12/01 — When the 2-9 Jets tackle the 0-11 Dolphins at Miami on Sunday, a lot will be at stake. Really. And to understand how much, I wanted to talk this week with someone who was in a similar battle in the past who can crystallize just what such a game can mean to the men who play it.

So I huddled with Buttle.

Greg Buttle is one of the best linebackers in Jets history, not to mention a successful entrepreneur and co-host of numerous Jets programs on 1050 ESPN New York, so I hated in a way bringing up one of the games he'd rather forget in his strong nine-year career in Green & White: the Dec. 14, 1980, game at Shea Stadium between the 3-11 Jets and the 0-14 Saints.

"I know it was a close game. What was the score, 21-20?" Buttle asked, as if he didn't remember. Precisely, that was the final score, and it wasn't in the Green & White's favor.

"We had come off not a bad year the year before [8-8 in 1979]. Richard Todd was our quarterback and we had guys you could throw the ball to," he recalled. "But for some reason, we didn't jell that year.

"Bottom line, the Saints were so bad, they were being called the 'Ain'ts' by their own fans with the bags over their heads. They couldn't beat anybody. But we weren't that good, either. And we were thinking we can't be the only team that lost to the New Orleans Saints. I can remember a whole week of 'You can't lose to this team.' "

Buttle remembered also that "It was an exciting game," and indeed it was. The Jets gave up the first score on a 14-yard pass from Peyton and Eli's dad, Archie Manning, to Jack Holmes. But the Green & White bounced back with a Kevin Long TD plunge and two Pat Leahy field goals.

And through a scoreless third quarter and darkening, thickening skies over Flushing, N.Y., the Jets clung to that 13-7 lead.

But soon the snow started falling, and so did the Jets. Tony Galbreath scored on a 1-yard run to give the Ain'ts the 14-13 lead. Then Todd scrambled 31 yards to put the Jets back on top. Then Galbreath capped another drive with another 1-yard run. And the Jets had lost to this team.

"It really was not a game you would want to remember," said Buttle, who hurt his neck on a William Andrews screen pass and couldn't finish the contest. "To the best of my knowledge, we always felt they were a better team than their record. I think everybody in the NFL feels that any team that doesn't have a victory is better than their record. That's why you watch films.

"The only team I ever felt was 0-and-whatever and they were that bad was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976. They were so readable. Whatever formation they were in, everything was so easy to see. But the Saints weren't like that. They were pretty good."

Current Jets fans must be hearing echoes in this blast from the past. The Dolphins are winless, but they have been dangerous, having lost six games of their 11 games by exactly three points each. They have dangerous players on an improving defense in Jason Taylor, Vonnie Holliday and Keith Traylor. They have an offense that will be hard to read with rookie John Beck at QB, a battered and bruised running back by committee, rookie flamer Ted Ginn Jr. at WR and on kick returns.

And the Jets, while they beat the Dolphins in Week 3 by 31-28, while they also have a win over a decent Pittsburgh Steelers team, while they feel they are better than their record, also know the Dolphins are a threat on Sunday.

This is why I wanted to check in with Buttle, not to force him to reflect on the gory details of a game 27 years ago but to ask him, after all these years, if there is any bit of advice he can give this edition of the Green & White that can sustain them against an opponent down on its luck but dangerous just like those 1980 Saints.

"The only thing I could tell any team about anything is that the concentration level must be on themselves and not on anybody else," Buttle said. "Once you start thinking about the other team, it's over. You've got to concentrate on what you do best, not on what anybody else does."

Buttle mentioned the Jets' most recent game, that Thanksgiving thumping in Dallas.

"Even though the Jets were overmatched by the Cowboys, you can't drop passes, you can't have penalties on special teams and turn the ball over," he said. "The things you can't do, the Jets seemed to do it.

"Take care of what you do, and you'll end up the winning football team," Buttle counseled. "And if the other team's better than you, you're going to get beat."

There are two last points I want to make about this challenge of taking on a winless opponent. Seven teams since the 1970 merger have entered their 12th game with an 0-11 record, but since no team has ever finished 0-16 (those Bucs of 1976 were 0-14), every winless team eventually beats someone else.

But even though the Jets have lost to some winless teams in the second halves of seasons, they've also beaten some of those teams as well. There is no inevitability to this game, no reason no matter what the injury situation that the Jets can't go into Dolphin Stadium as they often have in the past and splash the Dolphins.

Here's how the Jets have fared against all opponents with records of 0-9 or worse entering the game (all, coincidentally, were Jets home games):