Ryan, Pettine agree to disagree - loudly

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.

The disagreements between Jets coach Rex Ryan and his defensive coordinator, Mike Pettine, often get so heated that some of their fellow coaches think the two might be close to coming to blows.

Ryan and Pettine have an unorthodox arrangement in which both men will call different plays within the same game, and their arguments over the headsets are laced with anger and profanity.

"If anybody ever recorded us on the headsets, we'd have our own reality show," Pettine said Thursday as the Jets continued preparations for Sunday's AFC Championship Game against the Steelers. "People say we're like brothers on the headset, and we've been approached after the game and they're like, 'Hey, are you and Rex OK?' ''

After a recent win, Pettine recalled that conversation as he and the rest of the staff smoked cigars near the team bus, one of Ryan's traditions. "I'm like, 'We're smoking cigars in the parking lot. Of course we're OK,' '' Pettine told the coach. "Half of it you don't even remember, but it's just two competitive guys and we both have our opinions."

The relationship may be the only one of its kind in the NFL. After all, you rarely, if ever, see two coaches call defensive plays in the same game. It's either the head coach doubling as defensive signal-caller or the defensive coordinator deciding on the plays, perhaps with some input from his head coach.

But through their argumentative repartee on the sideline, Ryan and Pettine have combined forces to build one of the league's top defenses. Their collective efforts have been positively brilliant in the Jets' back-to-back playoff wins over Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, who are generally considered the top two quarterbacks in the game.

The Jets limited Manning to 225 passing yards and a touchdown in a 17-16 win in Indianapolis in the first round of the playoffs. Brady passed for 299 yards and two touchdowns in the Jets' 28-21 upset in Foxboro, but he was intercepted once and sacked five times.

Ryan gradually has ceded more play-calling control to Pettine this season, but the head coach has taken on a more active role in the playoffs. It's not to the point, however, that Ryan has taken over the calls completely.

"I guess when you finally crunch the numbers, probably , but it would be close," Pettine said.

Is the defensive coordinator OK with the arrangement? "We're 2-0 in the playoffs," he said. "I'm real OK with that."

It has been a brilliant sequence of play calls from the often combative coaches, and their approach often has been counterintuitive. Though Ryan and Pettine usually take an aggressive stance when game-planning, they have been decidedly conservative against the Colts and Patriots. They usually like to play a lot of man-to-man coverage and send extra blitzers to augment the pass rush; against the dangerous Manning and Brady, the coaches decided to drop more defenders into pass coverage in an attempt to limit the downfield options.

The approach has worked wonders. With the Jets still throwing an occasional blitz at Manning and Brady, they more often than not kept two safeties "high," meaning Brodney Pool and Eric Smith were deeper in coverage so neither quarterback could hit on the long pass play. The plan has proved to be exceptional; Manning's 57-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garçon in the second quarter was the only big play the Jets have given up. When you consider how lethal Manning and Brady can be, that net result is outstanding.

The challenge against Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger is equally daunting, albeit somewhat different. Manning and Brady like to simply drop back and throw, but despite being 6-5 and 241 pounds, Roethlisberger likes to scramble and allow big plays to develop while he's on the run.

"It's organized street ball," Pettine said. "When the original play isn't there, it turns into a second play when he's scrambling. It's a playground-type mentality; he can take a play that looks dead and make something out of it."

Neither Pettine nor Ryan would give away any of their game plan to contain Roethlisberger, but rest assured that plan will give the Jets the best possible chance at success. How it shakes out during the game, who makes the calls and how much cursing there is in the headset - all that remains to be seen.

"We've gone into games where [Ryan] felt great about first and second downs, and I'd call third downs," Pettine said. "It's changed game to game. And if we start out and things don't go well, we've switched, and even switched back. There's no set script for it."

Unusual? Yes. Successful? Absolutely.

"It's weird," Pettine said, "but it works."

And if it works again Sunday, it's on to the Super Bowl.