It could be an emerging combination, especially with the solid running from Bilal Powell this season.

“Powell is an all-around back, [with] excellent out of the backfield,” Ryan said. “He’s outstanding in protection and he has his own running style. He kind of mixes in vision [and] power. So, both those backs are very good.”

Even with the loss of Mike Goodson for the season, the Jets are still the No. 7 rushing offense in the league.

3. Green light for Geno

One week up, one week down — so goes the development of quarterback Geno Smith in his rookie season. If Smith can manage this game, like he did in Atlanta three weeks ago and against the Patriots last week, then the Jets can win at the Bengals. But against an aggressive pass rush and a secondary that jumps to the ball very well, he better limit his mistakes … or else it could be a long afternoon.

“I definitely want to continue to play consistently,” Smith said. “That’s something I have been working extremely hard at. [I have] been beating myself over about [it] because I know with that consistency at the quarterback it usually leads to success with the team. That’s something I’m trying to do, something I pride myself in, being a consistent decision maker. That’s what I have been trying to do and it’s something that has really hit home with me as of late.”

Back_to_Top

SATURDAY’S SPORTS TRANSACTIONS

Daily Clips Cont.

35 | P a g e

Associated Press October 26, 2013

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/10/26/3298125/saturdays-sports-transactions.html CHICAGO BULLS — Waived C Dexter Pittman and F D.J. White. DALLAS MAVERICKS — Waived G Mickey McConnell. MIAMI HEAT — Waived F Eric Griffin and C Justin Hamilton. PHOENIX SUNS — Exercised their 2014-15 options on F Markieff Morris, F Marcus Morris and C Miles Plumlee. UTAH JAZZ — Signed G Jamaal Tinsley. CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed LB Darius Eubanks from the practice squad. Waived LB Brandon Magee. DALLAS COWBOYS — Released G David Arkin. Signed S Jakar Hamilton from the practice squad. MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Waived DE Justin Trattou. Signed TE Chase Ford from the practice squad. OAKLAND RAIDERS — Signed OL Jack Cornell. Waived DL Brian Sanford. ANAHEIM DUCKS — Reassigned G Igor Bobkov to Norfolk (AHL) from Utah (ECHL). CALGARY FLAMES — Recalled D Derek Smith from Abbotsford (AHL). COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS — Recalled F Michael Chaput from Springfield (AHL). MONTREAL CANADIENS — Assigned D Greg Pateryn to Hamilton (AHL). NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Recalled G Keith Kinkaid from Albany (AHL) with a roster exemption. Reassigned G Maxime Clermont to Albany from Elmira (ECHL). VANCOUVER CANUCKS — Reassigned C Pascal Pelletier to Utica (AHL). ALLEN AMERICANS — Signed D Dallas Ehrhardt. Waived F Charles Lachance. ARIZONA SUNDOGS — Signed F Alex Tuckerman to a 5-game contract. Waived F Henric Hoglund. ECHL — Suspended Elmira's Riley Boychuk pending a review and fined him an undisclosed amount for his actions in an Oct. 25 game against Reading.

Back_to_Top