What was being talked about a week ago as a potential stumbling block is suddenly looking like a good thing.
The NFL decided to schedule the Jets this past Sunday night, giving national coverage to their 37-16 loss to New England. Then, four days later, they fly from New York to Denver to play the Broncos in another primetime national broadcast. It is a brutal stretch of two tough games and travel through two time zones.
But given their sour performance against New England, a shorter than normal game week gives the Jets a chance to get back on the right track faster than usual.
“The fact that we just got beat like we got beat, it’s probably a good thing, so we can’t dwell on it,” head coach Rex Ryan said of the short week. “That’s the thing that we have to do; we have to move on.”
The talk all week was that the Patriots were vulnerable. The game was there for the taking for New York.
Rather than show up, they came out flat and were dominated in nearly every facet of the game. The task now becomes regrouping ahead of a road trip to the 4-5 Broncos in one of the league’s most hostile environments.
“It was a big game for us. We put everything into it and there was a lot on the line. To not win a game is a setback, but at the same time we still have a lot of ballgames to play,” running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. “The good thing about it is we play Thursday so we can move on quickly. We’ll try to get a win Thursday and put it behind us.”
Given their three-game losing streak earlier this season, the Jets understand that this game is important to salvaging their season. It becomes another “must-win” as much mentally as it does in the standings.
“It could be really tough if you let this loss hang over, but you can get the taste right out of your mouth quickly if we go out and win in Denver,” quarterback Mark Sanchez said. “We have our work cut out for us. It’s never a one-game season. We would have loved to win this game. It’s a disappointing loss of course.”
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
