10/05 — Bill Parcells once told Jets reporters and fans the day after a tough loss that those kinds of games make him spit up into his mouth just a little.

Rex Ryan has a slightly different biological metaphor for the 24 hours after a game like the 24-10 loss to the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday.

"You get a little 'I can't wait to play again,' " Ryan said at this afternoon's news conference back at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. "It's almost like you've got a volcano inside you and it's 'Man, let's go.' That's the way our whole team feels."

Internal volcanoes vs. acid reflux. Anyone got some Pepto? And it just so happens the Jets' next game comes Monday night against Parcells' Dolphins at Land Shark Stadium.

But before we get to promoting that game, Ryan offered a synopsis of the good and the bad from the Saints loss, his first after three victories as an NFL head coach.

"You're not as happy as you are after a win, obviously," he said. "But that old saying, it's not as bad as you think and it's not as good as you think, there's a lot of truth to that. A lot of guys did tremendous things out there."

Here's the skinny on the players Rex mentioned:

"Faneca was outstanding. ... I thought Shonn Greene played really well. ... I thought Thomas Jones played well. ... On defense, Darrelle Revis, you have to start with him — phenomenal. ... I thought Bryan Thomas was outstanding. ... Kerry Rhodes made a lot of plays."

With so many good performances, why did the Jets lose? Ryan didn't go into those names.

"We had some guys," he said, "that didn't play as well as they've done in the past, the way we expect them to play."

Specifically, the coach liked the nine short-yardage situations (third-and-5 or shorter) that the offense had, but not the fact that only two were converted into first downs. Defensively, he said, "we've got to do a better job of stopping the run."

Ryan also mentioned that one of the Jets' problems was the quality of the opponent, which shouldn't be understated: "You've got to tip your hat to the Saints. They deserved that game. They outplayed us. They were the better team that day. It's hard to accept but that's the facts."

One player you would expect the coach to be supportive of is his quarterback, Mark Sanchez, and he was.

"I spoke with him last night on the plane. I was kidding with him. I said, 'Hey, just think of this, kid. It can't get any worse than it did today, can it?' " he recalled. "He's gonna get 'em back. He's like a tiger. He's going to come roaring back, there's no doubt. I have 100 percent confidence in him and I have confidence in our football team."

Ryan expanded on one of those players he mentioned above, rookie RB Shonn Greene, who gained 23 yards on his first four pro carries.

"I was encouraged with him," he said. "We've got three Pro Bowl backs [including FB Tony Richardson] and we've got a young man that we drafted for a reason. It was fun to watch him. That first carry was like 'Whooo!' We'll see. We've got some passes with him in there, don't we? We're going to have nine guys down there if we don't."

The coach also talked about regaining the services of LB Calvin Pace, who was back with the team today after serving a league-mandated four-game suspension. Eric Allen posed some questions to Pace during today's locker room session and will have a news story on Pace's return to the defense.

And Ryan didn't want to promise anything regarding the return of injured corners Lito Sheppard and Donald Strickland.

"We'll see. Shoot, I thought they might be able to play last week but that never happened. Hopefully, they'll be able to play this week," he said. "But if not, I'll tell you what, the two young guys who stepped in, Drew Coleman and Dwight Lowery, they showed me they can play in this league."

With Pace, with or without Sheppard and Strickland, with Sanchez coming off his low point as a pro, the Jets will begin preparing for their first prime time game of the season. And Ryan said there will be no easing off on the controls in any phase of the Green & White game despite what happened in the Big Easy.

"I think we're going to stay aggressive on both sides of the ball and on special teams," he said. "That's what we're all about. That's how we're going to play."