The New York Jets have been to the AFC Championship Game the past two seasons. At 7-5 right now the Jets are fighting to simply make the playoffs this time around, and hoping their experience will help.
“We’ve been down this road before. I think it’s urgency, a sense of urgency without question, but it’s just a purpose, a focus and everything else. That’s where we’re at. We know what’s at stake. We have to win this game,” said Jets head coach Rex Ryan.
The Jets host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. New York has won two straight, and safety Jim Leonhard pointed to 2009 — when the Jets won five of their last six — as experience the team can lean on.
“I think it means a lot, just for the guys. You’ve been there. You’ve done it before, and you know it’s not just lip service that the coaches are talking. You know if we do this, good things are going to happen because we’ve done it. We’ve been there,” Leonhard said. “Obviously, you can’t win from the fact that you’ve had that experience, but you have a little bit of comfort in this situation knowing that you’ve been there before.”