At 5-5 and already conceding the AFC East to the Patriots, the talk around the Jets this week is all about going 6-0 the rest of the way to ensure a wild card berth.
“Six-and-0,” Jets linebacker Calvin Pace told the New York Daily News. “Sometimes when you get caught losing to teams you’re not supposed to lose to, you end up kicking yourself in the butt saying, ‘Man, we put ourselves behind the eight-ball. These are games we should win.’”
The Jets get the Bills at home on Sunday, then they play the Redskins, Chiefs, Eagles, Giants and Dolphins the rest of the way. With that schedule, it’s not unreasonable to think they could win them all.
“I feel like we do have to win these last six games,” Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. “That would put us at 11-5; that should be enough to get us in. You look at 10-6 and I don’t know if that is enough.”
There’s really no way to know if 10-6 will be good enough until we see how the season plays out. Last year the two AFC wild cards were 12-4 and 11-5. The year before that, two 9-7 teams were the two wild cards. The year before that the 11-5 Patriots missed the playoffs.
So it’s possible that 6-0 the rest of the way won’t be good enough. But Jets coach Rex Ryan likes the way his players are laying it out: Win six in a row and get to the playoffs.
“Well, that’s what you want the mentality to be, the mindset to be,” Ryan said. “I don’t know if that’s factual or not. I feel pretty good about getting in there at 5-1, but 6-0 sounds good. [If] we go 6-0, we’ll get it in there.”