Adam Gase Says Jets Will Need To Be Ready to Go Against 0-11 Bengals
Just a few weeks ago, it was supposed to be a battle of two incompetent teams. Now, the New York Jets have ‘suddenly gotten hot and turned Sunday’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals into something that matters for ‘Gang Green.’
The Jets are going after four straight wins, this after a dominating 34-3 win over the Oakland Raiders this past Sunday. In the win, the Jets dominated on both sides of the ball, clearly punching above their weight in beating a team that came into the game holding a playoff spot.
And the Jets, whose recent win streak has lifted them to 4-7 on the year, now face an opponent that they are expected to roll over. The Bengals are 0-11 and are considered the worst team in football, this despite the fact that they have lose each of their last two games by less than a touchdown. Both of those tight losses came against team currently with a winning record.
It is a challenge for Jets head coach Adam Gase to keep his team focused after a big win over a good Raiders team that is now followed by playing a team with a truly terrible record.
“It doesn't really change for us because once we hit Wednesday, it's a new week, new team, new focus for us. These guys have done a really good job of doing that so far. I think this last week was probably one of our better weeks of preparation, one of our better weeks of understanding what we needed to do as an entire football team,” Gase said.
“We knew the challenges that we had going into this game and we knew we had to play a really good game of complimentary football with all three phases. I felt like the guys did a really good job of executing exactly what we talked about on Wednesday. They practiced that way. They did it on Sunday. We have to go back on Wednesday and do the same thing where we get the plan on Wednesday and then we practice it the entire week and then we have to execute it. The biggest challenge we have this week is going on the road in a conference game against a team that have played, especially the last two games, down to the wire and we're going to have to make sure that we're ready to go.”
Gase spoke on a Monday conference call with the team’s reporters.
The challenge, of course, is looking past the Bengals. The following week, they face the 2-9 Miami Dolphins, a team that they lost to in Week 9 and poses a chance at revenge. Then after that, they play the Ravens who are 9-2 after beating up on the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night. No motivation will be needed for that game.
But against a winless Bengals team, the Jets will be looking for motivation.
If the Jets want to extend this winning streak and avoid a loss as embarrassing as what happened earlier this month in Miami, then they will need to stay focused on the winless Bengals. It is a point not lost on Gase.
“I would say this, when we get rolling on Wednesday, I expect our guys to be the same as they’ve been through the entire year which is, we have a new opponent on Wednesday, this is a different coaching staff, we have a lot to learn from all three phases as far as what their schemes going to be, how we’re going to play them,” Gase said during Monday’s conference call.
“It’s hard to win an NFL game. Records aside, every game is tough. I know it’s hard for everyone to believe that but it is, and especially when we’re going to the Bengals stadium, we’re traveling, we’re on the road, they’ve played two teams, extremely tough, going to Oakland and then playing Pittsburgh at their place, both those games were tight until the end so this is going to be a tough game for us, any time you go on the road in the NFL it’s not easy.”
