HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) - Jets defensive end John Abraham tried to go home to South Carolina and relax for the bye week. After two days, he decided to come back to New York.
He didn't feel right about being away, not with the way the season has gone. So Abraham sat in his Long Island apartment and watched film, hoping to figure out a way for the Jets (2-5) to get their season turned around. It certainly won't be easy.
They host San Diego on Sunday, then go to Carolina and Denver. Players returned to practice Monday with a resolve to get the season going in the right direction. Even coach Herman Edwards warned he would bench players who aren't performing up to his standards.
``It wasn't really a good off week for everybody, how the season's untwining for everybody,'' Abraham said. ``After the loss to Atlanta, it hurt the whole team's psyche. I hope everybody came back ready to play because if not, it's going to be a long season.''
The Jets can point to 2002 as a reference, when they turned a 2-5 start into a 9-7 finish and AFC East championship. But even that is not encouraging for some of the players who were on that team. This season, the Jets have had to overcome one injury after another - from Chad Pennington to Kevin Mawae to Eric Barton - something they didn't have to do three seasons ago.
``This situation is more difficult but as a team we'll rise eventually,'' running back Curtis Martin said. ``To overcome this would be one of the greatest accomplishments that we've done since I've been here.''
Abraham said this is the worst he has felt about the team since he arrived, because everyone came in with such high expectations. He sensed anger among his teammates, but said they have to channel their frustrations onto the field.
``Everybody's mad right now but I'm not going to come out here and throw a chair around every day until we get it right,'' Abraham said. ``That's not going to help anything. My thing is to try to learn everything about the team we're playing against and learn everything about myself on the field.
``I can come in here every day mad, cussing everybody out but it ain't going to do nothing. There's only so much cussing out you can do before the person stops listening.''
Or as fellow end Shaun Ellis put it: ``Enough talking. We've been talking too much. Now we have to go out and play football.''
Some of the biggest problems have been on offense, where four Jets quarterbacks have as many touchdown passes this season as Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson (three). Jay Fiedler threw short tosses Monday for the first time since injuring his right shoulder in September, a first step to returning to the field. But Edwards said the backup quarterback was ``a ways'' from playing, saying the passes were ``nothing you could write home about.''
Vinny Testaverde also practiced after straining his calf against the Falcons, and shared some first-team reps with Brooks Bollinger.
Though Edwards said Testaverde would start, perhaps he was making a subtle hint about going to Bollinger when he threatened to bench players. Edwards said any player could be taken out of the game at any time.
``It's not about the players, it's about us as a team,'' Edwards said. ``We have to play better as a team. When individual guys play good, they think they're playing well. They're record is the same as everyone else's. It's about all three phases playing better, giving yourself a chance to win rather than playing behind the 8 ball.''
For now, there is a shred of hope the Jets can improve.
``I'm not going to say it's slipping away because we still have a chance to go out and fight and try to get back to where we want to be,'' Ellis said. ``It's not slipping away, we still have a lot of games to play. But if we keep going in the route we're going it will slip away.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
