The sport had been over for some 45 minutes and the Jets postgame locker room was buzzing for a change.
The Jets’ 21-13 win over the Texans Thursday night time at MetLife Stadium ended a five-game shedding streak. It had been a protracted month for the Jets, who’d fallen to 2-6 and had been on the point of rubbish time to this season.
For Jeff Ulbrich, who was named Jets interim coach when head coach Robert Saleh was fired after a 2-3 begin, the previous month needed to have felt like a 12 months or three.
The Jets misplaced their first three video games underneath the watch of Ulbrich, a soccer lifer as a former participant who was put in a really tough place with the hasty, poorly timed teaching change by workforce proprietor Woody Johnson.
Saleh mustn’t have been fired within the first place final month, however that’s a moot level now.
Ulbrich, whom Saleh dropped at the Jets and to whom he stays extraordinarily shut, noticed his protection enjoying madly inconsistently in his first three video games as the pinnacle coach.
And it didn’t assist that the offense, regardless of being led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was introduced right here to steer this woebegone workforce to the Promised Land, was unhealthy, too.
Certainly, Ulbrich, after shedding these first three video games, will need to have puzzled if he had been ever going to win a single NFL recreation as a head coach.
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That point got here on Thursday. Lastly.
And it was emotional. For Ulbrich, who by his nature takes credit score for nothing and deflects it to his gamers. And for his gamers, who after the sport had been fast to direct credit score to Ulbrich.
“He by no means modified, bro, from when he was the coordinator to now, he’s at all times been the identical man,” defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw advised The Submit.
“He deserves this, man,” proper deal with Morgan Moses advised The Submit. “The power he’s introduced has been wonderful. So, to see him get his first win was crucial to us as gamers. There’s been no person extra optimistic than that dude.”
Tight finish Tyler Conklin mentioned, “I’ll run by way of a wall” for Ulbrich.
“The way in which he approaches on daily basis, he makes you’re feeling such as you’re household, and the largest factor to a superb workforce is feeling such as you belong,” Conklin mentioned. “He makes us all really feel that approach.”
Heart Joe Tippmann recalled spending instances within the sizzling tub with Ulbrich on the workforce facility when Ulbrich was the defensive coordinator “and he could be giving me suggestions on issues I can do to enhance my recreation.”
“That’s a former linebacker who’s not even my place coach giving me recommendation on how I could be higher,” Tippmann mentioned. “He’s simply an superior dude. The final month has been tough, however everybody’s been behind [Ulbrich] the entire time.”
Instantly after Rodgers threw a landing move to Davante Adams to offer the Jets a 21-10 lead late within the recreation Thursday, he went proper to Ulbrich and mentioned, “That was for you, buddy.”
“As a result of we love him, care about him, we admire the power he brings to it, his method, simply the form of man he’s,” Rodgers mentioned. “Jeff’s been actual regular. Good to get that first one.”
Now, in fact, the Jets wants extra, starting with Sunday in opposition to the Cardinals in Arizona. As a result of they’ve left zero margin for error for themselves at 3-6.
It’ll be on Ulbrich now to seek out methods to keep away from the essential blunders that had been holding the Jets again. We chastised the Yankees, who made it to the World Collection, for his or her elementary breakdowns — gaffes that price them an opportunity at successful their twenty eighth title.
The Jets haven’t any probability to stay in competition to merely make their first playoff berth for the primary time in 14 years until Ulbrich can determine a option to get rid of the sorts of errors his workforce made in Thursday’s victory and within the earlier three losses.
After his first victory, Ulbrich was typical in his deflection of reward, calling it “particular from the standpoint of this workforce.”
“I really feel like one among my strengths is to dam out the skin noise,” Ulbrich mentioned. “It will get loud and this workforce took lots of pictures externally. The way in which they simply stayed collectively and labored and stored a optimistic angle and galvanized as a unit, actually pleased with them.”
After all, the delight and good emotions from the opposite night time final solely till the subsequent kickoff.
The place can the thrill and power from Thursday night time’s win take the Jets transferring ahead?
“It could actually take us wherever we wish to go,” Kinlaw mentioned. “Wherever our future is. I really feel like we are able to go there. We’ve simply bought to maintain the power excessive. Maintain [bleeping] leaning on one another.”
