If we are to take these Jets seriously, they cannot return home from Houston on Sunday night without a win, without being 6-4 and having thrust themselves into the thick of the AFC wild-card playoff race with six remaining games.
The Jets cannot limp home from Houston at 5-5, having lost four of their last five games, and make anyone believe they should be taken seriously as a playoff contender.
It all starts with their defense.
When the Jets take the No. 4-ranked defense into NRG Stadium in Houston to play the 4-5 Texans, they need to play like the fourth-ranked defense. They need to validate the ranking and prove it not to be just another misleading, empty fantasy football statistic.
Sunday is all about the Jets’ defense, because the Houston defense, which has not yielded a touchdown in the last 10 quarters, is all the Texans are counting on to carry them to victory. The Houston defense does not figure to be handing out first downs and points like banks used to dole out lollipops to kids at the drive-thru window.
Not with game-wrecker J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, Vince Wilfork and Brian Cushing staring Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets’ offense in the face from the across the line of scrimmage.
The Jets enter this game having not played since Nov. 12. So they’ll take the field the well-rested team. The Texans played Monday night and are on a short week.
To say the Texans are vulnerable offensively is to grossly understate the situation. Their quarterback will be T.J. Yates, who last started an NFL game in January 2012.
Statistically, the Jets’ strengths defensively should match up favorably with the Texans’ deficiencies on offense.
The Jets rank No. 1 defending the run, allowing an average of 88.1 yards per game. The Texans, who are without their best running back, Arian Foster (out for the season with a torn Achilles), are ranked 28th in the league in rushing offense, averaging 87.2 per game, and ranked last in yards per carry (3.28).
Get the picture?
If the Jets’ defense does not dominate the Houston offense, then its lofty league rankings will prove to be as fraudulent as all those rankings former coach Rex Ryan used to brag about on a weekly basis.
“This is a must-win game,’’ safety Calvin Pryor said Friday. “We know what we’re up against. We had a great week of practice. Preparation is key. It doesn’t matter who’s playing for them, at this point it’s about what we do and what we can do to dominate this game. We can’t go out there slacking or starting off slow, because [the Texans] do have a great defense.”
Pryor, who’s returning to the lineup after missing the last three games with an ankle sprain suffered in the Oct. 25 loss to the Patriots, went on to praise the “pretty good weapons’’ the Texans have on offense.
The Texans have one particularly dynamic player in receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who has 71 receptions for 927 yards and seven touchdowns.
The Jets have cornerback Darrelle Revis to counter Hopkins. If Revis Island is the inhospitable place it’s made out to be, then Revis should be able to take Hopkins out of the game and make the Texans’ offense play left-handed.
The Jets must put their last month of mediocre football — lowlighted by their failure to beat the Bills in their last game despite Buffalo’s concerted effort to throw the game in the end — behind them.
“I have been in plenty of buildings where we didn’t have a chance because we weren’t together and it was nasty, and we don’t have that here,’’ receiver Brandon Marshall said. “You look at the locker room and there is no difference from after losing to Buffalo to when we won two in a row at the beginning of the season. That is what you want. Now it is just time to put it together.
“From my experience, these are usually the times when a team can fold or take that step and make something out of their season.”
“We know where we are at when you look at the AFC and we know where we want to be at the end of the season.”
That starts with a win over a Houston team the Jets are supposed to be better than.
“It’s a must win, because we’re in the playoff hunt,’’ Pryor said. “We can’t have any setbacks. This is a critical game for us, so hopefully we can go out there and get the job done.’’
It all starts with their defense.