Hurricane Sandy Has Jets Facing Two Different Realities FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - When the Jets reconvened Monday for the first time since their 21-point loss two Sundays ago to the Dolphins, they were greeted by contrasting doses of reality. One was a speech by their coach, Rex Ryan, who detailed their flaws through the first half of the season - and for a 3-5 team, there were plenty - before explaining how they could be fixed, would be fixed. The other was a sheet of paper that amounted to a post-Hurricane Sandy survival guide, reminding players to avoid confrontations while in line at gas stations and to use those long waits to their benefit, by studying film on their iPads or reviewing their playbooks. All the Jets want is a return to some semblance of normalcy, as much off the field as on it. Losses to the division rivals New England and Miami continued to expose weaknesses in areas that have long been strengths of Ryan's teams: third-down defense, rushing defense, turnover ratio. The usual rhythms of a bye week - soothing aching bodies, resting weary minds, reconnecting with family and friends - were disrupted by a storm that pummeled the New York region, leaving billions of dollars of destruction in its wake and several players and coaches without power, Ryan among them. "Just like anybody else," Ryan said. Instead of assembling at Jets headquarters for rounds of meetings and self-scouting, coaches took their computers home and communicated with the rest of the staff via text message. Players were given Monday and Tuesday off to look after their families as the storm hit the area. With the facility closed to players, Chaz Schilens came anyway: he needed a place to shower. On Wednesday, safety LaRon Landry escaped to his home in Virginia (and, he noted, his pet monkey, Gucci, went with him), while tight end Hayden Smith and his fiancée fled their apartment in waterlogged Hoboken. They trudged six blocks through waist-high sewage, clutching suitcases above the muck, to meet the wife of kicker Nick Folk, who opened their home to them. "I'm used to brush fires," said Smith, who grew up in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Nothing like this. A similar sense of disbelief, on a much smaller scale, pervades the Jets" locker room. When Ryan told his players on Monday morning that they were in 10th place in the A.F.C., four spots out of a wild-card berth, defensive end Quinton Coples blanched. "That shocked me," Coples said. I thought we'd be higher than that. But they are not, and a loss Sunday in Seattle, where the Seahawks are 4-0 this season, could very well doom the Jets" playoff aspirations. Since the 1970 merger, only four teams that started 3-6 have made the playoffs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and none since the 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars. "I know we're not where we want to be," Ryan said. We're not even close. We're not sniffing the playoffs. We're not sniffing anything right now. But I want to get there, man. Ryan would not elaborate on how the Jets would get there. He would not elaborate on whether Tim Tebow would assume an expanded role in the offense, as he suggested last week. And he would not elaborate on whether there would be any "radical" changes, as he also suggested could be a possibility last week, but in their meeting Monday morning, Ryan delivered a message that he characterized as "blunt-force trauma." Summarizing Ryan's message, Nick Mangold said, "We haven't helped ourselves much." Not in the red zone, where Mark Sanchez has thrown three of his eight interceptions. Not on special teams, where the normally reliable unit has allowed two blocked punts and a kickoff return for a touchdown. And not on defense, where the Jets yield a 45 percent conversion rate on third down (third worst in the N.F.L.) and 141.4 rushing yards a game (fourth worst). "This is how we build our football team," Ryan said. We have to be who we say we are. That problem has dogged them all season, and in Seattle, the Jets will face a team whose strengths should look awfully familiar. The Seahawks feature a strong running game, led by Marshawn Lynch; a relentless defense, particularly in the secondary; and a quarterback who has proved potent at throwing deep passes off play-action fakes. That is who the Jets thought they were during training camp. Eight games into the season, they are not. They have eight left to prove that they are. Rex Ryan seemed optimistic that several of the Jets" injured players, including Kenrick Ellis (left knee), Bart Scott (toe) and Eric Smith (knee), would be available Sunday in Seattle.