"I recognize this week, this is about Bill Belichick vs. Rex Ryan. There’s no question. It’s personal. This is about him against myself, and that’s what it’s going to come down to. When you look at both teams, they’re very even. When you look at the players, both teams are solid across the board. When you look at the assistant coaches, we’re on level ground. So this is going to be about me raising my level against Bill Belichick. Like I said, I recognize he’s the best and all that, but I’m just trying to be the best on Sunday. And I plan on being the best coach on Sunday. That’s what it is. I recognize that my level has to come up, and he’s going to get my best shot. He’s going to get everything I have on Sunday. And if he slips at all, we’re going to beat him."

-- Rex Ryan on Monday

Thank God for Rex Ryan.

This week would be a tough sell without him. How about a show of hands to see if anyone thinks the New York Jets are going to come into Foxboro on Sunday and beat the Patriots? What has really changed since 45-3? 

OK, so the Jets went into Indy and won. Well done, never easy to win on the road, Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning, all that stuff. But come on. We all watched the game. The Jets needed a last-second field goal (and some serious help from Jim Caldwell, who has now shown us how thin the line is between quiet and dignified and quiet and clueless) to beat a team that is loaded with guys on the IR. Tough to convince me that the Jets team I saw on Saturday is suddenly six touchdowns better than it was five weeks ago.

To me, the two headlines from 45-3 were these: The Jets couldn't put any pressure on Tom Brady and Mark Sanchez was awful. And on Saturday night, the Jets put virtually no pressure on Peyton Manning and Mark Sanchez was awful. You can get away with those weaknesses against a hobbled team with a lousy head coach. But against a 14-2 team with the best player and coach in the NFL? We could be getting more fodder for the never-ending (and never interesting, actually) "They run up the score!" debate.

I should be fair. The Jets are a good football team -- you don't win 11 games and a road playoff game otherwise. But they have fatal flaws that block any chance of creepy Woody Johnson (watch "Hard Knocks" and disagree with me) getting his hands on the Lombardi Trophy. This is a classic one and done postseason team.

Put it another way -- you wanted the Jets this week. And it's not because of any rivalry or need for revenge or because it's the best storyline. Nope, the Jets are an easier out than the Ravens, plain and simple. (Notice I didn't mention the Chiefs -- after that pathetic effort on Sunday I have stripped them of their place in the 2010 postseason. Never happened. And I think we can also put to rest any notion that Matt Cassel might one day have a seat at the table. Wow. How long till NFL.com is selling Matt Cassel Playoff Rubber Underwear?)

Understanding that a playoff game is a playoff game, Patriots-Jets on Sunday shouldn't have a lot of juice to it. It's the same building and same players from five weeks ago. If this was Jim Caldwell or Jeff Fisher or any coach not named Rex Ryan leading the Jets, I suspect -- playoffs or no playoffs --  there would a quasi-flat crowd waiting at Gillette, where fat and happy has long replaced desperate and longing for a winner. 

Instead there will be serious heat from soup to nuts -- even if it's 45-3 again (and I get that it won't be) there will be a significant portion of the crowd eschewing the chance to beat the Rt. 1 traffic to stick around in freezing weather (I'll set the over/under kickoff temperature at 26 degrees) to let the HC of the NYJ know how much they are enjoyed watching him put his foot in his mouth (that's the best I could do).

That's the power of Rex. Love him or hate him, it's just more fun to have him around. No one passes up the chance to beat traffic to yell at Marvin Lewis.

I think Rex is basically pulling a James Woods this week (and no, by "James Woods" I do not mean some sort of bizarre foot-fetish code). There was a period (call it 1993-99) when Woods would pop in and save a crappy movie with his trademark brand of scene-chewing. It happened at least half a dozen times -- "The Specialist," "Contact, "Nixon," "The Getaway," "Ghosts of Mississippi," "The General's Daughter," "Any Given Sunday." He rescued a mediocre script or hapless direction or almost impossible miscasting (anyone ready for another Jodie Foster-Matthew McConaughey romance?).

And, in his own way, Rex is doing the same thing. No one would be geared up for Round 3 of Pats-Jets (with the second fight as a first-round TKO that I would rate somewhere between Tyson-Spinks and Creed-Drago) without Rex challenging Bill Belichick and calling out Tom Brady for watching Dan Lauria and Judith Light instead of Darrelle Revis and Peyton Manning. It's just good theater. In the big picture it all means nothing. I don't think Rex Ryan's desire to seem tough and funny to the media (and that's all it is -- pure insecurity) had anything to do with the Jets winning in Week 2 or losing in Week 13. 

So enjoy it. Sure, it's mostly schtick (as much, anyway, as Belichick's way of dealing with the media), but it's entertaining. For now, at least. Right now, Rex is hanging on the edge of relevance. Yeah, he's made the playoffs in both of his seasons as head coach and has already won three postseason games, but he is measured against Belichick. And normally that wouldn't be fair -- I think Belichick is three wins away from bumping Vince Lombardi off and taking over the title as Greatest Coach of All Time -- but Rex himself put it in play from Day One. So if the Jets get stomped again on Sunday it's over. Whatever whiff of credibility Ryan has left (and it's already shrinking) will be gone. Back to a punch line. 

But at least until Sunday, Rex Ryan still carries a little weight. And we can all be thankful for that. It'll make the next five days go by a little faster. 

You hate him now, but I promise you'll miss him when you hear Mike Tomlin's press conferences next week.