10/19 — We went into detail in another story today about Kris Jenkins' season-ending knee injury. Rex Ryan spoke about how hard it will be to replace Big Jenks in the lineup this season. But he didn't open his news conference with other matters from Sunday's game besides the Jenkins injury, which he waited to address until a reporter asked him about it four questions in.

The hot topic, which Rex jumped right into, is Mark Sanchez and the offense and what the Jets do moving forward.

"I just think we've got to do a great job of what we're asking this young man to do," Ryan said. "Do we need to cut things back, things that we could put on somebody else's plate and take some things off his plate? ... You've got to look at everything. We're still going to be true to ourselves offensively, but is there something we can help him with? That's the challenge we have going forward with our offensive staff."

This didn't mean any lessening of confidence in Sanchez, despite the five interceptions he threw against the Bills in the 16-13 overtime loss.

"I've got a lot of confidence in Mark. That's based on how he performed in training camp, in the preseason games," the coach said. "And up until that point in the regular season, New Orleans was his worst game as a pro and he bounced back and had his best game, at Miami in a hostile environment.

"We got the right guy."

But the right guy, being a rookie, may feel he's got to hit every pass. Ryan said that's not necessarily the case.

"We have let him understand, sometimes the pride factor — 'I can get this ball in there,' always trying to do it himself — he doesn't need to do that," he said. "We say it all the time: Just be a part of the solution. You don't have to be the solution yourself."

Any number of players — Edwards, Bart Scott, Damien Woody, Kellen Clemens — talked about keeping Sanchez's spirits up after he put the loss squarely on his shoulders after the game. And Ryan he still likes the vibe he's feeling from his QB.

"He's resilient. He's going to bounce back from this. I believe that," Rex said. "He's mad at himself because he thinks he let his team down. This football team cares about each other. They don't want to see him suffer. Could he have played better? Absolutely. A lot of guys could've played better. When he makes mistakes, they're obviously more glaring. He has to realize that sometimes it's OK to take the incompletion. You don't have to try to force the ball in there."

The road ahead figuratively and literally gets tougher, since the Jets are now preparing this week to fly out Friday to the West Coast for Sunday's game at Oakland. They've lost six of their last eight at the Black Hole dating to 1999. And Sanchez, the Jenkins-less defense and the Jets have got to find a way to shake off any lingering effects of the loss to the Bills and a three-game losing streak.

"I think this team has a lot more character than maybe most people think. I'm banking on that," Ryan said. "We are going to come out and give everything we have on the practice field, fly down to Oakland and try to win one game in a row.

"We're not backing down. We're stepping up. That's the way it's going to be."

Rex Cetera

Ryan said the Jets will add DT Howard Green back to the roster to take the spot that opens with Jenkins going on IR. Green was released to make room for Danny Woodhead to be available for special teams and as a WR if needed due to the injuries to Jerricho Cotchery and Brad Smith. ... The coach wouldn't speculate on his wideouts' status this week: "I think Jerricho feels better, where Brad was kind of [so-so], but we'll see. Things can change quite a bit."

The coach wouldn't discuss his thoughts regarding James Ihedigbo's unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty and ejection for, according to referee Walt Coleman, taking a swing at a Bills player on the overtime kickoff. Ihedigbo said after the game he didn't throw a punch. Ryan said today, "I think there was some jostling there, but it looked to me on the film that he had thrown a punch also." Asked how he'll handle the matter, Ryan said, "I guess we'll see going forward."

Rex put the cost of a timeout for the unsuccessful challenge that punt returner Fred Jackson didn't step out of bounds late in the fourth quarter on himself. The reason was that Ryan saw the stadium replay angle on the Meadowlands videoscreen. "The guy is clearly out of bounds. I'm like 'Well, shoot, let's just take the 6 yards.' ... Then as it went on, I'm getting calls down, 'Oh, we don't have a view of it.' I'm like 'Oh, great.' " The referee's replay review is based on angles available from the TV network cameras, not on any stadium cameras.

2009 Week 7 Jets at Raiders Game Release