Three takeaways from Rex Ryan after listening to his comments Wednesday night on the New York Jets' 2014 schedule:

1. He likes the home cooking in September -- three games at MetLife Stadium. The last time they had three home games in September was 1998.

2. He challenged his team to improve on the road. Ryan mentioned their 2-6 record last season, pointing out that three of the final four games are away from home. "Clearly, we have to make big strides in how we play on the road," he said.

3. Ryan didn't sound thrilled that, for the second straight year, they have a short week to prepare for a road trip to the New England Patriots. Not only is it a quick turnaround, but they have to play the defending AFC champion Denver Broncos the previous week.

"Obviously that’s a huge challenge," he said. "It’s another year where we go on the road on a Thursday night to play New England, [which] isn’t ideal. But again, we’ll be up for it. It is a challenge. You’re facing the two best teams in the AFC last year, who played in the [AFC] Championship Game, back-to-back. ... But, we’ll have a lot of football to play up until that and hopefully we’re hitting our stride when we play those two teams."