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LANDOVER, Md. - When Mike Shanahan is joking, he often has to tell everyone that he is joking. With him, you're never quite sure.
When Rex Ryan is joking, it's pretty much obvious. Just this week he speculated that his New York Jets might have snagged a lucky win because their team colour is green.
Barry Cofield has been saturated with both styles, having played in the New York market — with the Giants — before joining Shanahan's Washington Redskins this season.
"The press conference for them is like the highlight of the day," Cofield said. "Shanahan is more businesslike. He's actually a very funny guy, tells a lot of jokes, but it's just a dry humour.
"But it works for both of them. Both guys have control of their locker room. Both coaches' players love 'em, so different strokes for different folks."
The styles of the garrulous versus the staid — the say-anything vs. the try-to-say-nothing — clash Sunday when New York (6-5) visits Washington (4-7).
"I always say that if you can't play for a coach like Rex Ryan, you can't play in the National Football League on anybody's team," Jets receiver Plaxico Burress said. "He's a fun guy to be around, and he knows when it's time to work and he knows when it's time to have fun. That's one of the things that I noticed when I first came here, was that I've never laughed so much in his meetings."
It's safe to say no player has ever uttered similar thoughts about Shanahan.
This week's game, though, is no laughing matter for the Jets, who feel they have to win out to make the playoffs for a third straight season. They squeaked by the Buffalo Bills 28-24 last week, needing a fourth-quarter rally engineered by Mark Sanchez, just a tentative first stride in what they hope will be a sustained winning streak.
"Sure, we won last week," Sanchez said. "But we know, as an organization, as an offense, that's not a winning formula."
Sanchez's day was an erratic as anyone's. He was booed during pregame introductions, completed fewer than 50 per cent of his passes and threw his sixth interception in five games.
But he also tossed a career-high four touchdown passes, wasn't sacked for the first time this season and led his ninth career fourth-quarter or overtime comeback victory, capped by an 82-yard drive that produced the go-ahead score with 1:09 to play.
"I'll take a horrendous game anytime you can throw four touchdowns," Ryan said. "I think it was a solid game. We still have to get better. Our passing game isn't where we want it to be — and whether it's timing, whether it's communication, whether it's protection — we've had some breakdowns."
The Redskins are also coming off of a win, a much-needed bit of relief after a six-game losing streak. If Sanchez thinks he's had it tough, Washington quarterback Grossman has thrown at least one interception in seven straight starts and got benched for three games.
Instead of calculating how many games they need to win to make the playoffs, Washington is calculating an alternative history that can't come to pass. If only, for example, they had won both of those close games against the Dallas Cowboys.
"Anytime you're 4-7, you look back at some of the games that you could've or should've won," Redskins linebacker London Fletcher said. "There's not any team in the NFL that doesn't have some sort of scenario, one play here or there. Everybody's saying that. We just need to stop saying that. We need to get it done and see if we can beat the Jets."
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Joseph White can be reached at http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP
