As Jets coach Rex Ryan tries to process the 45-3 pasting that his team absorbed on Monday night against the Patriots, Ryan has resorted once again to hubris.
“That was the worst defeat in my coaching career that I’ve been a part of,” Ryan said Tuesday. “But there’s another defeat that I think was probably just as humiliating, just as bad . . . and that was the ’85 Bears against Miami. . . .
“I hope history repeats itself,” Ryan said. “The goal of the Chicago Bears was to win a Super Bowl. And that’s our goal. Whether people like it or not, I really don’t care. That’s our goal. That’s our mission going into this season.”
(Unfortunately for the Jets, 31 other franchises have that exact same goal. Even more unfortunately, one of them is the Patriots.)
Here’s the difference between the ’85 Bears and the ’10 Jets. The ’85 Bears already owned the NFC when they lost to the Dolphins; there was no doubt the Bears would have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The only question was whether they’d finish the regular season without a loss.
The ’10 Jets needed to beat the Patriots to maintain realistic hope for securing the top seed in the AFC. As it now stands, the Jets are looking at getting to the Super Bowl the hard way, hitting the road for as many as three games before securing a berth in the Super Bowl.
There’s another big difference between the two teams. The ’85 Bears were dominant, legendary. The Jets had cobbled together a 9-2 record with some cardiac wins against mediocre teams, and they potentially have been exposed by another AFC team that, as of December 6, looks to be a lot better than the Jets.
None of it means that the Jets won’t turn it around. But, as of December 8, the 2010 Jets have even less in common with the 1985 Bears than Dan Quayle did with Jack Kennedy.