10/14 — Embarrassing loss? Nice rebound game for Mark Sanchez? Impressive debut by Braylon Edwards?

All true. But as Rex Ryan reminded today, this is now Week 6 of the Jets' season, no longer Week 5.

"We moved on, so I'm excited about this opportunity to get back and play in front of our fans, to try to right our ship a lit bit," the Jets head coach said at this afternoon's news conference about Sunday's home game against the Buffalo Bills.

"We had a couple of bumps in the road. The way we're going to respond is the only way we know how, and that's by working and pulling together and getting back to what got us there in the first place and that's with the enthusiasm, the passion, and playing with the emotion that quite honestly is what we really demand from each other."

All of those qualities translate into practice tempo, which Ryan said was better — "Yeah, without question" — at today's first practice of the week than it was in particular for the scout teams at last Friday's practice for Monday night's game at Miami.

"I just thought they were going through the motions," Rex said in returning briefly to his remarks on his scout teamers from Tuesday's conference call. "It was like we were brother-in-lawing each other. And no one gets better that way."

Ryan said at that practice there was one player he could say was giving looks to the first-teamers at the tempo that he appreciated, and that was rookie defensive lineman Matt Kroul.

"So we give him my parking spot," the coach said. "He may have that spot for a while, because the guy's practicing his tail off. He's going to get better that way and the guy going against him is going to get better that way.

"And that's what we want from all the guys. It's hardly a copout. If you misunderstood me, I just don't like the tempo. I never want for the offense or the defense to slow down. Never slow down to protect a scout team player. You do just the opposite. You speed up, you go full-speed, and that'll be the way we'll get it done."

Enthusiasm, passion and emotion will be important this week, Ryan said, because the Bills may be 1-4 but their skills say they're more dangerous than that.

"Anytime you've got an offense with T.O., Lee Evans, Marshawn Lynch, Fred Jackson, with all those guys, it's a talented football team," he said. "They're going to explode one day. I just don't want them to explode on us."

Health Talk

The Jets' health will be important, of course, and four players were held out of practice with their injuries: WR Jerricho Cotchery (hamstring), DE Shaun Ellis (knee), WR Brad Smith (quadriceps) and T Damien Woody (foot).

"Yeah, I'm concerned with it," Ryan said of Cotchery's injury, which limited him against Miami to one 4-yard reception and almost 30 offensive snaps. "This guy's a tough guy now. He wants to play. ... We'll see how he feels. The trainers and doctors will have an effect on his decision, but it's going to be his decision. I'm never going to force a player to play if he doesn't feel right."

Ryan said Cotchery probably won't practice again Thursday but could go Friday.

The good injury news is that CBs Lito Sheppard (quad) and Donald Strickland (ankle) both practiced today on a limited basis. Four other Jets are listed as injured but went full. The injury reports for both the Jets and the Bills will be posted on newyorkjets.com as soon as we have them after 4 p.m.

Rex Cetera

Ryan said WR Braylon Edwards, after his impactful Jets debut at Miami, "put on another show out there today," leading the coach to ponder having Edwards wear a red practice jersey, the kind worn by QBs that means "do not tackle."

The coach declined an opportunity to downplay the Dolphins' Wildcat as a "gimmick" more appropriate for college football than the pros. "That's the old single wing — you can't get more old-school than that," he said. "I think that offense is a good offense, but it's not like we weren't prepared for it, it's not like they out-schemed me. They just executed better than we did."