The game had been over for some 45 minutes and the Jets postgame locker room was buzzing for a change.
The Jets’ 21-13 win over the Texans Thursday night at MetLife Stadium ended a five-game losing streak. It had been a long month for the Jets, who’d fallen to 2-6 and were on the brink of garbage time to this season.
For Jeff Ulbrich, who was named Jets interim coach when head coach Robert Saleh was fired after a 2-3 start, the past month had to have felt like a year or three.
The Jets lost their first three games under the watch of Ulbrich, a football lifer as a former player who was put in a very difficult position with the hasty, poorly timed coaching change by team owner Woody Johnson.
Saleh should not have been fired in the first place last month, but that’s a moot point now.
Ulbrich, whom Saleh brought to the Jets and to whom he remains extremely close, saw his defense playing madly inconsistently in his first three games as the head coach.
And it didn’t help that the offense, despite being led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was brought here to lead this woebegone team to the Promised Land, was bad, too.
Surely, Ulbrich, after losing those first three games, must have wondered if he were ever going to win a single NFL game as a head coach.
That time came on Thursday. Finally.
And it was emotional. For Ulbrich, who by his nature takes credit for nothing and deflects it to his players. And for his players, who after the game were quick to direct credit to Ulbrich.
“He never changed, bro, from when he was the coordinator to now, he’s always been the same guy,” defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw told The Post.
“He deserves this, man,” right tackle Morgan Moses told The Post. “The energy he’s brought has been amazing. So, to see him get his first win was very important to us as players. There’s been nobody more positive than that dude.”
Tight end Tyler Conklin said, “I’ll run through a wall” for Ulbrich.
“The way he approaches every day, he makes you feel like you’re family, and the biggest thing to a good team is feeling like you belong,” Conklin said. “He makes us all feel that way.”
Center Joe Tippmann recalled spending times in the hot tub with Ulbrich at the team facility when Ulbrich was the defensive coordinator “and he would be giving me recommendations on things I can do to improve my game.”
“That’s a former linebacker who’s not even my position coach giving me advice on how I can be better,” Tippmann said. “He’s just an awesome dude. The last month has been rough, but everyone’s been behind [Ulbrich] the whole time.”
Immediately after Rodgers threw a touchdown pass to Davante Adams to give the Jets a 21-10 lead late in the game Thursday, he went right to Ulbrich and said, “That was for you, buddy.”
“Because we love him, care about him, we appreciate the energy he brings to it, his approach, just the kind of man he is,” Rodgers said. “Jeff’s been real steady. Good to get that first one.”
Now, of course, the Jets needs more, beginning with Sunday against the Cardinals in Arizona. Because they’ve left zero margin for error for themselves at 3-6.
It’ll be on Ulbrich now to find ways to avoid the basic blunders that had been holding the Jets back. We chastised the Yankees, who made it to the World Series, for their fundamental breakdowns — gaffes that cost them a chance at winning their 28th title.
The Jets have no chance to remain in contention to merely make their first playoff berth for the first time in 14 years unless Ulbrich can figure out a way to eliminate the kinds of mistakes his team made in Thursday’s victory and in the previous three losses.
After his first victory, Ulbrich was typical in his deflection of praise, calling it “special from the standpoint of this team.”
“I feel like one of my strengths is to block out the outside noise,” Ulbrich said. “It gets loud and this team took a lot of shots externally. The way they just stayed together and worked and kept a positive attitude and galvanized as a unit, really proud of them.”
Of course, the pride and good feelings from the other night last only until the next kickoff.
Where can the buzz and energy from Thursday night’s win take the Jets moving forward?
“It can take us wherever we want to go,” Kinlaw said. “Wherever our destiny is. I feel like we can go there. We’ve just got to keep the energy high. Keep [bleeping] leaning on each other.”
