"A week ago, coach Rex Ryan cried in front of his team and then he fired his defensive line coach.

This week, Ryan first included himself into the team's offensive meetings, taking special interest in putting a stop to Mark Sanchez's rash of turnovers and then he benched starting safety Kerry Rhodes.

The 4-6 Jets — losers of six of their past seven games — play the 4-6 Panthers today at Giants Stadium, and it's fair to wonder if they are cracking as they spiral toward a potential ugly season.

"Everybody's got a right to their own opinion," Ryan said. "I don't believe this team is even close to crumbling. I think it's just the opposite. We're competitive, and we want to win in the worst way.

"We have certain standards that obviously we're not living up to right now. It's more of an urgency than it is, 'Oh, we're crumbling.' I think that's not even close to the truth.""