INSIDE THE NFL
Long, Hard Climb
The Jets are discovering how difficult it is to get to the next
level
by Peter King
Posted: Wed October 7, 1998
Rebuilding in the NFL usually goes something like this: You go
from bad to being a team that loses a lot of close games, then to
9-7, next to 10 wins and a wild-card playoff spot, and finally to
11 or 12 victories and far into the postseason.
When the Jets skipped a stage last year, improving from 1-15 to
9-7 in Bill Parcells' first season as coach, great expectations
got greater. So after New York lost two of its first three games
in '98, Parcells gathered his players and told them the ugly
truth. "It's a lot harder to go from nine wins to 10 or 11
wins," he said, "than it was to go from one win to nine. Now
you'll get viewed differently every week. Teams will compete
against you harder. If you're not ready, you won't even make it
back to nine, never mind get better."
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Ray Mickens (24) and the Jets limited O.J. McDuffie and the
Dolphins to 153 total yards.
(Al Tielemans)
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"Probably the most important thing he'll say to us all year,"
guard Todd Burger said on Sunday in the wake of the Jets'
physical 20-9 win over the Dolphins. "Winning nine got the guys
believing they'd be competitive every Sunday, automatically. Now
we know it'll take more."
Much more. Although they knocked Miami from the ranks of the
undefeated, the Jets, in terms of talent, are nothing more than a
middle-of-the-road team that has to scratch by on defensive moxie
and special teams effort. They have a two-headed quarterback
(occasionally effective Vinny Testaverde, occasionally healthy
Glenn Foley), which means they really don't have one. This team
will win largely on guts. Walking through the locker room after
Sunday's game, Parcells conjured up a memory from a decade ago.
"It's like when I coached the Giants," he said, "and we'd go in
to play the Cardinals or somebody like that, and if we weren't
ready to play, it'd be a three-point game instead of 20. We have
to play our best game every week to have a chance."
Funny he should mention the Giants. Sunday's game brought to
mind the way football used to be played in the NFC East, and
it's no coincidence that both coaches are NFC East alumni.
Parcells continually fed the ball to Curtis Martin, who had 36
carries. (Martin, slowed by injuries in two of his first four
years, is on pace to run the ball a league-record 416 times this
season.) On the other side, Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, late
of the Cowboys, is trying to install a ball-control offense of
his own. Since Dan Marino arrived in Miami in 1983, no NFL team
has run for fewer yards and passed for more than the Dolphins,
but this season 29 quarterbacks have more passing yardage than
Marino (132 per game). It's definitely a new approach for Miami,
and sometimes a rocky one—against the Jets the Dolphins gained
just 34 yards on 15 carries.
During the week Johnson broke out the heavy motivational
artillery, showing a tape of the 1985 middleweight title fight
between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns. Johnson told his
players that when they thought they had nothing left, they had
to reach back and find some strength, as Hagler did when he was
being hammered by Hearns early in the fight. Yes, Johnson had
brought out his A speech in preparation for the 1-2 Jets.
"Last year," said New York linebacker Dwayne Gordon, "teams said,
'Oh, we've got the Jets. We'll have to play a half.' That helped
us. Now they know they'll have a war."
Issue date: October 12, 1998
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