New York Jets coach Rex Ryan pulled no punches this week when asked what Sunday’s game with the AFC East rival New england Patriots means to his team.
“You want to win your division. That was our goal. The two years I’ve been here, obviously New England has won the division both times. They’ve beat us already. So, we know what this game represents, we’re not afraid to talk about it. It’s not one of these, ‘Well, if we don’t, there’s still a lot of season left.’ We’re approaching it like we have to have this game. We want to win our division. We think it goes through New England. Obviously, it’s a three-way tie for first right now. Buffalo is playing well, us and New England. But that old saying, ‘To be the champ you have to beat the champ.’ And they’re sitting right in front of us,” Ryan said.
“We think we’ve improved as a football team, and we’re going to find out on Sunday, because this is a measuring stick right here. We’ll see if we’ve improved enough to beat New England.”