Dare to Dream? You've got the Green Light

I saw what I saw. It was a tough, will-imposing playoff victory on the road against a team that had won 11 in a row.

Rex Ryan seemed to know what "Jet Football" meant before the rest of us. I get it now. Run on 1st down, run on 2nd down, don't turn it over on 3rd down, and let the D do the rest. 17-14 is the way he drew it up.

The formula for momentum may be mass times acceleration, but momentum is built on moments. A few game-changing statements when Jets fans knew things were a little bit different this time.

There was the 2nd quarter effort where Jet Safety Jim Leonhard lost his helmet but came up with the football after he separated Malcolm Floyd from it. The fact that the play was called incomplete (in a dubious overturn) wasn't the point. The smallest man on the field was a guided missile all night.

When the Jets trailed 7-3 early in the 4th, Mark Sanchez rolled right on a 3rd & Goal on the 2. When nobody was open I shouted "Throw it away!" But Rookie QB bought time and space with his feet, and sure enough found 2nd Year TE Dustin Keller in the back of the end zone.

For a guy who threw for only 100 yards, these 2 yards were awfully big.

And for Kerry Rhodes with the massive sack and strip on Philip Rivers, there was a little redemption there. Rhodes was probably the best player on the Jets last playoff team in '06, but was maligned much of his first year in Rex's D.

And there was another rookie, RB Shonn Greene, two hands on the football, running over Eric Weddle and charging 53 yards to the Chargers' end zone. And if you take away all the intangibles that propelled this postseason ride, this runner is the #1 reason the Jets can beat anybody on any field.

But on the huge 4th & 1, to put the game away, it was Jet vet Thomas Jones who powered over the right side. It was the right move in a meeting of the minds of the OC and HC (who also happens to be the DC).

The fact that Brian Schottenheimer can buy into Rex Ryan's old-school vision is symbolic of the total team effort. That's something we can all buy into.

The New Look Jets: Changing the Culture before our eyes?

I know it's only Week 2. But I saw something last week in Houston that I hadn't seen in quite some time: a Jets team that dominated on both sides, and pushed people around.

Head Coach Rex Ryan brought a defensive attitude that Jets hadn't exhibited since the Bud Carson defenses of the late 80s. Shifting to a 3-4 defense is really like a 4-4 if you count Nose Tackle Kris Jenkins twice. He looks to be the most disruptive force in the league from that position. His only flaw is that he's so big and plays so hard that he needs to come out of the game from time to time.

Ryan brought a couple of key cogs from his Ravens defenses as well. LB Bart Scott was all over the field last week. And Safety Jim Leonhard is a force in the secondary, as a run-stopper, and on special teams.

So the task for glamorous rookie QB Mark Sanchez is to not mess it up. And if Week 1 is any indicator, the Jets offense seems to be in good hands. Sanchez was poised and delivered time and again on 3rd Down. He threw an ill-advised pick which resulted in the Texans' only score, but the Sanchez ledger sheet was pretty well-weighted to the good. And his presence was able to keep the defense honest enough that after 3 quarters of futility for the Jets ground game, they owned the 4th Quarter.

Now is the Jets time to flex their muscles as they host the Patriots today. It was a Week 2 meeting in 2001 between the teams that changed the NFL landscape forever. You may remember Jets LB Mo Lewis crushing Drew Bledsoe's chest. That opened up the door for unproven 2nd year, 6th round pick Tom Brady and the rest is history.

Today the Jets can open a door of their own by punishing Brady and changing the landscape in the NFL themselves.