Of course, the Jets’ defense is not the ’85 Bears’ defense.
Robert Saleh isn’t Buddy Ryan and neither is Jeff Ulbrich.
But what better date and what better place and what better stage for the Jets’ defense to put on a vintage ’85 Bears performance than Sunday at MetLife Stadium against Tyrod Taylor and the Giants?
The 2023 Giants, in case you have forgotten, suffered the ignominy of 220 minutes and 42 seconds without scoring an offensive touchdown.
This is a chance on this Given New York Sunday for the Jets’ defense to put its money where its mouth is and show up as the ’85 Bears, or at least a reasonable facsimile, against a vulnerable offensive line, and subject Giants fans to 60 minutes of scoreless hell.
Let’s see you ’23 Jets do what I bet the ’85 Bears would have done — what the ’85 Bears did in fact do to the Phil Simms Giants in the Divisional Playoffs to the tune of 21-0:
Shut them out!
No one will be telling you to shut up if you shut them out.
“Our goal is to play New York Jets football, communicating on defense, getting turnovers on defense, special teams making a play, offense controlling the ball and running the clock, and I feel if we execute our game plan, we’ll have a very successful day on Sunday,” C.J. Mosley told The Post, “and we can paint the town green.”
Zero Hour for the Jets’ defense.
“I think there’s a level of the confidence within that room that they believe that they can be the best defense in this league and they can be an historic defense,” Ulbrich said. “I don’t think there’s honestly anything wrong with that. “
The Jets’ defense (24th in yards per game) is lagging behind last year in certain metrics — it’s also played Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts — but it has forced 13 turnovers in six games as opposed to 16 in 17 games last season. The Jets are the fourth-best red-zone defense in terms of touchdown rate and 13th in scoring defense. They are 10th in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average.
“There’s an element to statistically being the No. 1 defense and there’s another thing about being the No. 1 defense of the team that holds the Super Bowl [trophy] up at the end of the season,” Ulbrich said, “ ’cause ultimately, that’s all that matters. We want to be that defense. … We’re searching to be the best at everything.”
Ulbrich is the other defensive coordinator in this game, guiding players who are as fond of him as Giants players are of Wink Martindale.
“He has no ego,” John Franklin-Myers told The Post. “He doesn’t care about what he has done, and what he thinks and this or that. He cares about what the players are comfortable with and what works. I appreciate the guy who isn’t afraid to admit when he’s wrong. There’s a level of appreciation you gotta have for a guy who isn’t afraid to say like, ‘I want you guys to be comfortable, you guys are the ones playing, tell me what you want.’
“He’s also the type of guy that when the game is on the line, or whenever it is, he’s gonna ask guys, ‘Hey, what do we want to do, what do we like?’ He puts us in the best positions, and he has our best interests.”
They love that Ulbrich doesn’t try to tamp down the ’85 Bears bravado prior to the season from D.J. Reed.
“If you believe it and that’s what you think, why not say it?,” JFM said, “and [Ulbrich] says that. He encourages you to do that, encourages you to be yourself and encourages you to say what’s on your mind and manifest it. D.J. or myself or anybody else on this team would never say nothing that they don’t plan on standing on and backing up. So for a coach to back that up and back me or D.J. or anybody else that says anything — ’cause his name is on the line, too — so for him to encourage that, like all respect.”
Quinton Jefferson: “You have some coordinators who are egotistical and think it’s their scheme that makes it go, but he’s I feel like a true believer in it’s the players that make the scheme come to life.”
Mosley: “He’s a coach that allows his players to take the defense to whatever level that they allow it. Where we started from in 2021 to where we are now, we have full control of this defense. Whether it’s me making a call, whether it’s me changing a play, whether it’s us seeing something on the field and adjusting on the sideline and him not flinching one bit and believe in us and changing up the game plan accordingly. … The way he coaches us allow us to play our game, allow us to use our style, allow every player to show what they can do for this defense, it says a lot for us.”
It is Taylor, with help from Darren Waller and Saquon Barkley, who ended the Giants offense’s allergy to the end zone with two first-half touchdown passes against the Commanders.
“A guy historically I’ve had horrible luck with in the past,” Ulbrich said. “He’s just efficient, he knows how to keep the chains moving. … He’s a high-level processor, he makes good decisions.”
Barkley must have thought he was facing the ’85 Bears when he had one single yard on 13 carries in the Jets’ 34-27 win in 2019. “He’s got it all,” Ulbrich said.
The Jets’ defense will be driven to impose its will early. It has allowed only one second-half touchdown, for which Ulbrich gives credit to the players’ knowledge of the system.
“There’s something to be said about making halftime adjustments,” Ulbrich said.
There’s something to be said about showing up on the biggest stage on this Given Sunday against the team you share the town and the stadium with and reminding everyone who and what the ’85 Bears were.
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