Although they still have a long way to go, the Jets (5-6) can at least think about the playoffs if not talk about them. But that word didn’t even come up after the game. “This was a great team win,” head coach Rex Ryan said. “It feels good to say that. It’s been a while.”

The team’s much-maligned secondary stepped up on this day with four interceptions and sent 76,381 fans home happy. It all began on the Panthers’ opening drive, one in which they converted three third down plays. Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme then tried to hit Steve Smith on a slant that would have gone for a big gain, but there was apparent miscommunication and the wideout had yet to turn in. The ball caromed off his heel up in the air and right into the hands of Darrelle Revis, who returned it 67 yards for the Jets first defensive touchdown of the season.

“The great ones are lucky,” joked Ryan.

After trading field goals, the Jets capitalized on Delhomme’s third pick of the day when Kerry Rhodes – who was removed from the starting line-up this week in favor of Eric Smith – pulled down the floater and brought it back to the Carolina 38-yard line.

“The message was sent to me by Coach and now I’m moving on,” said Rhodes, who also had another interception and received a game ball. The Jets extended their lead to 14-3 when Thomas Jones (25 carries for 75 yards, 1 touchdown) plunged into the end zone from three yards out.

The big talk all week leading up to this game was that Ryan was going to take a more active role in the offense to try to cut down on the mistakes of his rookie quarterback. A more conservative game plan seem to benefit Mark Sanchez, who completed 13 out of 17 for 154 yards and one interception, but the USC product was not totally satisfied with his performance.

“I was playing smart on offense and we still gave up a couple of turnovers,” he said. “They (the coaches) were telling me in the meetings, ‘If you take a sack, that’s OK. Just don’t lose the ball.’”

Ryan added, “I thought he did a great job. He really managed the game well and had some nice runs. When in doubt, he checked the ball down.”

At one point in the third quarter, Sanchez was shaken up with an apparent knee injury and missed the majority of one series, but returned the next one. “He said he was good to go,” Ryan said. “I was just anxious to get him back in there.” Sanchez had the knee checked out by the team’s medical staff after the game and said that there was nothing abnormal found.

The Jets sealed the win with a 47-yard field goal by Feeley with 3:39 left to make the score 17-6. The big play on the drive was a 16-yard completion to converted running back Danny Woodhead on third down to move the chains.

“Coach put me in a great situation, Mark put the ball on me and the line did a great job so I just had to make the catch,” the wide receiver humbly said.

The Jets do not have much time to enjoy this win due to the Thursday night affair against the Bills in Toronto. “This is a short week for us, so we can enjoy it for about five hours,” said Ryan.

Better to enjoy the victory than wallow in another loss.

It seems like light years ago that this soap opera was full of hope and promise. Now at 4-6, losers of six of the last seven, the Jets look to simply regroup against another 4-6 team, the Carolina Panthers. A club like the Jets whose run game is dangerous yet  whose QB Jake Delhomme, has also come under fire for underperforming this season.

For the Jets, the formula is simple on paper. Sanchez must limit his mistakes ( he’s 3rd in the NFL in interceptions with 16)  while Thomas Jones and the Jet run game move the chains. The Jet defense must regain its early season form and create pressure on opposing team’s backfields.

The D must also find a way to start creating turnovers,  something they’ve been unable to do all season. FS Kerry Rhodes who many thought would become the next Ed Reed, the ball hawking future hall of fame Raven, (a former leader on Rex Ryan’s Baltimore defense),  has not made one big play all season. His tentative play has led to big plays given up by the Jet secondary. Eric Smith will replace Rhodes this week who was benched by Ryan in order to send a message to his team. How the Jets react to the benching will go a long way in determining Ryan’s presence as a leader of this team in the future.

Ryan has also decided to now sit in and observe the offense at team meetings. Admittedly Ryan likened the experience to “French class,” but something had to be done and sitting the future of the team Sanchez, was not on the head coach’s radar. Many Jet faithful are starting to wonder though, if its it too early to throw the season away and allow Sanchez the growing pains. What if backup QB Kellen Clemens can settle down an offense that has turned it over too often during this two month swoon? A swoon that has dropped the Jets from first place to a game out of last in the AFC East. Jet analyst and former Jet QB Ray Lucas voiced his belief on SNY that the move to Clemens might be the right one in order to save 2009.

If the Jets want to have any chance on Sunday they have to do one thing. Stop the league’s number four rusher (982 yards) Deangelo Williams. He’s a faster version of the league’s number five rusher  Maurice Jones-Drew, who torched the Jets for 123 yards weeks two weeks ago.  The Panthers defense ranks 11th overall, fourth against the pass at 185 yards per game. That doesn’t bode well for the Jet air attack which has struggled to move the ball since the arrival of the player thought to be perhaps the missing playoff piece in WR Braylon Edwards in week five. Sanchez averages 179 passing yards a game. To score, the Jet ground game has to be effective. More carries for Shonn Greene, the rookie backup with big play potential exemplified in Oakland a month back

may be on the menu.

With Buffalo up next in Toronto on Thursday, the Jets play two games in five days. A win streak would leave the Jets at 6-6 and talking playoffs again.  Anything less than a two game sweep though, and the talk around Florham Park the rest of the way will be about the development of Sanchez and 2010.

THREE KEYS TO THE PANTHERS GAME:

Stop Deangelo Williams: Forget Jake Delhomme. He’s good for a few mistakes, missed opportunities and a bunch of yardage that add up to field goal chances. It’s Deangelo Williams who must be stopped. Williams can single handedly ruin the Jets as quality RBs often do. It’s in the Gang Green’s DNA to face a tough back and get dominated. If it happens Sunday, it’s light out for 2009. For real.

Sanchez, throw to the Green Jerseys! Interception happy Mark Sanchez HAS to cut down on the INT’s. Otherwise one of two things will happen. Or both. The Jets will certainly lose. Two, the rookie will be benched for Clemens during the game as Rex Ryan tries to save a season evaporating faster than electronic appliances  on Black Friday department store shelves.

Shonn Greene, Dustin Keller, Braylon Edwards,  you guys alive? : The Jets need a spark on offense. Here are three players that can provide that. Greene needs more touches, Keller and Sanchez need to get on the same page now and Edwards has to stop dousing his hands with vaseline before he enters the huddle. Catch the ball Braylon let’s go. Enough already.

follow TJ Rosenthal on twitter @ thejetreport for daily Jet news and thoughts regarding Gang Green

The Jets gave up 21 first half points and trailed 21-13 at the half. The malaise attributed to perhaps the two week layoff coming off of their bye week. Both S Jim Leonard and FS Kerry Rhodes were  quoted saying he team was flat defensively in the first half. That’s a hard pill to swallow for Jet fans, especially since reports had coach Rex Ryan chewing out his team this week to stop the excuses, imploring them to play like a playoff team he was quoted as claiming they are.

Star RB, the little bulldozer, Maurice Jones Drew torched the Jets early and often , with 78 first quarter yards. He finished with 123 on the day. The biggest play of the game however, came on a TD that Jones Drew chose NOT to score on.  With the score 22-21 Jets with 1:48 left, the Jets called for “Free Way”  a play that allows the opposing team to score in order to get the ball back and have a chance to win. On the first try the Jets mistakenly tackled Drew. “We couldn’t even get that right,” Ryan, never at a loss for words, admitted afterwards. The second time, Drew shrewdly stopped at the one yard line. With no time outs left thanks to wasting two earlier ( to prevent a  twelve men on defense flag and the other by Sanchez on the Jags goal line), the Jets were forced to watch the clock wither away. Josh Scobee added the virtual extra point at the gun for the 24-22 Jags win.

This erased the comeback that left the Jets up 22-21 with 5:04 left thanks to a Thomas Jones (21-77 yds) one yard TD plunge. WR Braylon Edwards (3-79 yds) had a key two point conversion knocked out of his hands by the Jags FS Reggie Nelson. The throw was behind Edwards but still catchable. “Nelson is paid to make plays and he made a godd play on that one.” Edwards said. The former Browns WR, known for the dropsies is now 1-8 combined in games played this year with Cleveland and the Jets. His fault? No, but the frustrations is apparent. “It stinks..its not my fault per se but I don’t want to fell like the black sheep.” he added lamenting what so many Jets who’ve come and gone in this franchise’s consistent  losing history must feel upon exiting the stadium.

The Jets are not dead yet. They ARE however, on life support. The defense has still yet to create points off of turnovers. The Sanchez to TE Dustin Keller combo, so poised to break out and open up the passing game outside the numbers, is just missing the mark on too many occasions. All parts, including game management by the coaches, need to start clicking fast or this season will be gone by Turkey day.

As for Sunday, has a player ever taken a knee over scoring a touchdown in order to keep the clock moving like Jones-Drew did? Probably not. Only the Jets franchise would be involved in a play like that.

Nonetheless , the Jets need to go to Foxboro and try to begin to erase the ghosts of their Gang Green past that have somehow crept back into the equation. Worse, they need to do it against  the furious Pats, their hated rivals, who want revenge from their week two loss at the Meadowlands. Bill Belicheck’s first place crew also will be stinging from the loss at Indy Sunday night that saw them go for a strange fourth and two on their own 28 yard line in order to prevent Peyton Manning one last shot. It backfired.

The 4-5 Jets remain just two games  back of the 6-3 Pats. A  win would inch them closer to the top of the AFC East and  give them the tie breaker over New England. When the dust settles this week, that will be how Rex Ryan must frame this next test. As a game that, with a win, restores hope. To do that, Ryan will have to stop Brady and put the “Same Old Jets” talk to bed again. It’s funny how these negative Green ghosts somehow rear their ugly heads every season.

A LOOK BACK ON THE THREE KEYS TO THE JAGS GAME:

Turnovers: The Jets defense, built off pressure and chaos, again, didn’t get any. End of story.

Thomas Jones vs Maurice Jones Drew. Jones-Drew won the battle in yardage 123 to 77. He also made the play of the day by not scoring on the final drive.

Mike Sims-Walker vs Darrelle Revis: Sims Walker managed a TD catch but didn’t dominate the field. Revis is a big play guy the Jets desperately need

going forward. An interception taken back by a ball hawk shut down corner like Revis, would aid the Jets offense in a huge way.

Follow TJ Rosenthal on twitter@ thejetreport