The Jets have returned serve in the Ryan Fitzpatrick belief saga, perhaps confirming their quarterback's initial hypothesis from Sunday.
After the Jets' win over the Ravens, Fitzpatrick noted he was going to play "pissed off" from here on out after the team benched him in favor of Geno Smith and added that the coach, general manager and owner no longer believe in him. On Monday, coach Todd Bowles was asked about the comment.
"If pissed off is going to stop the turnovers, I'm more than happy to have him pissed off the whole time," he said on a conference call with reporters, via the New York Post.
Bowles did add that he has no problem with Fitzpatrick venting his frustrations.
If that is indeed true, than perhaps pointing to Fitzpatrick's league-leading 11 interceptions wasn't necessary. Maybe it was just Bowles' way of outlining his expectations for Fitzpatrick moving forward or perhaps it was a coaching maneuver to re-assert his control over the 2-5 team. Fitzpatrick hinted that the locker room was in his corner during the transition to Smith.
Either way, Fitzpatrick is getting exactly what he wanted. Smith tearing his ACL was obviously not the avenue, but he'll have the chance to show the Jets that they were wrong for pivoting away from him in the first place. After Sunday's victory, Fitzpatrick talked about a flow to the offense that did not exist since a Week 2 win over the Buffalo Bills. And while a large part of the offense's success was on the shoulders of running back Matt Forte, Fitzpatrick was more cautious with the football than he's been all season.
Is there still a chance the Jets can believe again?
