The Jets, in the midst of a three-game nose-dive, are about to do something that makes most people smile after they’ve finished nearly stripping at the airport security gates and strolled down the jetway once their boarding pass has been scanned.

They’re heading for the West Coast, that place for fun in the never-ending sun.
Sure, Oakland doesn’t evoke the grand visions of that paradise better known as Southern California. But it’s still Cali, which means one thing in Jets Land: In order for them to wash that nasty losing aftertaste out of their mouths, they’ll have to do something they haven’t accomplished since the final year of President George W. Bush’s first term.
Just win, baby — on the West Coast.
Gulp.
“You can’t make excuses about going out to the West Coast and all type of stuff,” right tackle Damien Woody said. “You’re just going out there to play a football game, so excuse are out the door. We can’t have excuses for why we can’t go out there and win. We just have to go out there and play a football game. It’s that simple.”
It hasn’t been that way for the Jets lately, though. They haven’t won a regular-season game in the Golden State since 2004, during the fourth season of the Herm Edwards regime. That’s when they knocked off San Diego, 34-28, in the second game of the season, the same team they coincidentally knocked off, 20-17, four months later in the opening round of the AFC playoffs.
They’ve had four trips back since — all last season. They were flat-out blown away, 48-29, by the then-winless Chargers on Monday Night Football in their first game out west in 2008. They were stung, 16-13, by the then one-win Raiders, beaten by the 49ers, 24-14, and embarrassed, 13-3, in Seattle in the infamous game where a frustrated Shaun Ellis tossed a humongous snowball into the stands, drawing a $10,000 fine.
The total combined record of those four teams last season? Try 24-40.
“It was tough last year, those four losses we had,” cornerback Darrelle Revis said. “All those four losses that we had, we went out there on a Friday to get used to the West Coast and played on Sunday. We’re leaving this Friday I think this team this year has a different attitude. I’m sure Mark is going to be pumped to go out there and go to the West Coast and win a game for us.”
Rex Ryan has devised a plan to get the Jets in tune with a West Coast vibe. As Revis indicated, the team will fly out Friday just as it did last year. However, the preparation will begin before then.
“The jet lag is real, so we have to hydrate right now, start drinking plenty of fluids and be ready take that trip,” Ryan said. “You get out there, but you stay on East Coast time, body-clock time. I think we have had some success going out West that way.”
Maybe so for the Ravens, but the Jets certainly haven’t in recent memory and it’s imperative for them to correct that trend in four more days. Otherwise, that crescendo of collective groans emanating from their skeptical fan base will only grow louder.
“Go out there with the mindset of, ’You know what?’ Do the things that we preach about: taking care of the ball and go out there and execute our game plan,” Woody said. “If we do that, we are going to give ourselves a great chance to go out and win a football game.”