Jets hope they've moved forward

There have been some incredibly newsworthy weeks in Rex Ryan's tenure as the Jets' coach, but few more intense than the one just passed.

In the wake of a three-game losing streak capped by a dispiriting loss to the Patriots in New England Oct. 9, the Jets traded underperforming wide receiver Derrick Mason to the Texans. After that, it was more locker-room finger-pointing as Santonio Holmes reiterated his criticism of the offensive line and guard Brandon Moore hit back with some harsh words of his own for Holmes. Moore ripped him for ripping the line, suggesting a potentially wider chasm than Ryan could have foreseen.

Remember, it was Ryan who scoffed at suggestions that the locker room was fraying under the losing streak. There would be none of that for the coach, who takes pride in putting together a group that he considers as tight as any in pro sports.

With tempers flaring and doubts surfacing about whether the Jets truly were worthy of Ryan's lofty expectations of making the Super Bowl in Indianapolis in February, this clearly was one of the most important crossroads in his tenure.

For one night, anyway, things went about as well as Ryan could have hoped, as the Jets finally won a game, albeit against a team that has yet to win one all season. The 24-6 victory over the Dolphins certainly wasn't pretty, or dominating, or indicative of the Jets establishing any kind of consistency moving forward. But Ryan will take it. "We needed a win in the worst way,'' he said, "and I'm just happy we found a way to get one."

And he insisted the Jets now are a team that is resolute in its purpose, not one that is coming apart at the seams. Ryan made sure of that by sitting down for several minutes on Saturday with Moore and Holmes to iron things out.

"We're past that thing," Ryan said. "We're moving past that. When you look at it, you lose three games in this league, that's tough. In every locker room, things like this happen. The difference is we're open. But we're moving on."

Ryan made certain of the message when he chose to have Holmes and Moore serve as the pregame captains. "We're moving forward," said Holmes, who declined to get into specifics of his conversations with Ryan and Moore. "That was last week. We're looking ahead now."

At least they can look ahead at 3-3 and having stopped the bleeding from a losing streak that felt much more destructive than the pair of three-game losing streaks Ryan endured in his first season as head coach. Back then, Mark Sanchez was going through his rookie growing pains and Ryan was learning how to do his job in his first season as an NFL head coach. There were bound to be struggles, and the way the Jets fought through them then was emblematic of the kind of tough-minded, scruffy teams Ryan wanted to produce.

This time we're dealing with a team that had a win-now mentality from the start, with strong-willed individuals such as Holmes and newly acquired receiver Plaxico Burress gearing up for what they believed would be a Super Bowl season. So the back-biting seemed more intense, more mean-spirited, more insidious. And more dangerous.

Was this a must-win? Maybe not, but the Jets certainly needed to get back some of their swagger. Now things are better, but this still is a team in desperate need of improvement on both sides of the ball.

Anything less than a meaningful run will ring hollow with a coach who can't stop bragging about a group of players who came into the season believing they have what it takes to be champions. At least now they're on the same page.

"We're chasing the same thing," Ryan said. "Sometimes, just like in any family, you're going to have disagreements. We just resolved them and moved forward."