The Jets’ save-the-season mantra sounds like a lottery game: Win Four.
It’s a similar marching order to that of their next opponent, the Broncos, who come to Giants Stadium on Sunday having lost their last two games by a field goal in overtime.
The Jets are 6-6 and have a margin for error slimmer than Ally McBeal’s waistline. One more loss in their next four games and they’re almost surely out of the playoff race.
The Broncos are 7-5 and staring up at the 8-4 Raiders and Chargers in the AFC West.
The pressure is mounting for both teams as the December chill sets in, though Herman Edwards yesterday said that hardly matters to the Jets, because they’ve been walking the high wire for weeks already.
“It was a one-game season for us six weeks ago; that’s been our mindset,” Edwards said. “We mandated that six weeks ago. Now, we’ve hit a bump; we lost a game. So OK, now we’ve got to go beat a good team at home. [The Broncos] just lost a couple in a row, so they can’t afford to lose and we can’t afford to lose.”
It should make for quite a struggle.
“Four straight,” Randy Thomas said. “We’ve got to win four straight. We’ve done it before.”
Asked how difficult it might be to stay focused on the playoff race if they lose to the Broncos, Thomas wanted to hear nothing of the sort, saying, “I don’t think we’re going to lose to [bleeping] Denver. We’ve shown we can play with the best of them.”
Still, though, anything less than a 10-6 finish and the Jets cannot realistically count on advancing to the postseason.
“Everyone knows 9-7 is not going to get you in,” Kevin Mawae said.
“We’re very much in this race,” Chad Pennington said. “We’re not out of it by any means. There’s no room for error. We’ve had that feeling since we were 2-5. There’s no reason to back down or be scared, because if you go in scared or hesitant you’re coming out with a loss. We’re going in fully confident and ready to take it on and shock the world.”
Eight AFC teams, including division rivals Miami and New England (each 7-5), have at least one more win than the Jets, making their road very difficult. At this point, it looks like their best chance to get into the playoffs is by winning the AFC East, which most likely will require 10 wins.
“We won four games in a row before around here,” Ray Mickens said. “It isn’t like it’ll take a miracle for us to do it. We know we can do it.”
Indeed, the Jets’ confidence is buoyed by the fact they’re actually fresh off a four-game winning streak, which ended in Oakland on Monday.
The Jets have won four in a row twice under Edwards, once this year and once last year. Can they do it again, only this time with the pressure of no margin for error?
“Why can’t we? We’ve done it before,” Nick Ferguson said.
“We’ve been there before where we had to win games just to get back into the playoff race,” Pennington said. “Well, now we’re in the playoff race and we have to win more games, so we definitely have confidence from our past experience this year.”
Despite the pressure that’s mounting and the fact the Jets are only two days removed from the loss in Oakland, the team’s mood was decidedly upbeat yesterday.
“The confidence is still there; we’re just in a delicate situation right now,” Ferguson said.
“We’re not down in the dumps,” Damien Robinson said. “A lot of guys were disappointed in the loss, because we were really focused on beating the Raiders and we came so close. But we’ve got to get our energy right back, because these four games are just like playoff games.
“We want to win those last four to control our own destiny. If we win, we control our own destiny. If we lose, we leave it in someone else’s hands.”
The Jets actually don’t control their own destiny. They can win their final four games, finish 10-6 and still not make the playoffs, though that’s not likely.
After Denver, the Jets play at the Bears (3-9), then the Patriots (7-5) in a Sunday nighter in Foxboro and finish at home against the Packers (9-3).
FOUR THE HARD WAY
The Jets believe they must put together a four-game winning streak – something they’ve done twice under Herman Edwards – to make the playoffs. Here’s a look at those other two streaks, and who the Jets must beat to do it again:
2001
Date Opponent Score
Oct. 28 Panthers 13-12
Nov. 4 Saints 16-9
Nov. 11 Chiefs 27-7
Nov. 18 Dolphins 24-0
Date Opponent Score
Nov. 3 Chargers 44-13
Nov. 10 Dolphins 13-10
Nov. 17 Lions 31-14
Nov. 24 Bills 31-13
Remaining Games
Date Opponent Record
Dec. 8 Broncos 7-5
Dec. 15 Bears 3-9
Dec. 22 Patriots 7-5
Dec. 29 Packers 9-3