11/19 — The Jets may have lost five of six and may find themselves in a desperate situation, but they still have their swagger.

“We were outside and I saw the ‘Little Swagger Man’ on the goalpost almost falling off, but he’s still on there hanging on,” said S Kerry Rhodes this week. “So we still have a little bit.”

A Rhodes invention, “Little Swagger Man” is not a person. But you can imagine some little green creature just trying to survive in the great outdoors. He’s going to have to scratch and crawl to survive and that’s the position the Jets find themselves in entering Week 11.

“If we win, he’ll be doing a lot of stuff on top of the goalpost,” Rhodes said. “Nah, seriously, we need to get a win. If we get a win against those guys, we’re right back in it.”

As ominous as things appears right now, a Jets win in Foxboro on Sunday would change everything. They’d complete a season sweep of the Patriots and find themselves right in the thick of the division and wild card races.

“If we can get this one, we’re just one game out with six games to go,” Rhodes said.

They won’t look ahead, but you as a fan can dare to dream. If the Jets do pull out a victory this weekend, the Patriots will own a two-game losing streak and then a trip to New Orleans for a Monday Night game with the unbeaten Saints lies on the horizon.

Most people on the outside don’t give the Jets much of a chance to win. They’ll point to the many changes that have occurred since these teams played back in September — NT Kris Jenkins and RB/KR Leon Washington are on injured reserve, S Jim Leonhard’s status is in question, Tom Brady looks like Tom Brady, and the Patriots will be in a foul mood.

“I think we are on life support — we are on life support,” acknowledged LB Bart Scott on the latest installment of "Barking with Bart." “We’ll find out a lot about out team this week going up there and they have a payback. Not only did they lose a tough game to the Colts, they already have payback in mind. We know how tough it is for New England to lose two games in a row.”

But before you pencil in a loss, folks, let’s remember the Jets have won two of their past three regular-season meetings in New England. They also have a luxury that teams just don’t have against Randy Moss and his name is Darrelle Revis. And while people talk of the Patriots being angry, you get the sense the Jets are ready for a stand.

“We have to go out there and put all the games behind us behind us. We have one game at a time — I know we’ve said that already,” said the Madbacker. “This is desperation time, our backs are against the wall. We have to pull out everything — you have to turn over couches, you have to look underneath the cushions, you have to pull everything you have and put it into it.”

If the Jets lose Sunday, the outlook changes. The playoff chances become remote at best and Scott says they’ll likely be playing for pride. But with adversity swirling here in New York, the Jets will try to muster up their best performance of the Rex Ryan era.

“We’re going to have to give it our best effort and it’s going to be tough,” Scott said. “Can we do it? Yes, but we have to play perfect football.”

And to play perfect, they’ll need their swag. Football is a physical, violent game played by large men with tremendous athletic ability. Now is definitely not the time to be timid.

“We can’t go in there with our tails between our legs because we’ll ensure we’ll get beat,” Scott said.

If Little Swagger Man can dance on those goalposts Sunday, we’re going to have a fascinating finish to this 2009 season.

Rex Report

Randy Lange on Rex Ryan's news conference today said the head coach emphasized one thing at several spots during his chat with reporters: Justin Miller looked good — on defense as well as on kickoffs. "Just was outstanding," Rex said. "Hopefully he can get our defense down and we'll be able to use him." Ryan said it's possible Miller could return kickoffs again at New England, after returning vs. Miami but being deactivated for Jacksonville. "If he has a few more practices like that, he doesn't have to worry about not being up."

Ryan described today's practice as "great ... focused, attention to detail, right on point." ... He said Lito Sheppard will again be ready to play on defense but that "we'll probably start Dwight Lowery again" at corner. ... S Jim Leonhard (thumb) and LB Vernon Gholston (hamstring) remained non-participants. On Leonhard possibly participating vs. the Pats six days after thumb surgery, Ryan had an observation similar to his Wednesday prognosis: "It probably doesn't look good right now. It would not shock me if he does decide to play. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt so we'll say gametime [decision]."

There seems to be some debate in the NFL over whether Darrelle Revis "single-handedly" or man-to-man held Randy Moss to his four-catch, 24-yard totals in Game 2 or had plenty of deep safety help. Ryan had an explanation that favored the player he calls "the best corner in football": "Having Revis allows us to do things most people don't do or don't have the courage to play against them. Let's say they man up. Now Kerry Rhodes covers a lot of ground. What may look like Cover-2, because of the range Kerry has might've been Cover-1." Ryan confirmed that Revis' interception vs. Moss in the home opener was Cover-1, which means man coverage for Revis.