Manning – Check. Brady – Check. Bring on Big Ben!
Rex Ryan said that yesterday’s Jets’ win, Jets / Pats III, was the 2nd biggest in franchise history. I’m going to have to disagree with him. I believe it’s the third biggest with the second biggest being the game that got the Jets to their first Super Bowl and the biggest obviously being Super Bowl III. However, that was over 40 years ago and I surely wasn’t alive so in terms of my life and post-1970, it was the biggest Jets victory in franchise history as the Jets beat the best team in the NFL, the New England Patriots, by a score of 28-21 and the score doesn’t even tell the story of how the Jets really stuck it to the Patriots and got revenge from their Monday Night Massacre just five weeks ago.
Anyone really care about 45-3 now? Thinking about it, that loss could have been one of the most important losses in Jets’ history as it allowed this team to re-focus on their goals, play harder, and figure out the game plan needed to beat the NFL elite in the Colts and Patriots.
Wow. We are back to where the Jets were last year when the miracle ride abruptly ended to the Colts. The Jets are in the AFC Championship game for the second year in a row. Did I just say that? I’m a JETS fan. We are in back to back AFC Championship games? Please, someone pinch me; I must be dreaming.
Did a second year head coach and a second year quarterback go into New England and win a game of this magnitude? They sure did. This combination of Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez are now 4-1 in the playoffs with all of those games being on the road. Who could have imagined this new regime starting off their Jets ride with this kind of success?
This team may talk smack and be cocky and arrogant. Teams around the NFL may hate the Jets. Well, if you can talk the talk and walk the walk, the trash talking is great as they have been able to back up their words. Rex Ryan said in “Hard Knocks” that we are going to be in Dallas this year and win the Super Bowl. How can I not believe what this guy preaches as we are once again one game away from the big game. We are 60 minutes away from the freakin’ Super Bowl. Years ago today, Martin Luthor King had a dream. Last night, when I finally fell asleep, I had a dream too. It was the dream of Mark Sanchez holding up the Vince Lombardi trophy and we are so close, I can almost taste it. Only the Steelers stand between the Jets and that game that the Jets have not been to in 42 years.
This has been a crazy season. Most analysts didn’t believe. They all said we couldn’t beat a good team this year and that we had too many comebacks to beat bad teams. Let’s look at the resume now. We’ve beaten the Patriots twice. We’ve beaten the Colts. We’ve beaten the Steelers. We’ve had FIVE, count em’, FIVE, miracle fourth quarter comebacks which are rare for the Jets. Maybe there was luck involved but you need a little luck on your side to get to the Promised Land. This has been a magical season between those comebacks and the playoffs and it just seems like this team refuses to lose and finds a way. I was nervous as hell when the Jets played the Colts and Patriots. Now, these nerves are turning into confidence against the Steelers. If the magic is in your side; you just got to let it ride and hopefully the ride ends with a trip to Dallas and then Disney World.
The night before the game, Rex Ryan had Dennis Byrd; the Jets player in the 90’s who was paralyzed during a Jets/Chief’s game, to give a speech to the team. The speech touched all of the players and that added to the motivation of this team and even brought out his jersey to the coin flip. I thought it was so clever to bring the jersey out and it showed the world that the Jets were serious about beating the Pats.
Yesterday’s key was Mark Sanchez, aka The Sanchize, who’s slowly becoming Mr. January with all of these playoff wins in just his second year. This game against the Patriots was one of his best throwing for 194 yards, 3 touchdowns, and NO interceptions with a quarterback rating of 127.3. You can’t do much better than that. He was utilizing his weapons all day spreading the ball around and getting all of his receivers involved including touchdown passes to LaDainian Tomlinson, Braylon Edwards, and Santonio Holmes.
The game started out looking good when David Harris picked off Brady and then darted down the field for what looked like was going to be a touchdown but was tracked down by the Patriots on the 12 yard line. However, the Jets did nothing and then Nick Folk, last week’s hero, missed a 30 yard field goal which looked like it may have been good. What a waste of an interception return. Tom Brady doesn’t throw interceptions so this was a lost opportunity with Brady throwing his first interception in 335 attempts.
This is when I thought we could lose it all with Brady walking his team right down the field again but the defense finally buckled down and held them to just a field goal and a 3-0 lead. It would have been devastating to miss a field goal and then give up a touchdown so I was happy that we were only down by three. Shaun Ellis was an animal in this series getting two sacks on Brady.
When we got the ball back for the second quarter, the offense finally got into a groove with Sanchez scrambling in the backfield and pointing to Braylon Edwards where to go and launched a pass to the sideline that was hauled in for 37 yards to put the Jets in scoring position. It was another huge catch for Braylon who has been huge this season hauling in the ball. Two plays later, Sanchez hit LT for a 7 yard touchdown and the Jets never trailed in this game again. Unfortunately, there was still a ton of football to be played and my heart was racing. I was sweating. I just wanted the game to be over.
With the half nearing the end, the Jets defense put the Patriots in a fourth and short on their own side of the field and botched a fake punt attempt. YES! Jets ball on the 37 yard line with just over a minute to play in the half. This was their chance to stick a dagger right in their hearts and they did just that. LT had a nice 17 yard run and then a few plays later, Sanchez throw it to Braylon Edwards for a 15 yard touchdown and a 14-3 halftime lead. Holy S**T. Woooooooooooooo!
Not much happened until the end of the third when it really became a game again with the Patriots waking up and not only scoring a touchdown but also converting a two-point conversion to cut our lead to just three points. At this point, it felt as the giant had awoken and now the Jets and their fan base would have to either sweat it out or witness another Jets debacle. Luckily, it was far from a debacle but now the score was 14-11.
However, these Jets are different than any other Jets team in history; they know how to respond. They’ve done in numerous times during the season and did it again with a two minute drive, with 58 yards to Jerricho Cotchery and then ending with a Sanchez 7 yard pass to Santionio Holmes who somehow kept both of his feet in bounds. YES! The Jets are up by 10, 21-11.
Now this is where things got a bit hairy. The Patriots drove but the defense held them again forcing the Patriots to kick a field goal to narrow the lead to 21-14. Once again it was just a one possession game with just 1:57 left on the clock.
The Patriots execute an almost perfect onsides kick but it was picked up by Antonio Cromartie who takes it back for a nice return. Before I could catch my breath, Shonn Greene takes it 16 yards for a touchdown and a 28 to 14 lead. At the time, I didn’t think about it but Shonn Greene shouldn’t have scored. If he went down before the end-zone, the Jets probably could have run out the clock or most of it and kicked a field goal to go up by two scores. This now allowed New England to get the ball back and after a nice kickoff return, it didn’t take Brady and Co. long to get into the end-zone to make it a 7 point game but there was just 24 seconds left. Finally, we recovered the onsides kick and the game was over. However, if Greene didn’t score, all this chaos at the end of the game would have been avoided. However, I don’t blame Greene. He had the ball and was just thinking about scoring so you really can’t blame the guy.
The defense was great causing a few fumbles and putting pressure on Brady including five sacks. Revis and Cromartie was brilliant and the defensive game plan playing zone seems to confuse the Patriots all night long. And you have to tip your had to Shaun Ellis who had one of the games of his life. Also, the D held Wes Welker to just four catches for 34 yards. Amazing!
The worst part of the game was the Jets special teams. Nick Folk missed a field goal. The coverage on punts and kickoffs was not up to par. But, hopefully they’ll fix any of these issues before next week.
So, here we are, back in the Championship Game for the 2nd year in a row. We went out to get two veterans who are hungry for a Super Bowl in LT and Jason Taylor. They are at the tail end of their career and want that Super Bowl title that has eluded them their entire career. As for the rest of the players, most of them were on the team last year and know how it felt to lose. Now, they are back to redeem themselves and take that next step. There’s one more game before the Super Bowl. Sixty More minutes until the Jets feel Super. Rex says they are going to win. How can you not believe him. I surely do!
Stats from ESPN & Other NFL Sources:
1. Mark Sanchez, in just his 2nd year, already has two of the top four passer ratings in Jets postseason history.
2. The Patriots lost for the first time in 9 games and were held to their 3rd lowest point total in a game.
3. The Jets set a franchise record for road victories in a season with their eighth, one more than last season's team.
4. This is just the 3rd time in NFL playoff history that all 4 winning QB in a playoff weekend had a passer rating over 100. Ben Roethlisberger, Mark Sanchez, Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers did it this weekend
5. The Jets gained 66 yards on 17 rushes up the middle against the Patriots on Sunday. The 66 yards allowed was the third-highest in a game this season against New England.
6. Among quarterbacks with at least 75 attempts, only Matt Ryan and Tom Brady did not throw an interception against a 3-4 defense during the regular season. On plays when the Jets used the 3-4 defense formation Sunday, Brady completed just 3-of-7 passes for a 28.6 passer rating, including his first interception since Week 6 against the Ravens.
7. The Jets are the first team in NFL history to get at least 2 road wins in consecutive postseasons.
8. Mark Sanchez is just the third quarterback to throw for 3 TD against Bill Belichick's Patriots in the postseason (since 2000).
9. Mark Sanchez ties a single-game postseason Jets franchise record with his 3rd Pass TD of the game. He is the 5th QB to do it, joining Chad Pennington, Vinny Testaverde, Pat Ryan and Joe Namath.
10. LaDainian Tomlinson: 7th career postseason TD, most among all active running backs.
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