It’s time for Friday Whispers from Jets Confidential publisher Dan Leberfeld . . . no bull, just the good stuff . . . talk about it . . .

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Santonio Holmes threw Brian Schottenheimer under the bus, not once, but twice this week.

“We’ve got to do a better job of adjusting on the fly as an offense,” Holmes said after the Jets loss to Oakland. “You can’t be forced to continue doing the same things when those guys are doing something different. We have to open up the game plan a little bit and have a little bit more fun.”

And then he did again on Thursday.

“We’ll see come Sunday if the Ravens switch up their gameplan from doing something different to what they feel can work against us,” Holmes said. “And we’ll know come Sunday if the adjustments have been made for us to react to what they’re doing.”

There is a lot of pressure on Schottenheimer. He is constantly under attack from Jets fans, the media and now one of his own players – sometimes for legitimate reasons, sometimes not.

While he’s at fault sometimes, the quarterback also deserves some blame.

Let’s see if Schotty can live up to Santonio Holmes’ expectations this Sunday.

Jets center Nick Mangold has a high ankle sprain. Will he play on Sunday night in Baltimore?

“I’m encouraged,” Rex Ryan said. “Each day, he seems to be getting better. He hasn’t practiced, but he definitely feels like he’s getting better. The thing that’s encouraging about that is he’s doing some things, doing some change of direction things and some movement things where it’s not getting worse. It’s actually feeling better the next day, so I’m encouraged by that. Now if he has a setback, I’ll let you know that.

“I’m not one of those ‘he has to practice’ guys. We’re talking about Nick Mangold here, so, no. He doesn’t have to practice.

“If Nick can’t defend himself or isn’t healthy enough to help us, then we’re definitely not going to [play him].

“[Ravens NT] Haloti presents a lot of problems for healthy guys, 100 percent guys. We feel like if Nick’s there, then there’s no better guy to have him go against than Haloti. I mean, they are the two best at their positions.”

The Jets have a good chance of beating the Baltimore Ravens. It’s not a longshot. Here is why . . .

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You know a run defense didn’t have a good game when your two leading tacklers are S Eric Smith (8 tackles) and CB Antonio Cromartie (8 tackles).

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WR Logan Payne (wrist), C Nick Mangold (ankle) and CB Antonio Cromartie (lungs) are out.

LB David Harris (toe) and DE Mo Wilkerson (shoulder) were limited in practice on Wednesday.

The Jets defense actually started very strong in Oakland, but came apart at the seams in the second quarter . . .

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Namath was right about Rex overrating his team a little with all this flowery talk.

But I don’t think he’s right about the team’s preparation.

I think they prepare hard.

That isn’t the issue.

The biggest issue is the quarterback.

He is too erratic.

The run defense should be fine. Sunday was probably aberration.

But if the quarterback doesn’t improve his accuracy and decision-making, this is going to be an inconsistent team all year long.

This is a quarterback driven league.

Joe Namath made a lot of news the other day when he said about Rex Ryan’s Jets -
“It’s rather alarming. It starts at the top. Coach Rex Ryan, he’s been doing a great job, getting us to two conference championship games, but there’s one thing about the athlete: You keep telling him how good he is, he’s going to start believing it to the point that he may not be preparing quite the way he should. He may be losing some respect for the other team.”
The part he was right about was regarding the defense. Rex keeps talking how great his defense is, and they aren’t a great defense. They are good, not great. You saw that in Oakland and against Dallas.
For Ryan to defer, after winning the coin toss in Oakland, is a perfect example of him overrating his defense.
So when it comes to the defense, Namath’s is right – “You keep telling him how good he is, he’s going to start believing it.”
I will get to where he was wrong in a bit.

After Joe Namath said Rex Ryan has created a team that is overconfident, and might not have been prepared for Oakland, the coach fired back.

“I welcome him to come out here and watch our guys prepare,” Ryan said. He’d see a team that, in my opinion, prepares as well as any team I’ve been around. I disagree with him.

“The great thing is I’m confident with our football team. There’s no question about it. I’ve told you this many times, I’ve never gone into a game I didn’t think I’d win. (I) haven’t won them all, but I certainly think we can and will. I’m not going to change who I am because Joe Namath said something.”

He might not need to change who he is, but he might need to make some changes with his team.

The Jets run defense was awful in Oakland, and he needs to make some changes there.

Even though you won’t read this many places, Mark Sanchez needs to play better. He needs to be more consistent and accurate. Rex needs to try to make some changes here to attempt to improve this serious problem.

Antonio Cromartie was called for four penalties in Oakland. Rex needs to make some changes in his technique, which is often suspect.

So yes, Rex needs to change, a lot of things about his football team, that is.