FLORHAM PARK – Rex Ryan, fighting for his Jets head coaching job once again, has long been considered a defensive master, a schemer renowned for disguising coverages and blitzes, and twisting opposing quarterbacks’ thought processes into knots.

Sunday’s game against the Broncos and their future Hall of Fame quarterback, Peyton Manning, will test Ryan’s skills perhaps like never before. Ryan’s Jets are 1-4, spiraling on a four-game losing streak for the first time since Ryan took over in 2009.

And here comes Manning, fresh off an absolute decimation of the Cardinals’ defense. Manning has now played in 244 career games. Never has he thrown for more yards than he did against Arizona – 479, on 31-of-47 passing, for four touchdowns and two interceptions. The Broncos won 41-20 and gained 568 yards.

Ryan’s defense is reeling. San Diego gashed the Jets for 439 yards in Sunday’s 31-0 victory. That’s the fifth-most allowed by the Jets under Ryan. Philip Rivers was 20-of-28 passing for 288 yards, three touchdowns and a pick against the Jets, who now rank sixth in the NFL in total defense and 14th in passing defense.

So what does Ryan’s secondary need to do, in order to limit Manning?

“We’ve got to be like that goalie from the Rangers,” Ryan said, referring to Henrik Lundqvist. “We’ve got to stand on our head. We’ve got to play our best game. There’s no question about it. And hope he has an off day. That’s how you stop this guy. In other words, it doesn’t really happen. We’ve got to slow him up. But to say you’re absolutely going to shut this guy down, that’s not realistic. We know we have to be at our very best, and hope like heck it’s a 50-mph crosswind and our fans are having their best game, too, and that’ll be good for us.”

Right now, Ryan knows, this is a good Jets defense – far from a great one – that must play better in short order.

“I think we’re capable (of becoming great), but we can’t wait for Week 16,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to get there in a hurry, especially going up against this group. We just know we have to play way better this week than we have at any point this year.”

Manning uses a lot of pre-snap communication at the line, changing from one play to another, as he picks apart defense’s weak areas. So a noisy environment might help a little bit. What will help more is if the Jets’ secondary can cover Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Wes Welker and tight end Julius Thomas. That’s no easy task.

In the Jets’ six-game gauntlet against tough opposing quarterbacks, this showdown with Manning is probably the most daunting. The Patriots’ Tom Brady might argue that, but Manning unquestionably has better weapons around him this season than Brady does.

The Jets’ secondary got cornerback Dee Milliner back on Sunday in San Diego, and he played well. But the other starting corner, Darrin Walls, hurt his knee in the game. He did not practice Wednesday and was limited Thursday. The Jets also have to figure out how to deploy safety/corner Antonio Allen, if Walls is healthy enough to play against Denver.

Of course, most cornerbacks don't have the upper hand against Manning. For a defensive coordinator, Ryan said, this is like playing chess against Bobby Fischer. Ryan said he would "try to find a way to knock some of those pieces off" or "steal them off" the board.

That is the sort of hyperbole Manning inspires from opposing coaches – the chess pieces analogy, the 50-mph crosswinds line.

At the start of defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman’s press conference Thursday, a reporter jokingly posed the blunt question: How do you stop Peyton?

Thurman laughed.

“That’s really funny,” he said with a smile. “No one else has, right? Has anybody else stopped him?”

It was pointed out to him that the Seahawks handled Manning reasonably well earlier this season.

“Well, did they tie the game up?” Thurman said.

Indeed, Manning and the Broncos did, to force overtime.

“Didn’t get the ball back,” Thurman said.

After Manning drove the Broncos 80 yards in the final minute to get the tying touchdown and two-point conversion, Seattle won the coin flip in overtime and scored a touchdown on its first possession. Manning never got a chance to answer.

“He’s one of the best, if not the best,” Thurman said. “We have our hands full. We have our hands full every week. There’s good quarterbacks in this league, good receivers. It’s no different. That’s about what I told (the players). Hey, they can see for themselves.”

Four games into this stretch against elite opposing quarterbacks, the Jets are 0-4. While they rank 14th in passing yards allowed, some of that has to do with the fact that they’ve accumulated 96 yards in sack losses over these four games. Here is what the past four quarterbacks they’ve faced have done against them:

Aaron Rodgers: 25-of-42, 346 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT

Jay Cutler: 23-of-38, 225 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT

Matthew Stafford: 24-of-34, 293 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT

Philip Rivers: 20-of-28, 288 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT

Totals: 92-of-142 (64.8 percent), 1,152 yards (288 per game), 10 TD, 1 INT

Ryan’s Jets have faced Manning once in the regular season and twice in the playoffs. Here is what happened in those games, all three of which were in Indianapolis:

*2009 regular season (Jets won 29-15): 14-of-21 passing, 192 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT

2009 AFC title game (Jets lost 30-17): 26-of-39 passing, 377 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT

2010 AFC wild-card (Jets won 17-16): 18-of-26 passing, 225 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT

(*The Colts pulled their starters, including Manning, late in the third quarter, when they were up 15-10.)

Thurman said that just because the Jets have had some success against Manning in the past does not mean they can dust off those old game plans and use them again this week.

“He’s probably studied all that stuff already,” Thurman said. “From what I understand, he’s got a (film) projector at home and he’s got two or three different guys breaking down tapes for him two or three weeks ahead of time. So he’s already done that stuff. If we go backwards (with game planning), we’re probably playing into his wheelhouse.”

Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.