The Jets’ defense faced a key third-down play early in the third quarter and safety Kerry Rhodes waved his arms to urge on the crowd to make some more noise. Too bad there was nobody in the stands.

It was one of the more amusing sights yesterday as the Jets played an intrasquad scrimmage on the “road” at Fordham University’s tree-lined Coffey Field, a game that was closed to the public. The low-contact scrimmage had officials, timeouts, music, and game sounds piped in, along with crowd announcements.

“It’s great and we liked it,” Rhodes said. “We get to get a competitive game going and it’s not just going through the motions with practice.”

The Jets played a similar game last season at Giants Stadium, but rock band The Police were playing a concert there yesterday. So, head coach Eric Mangini had five busloads of players and team officials make the 26-mile trip from Hofstra University to Fordham.

“It was a combination of that and they have FieldTurf here, the same turf that we have at the Meadowlands, and it’s a beautiful campus and they’ve been great with helping us,” Mangini said, adding that he wanted it to be a private practice so the team could try out some plays out of the public’s view.

Mangini split his team into two squads: the green team, led by running backs coach Jimmy Raye, and the white team, coached by special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff. They played four full quarters, and for those keeping score, Team White edged Team Green 24–21 when Mike Nugent missed a 65-yard field-goal attempt as time expired.

“I think somebody gets the nicer bus and the loser gets the yellow school bus or something like that,” quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo, who had a good game for the losing team, said.

Actually, everyone went back home on the same type of bus, but the winners got to watch an undisclosed movie and eat a meal from Famous Dave’s. The losers had to settle for boxed lunches and a viewing of “Sex and the City.”

Kellen Clemens started for the white team and was 14-of-18 for 205 yards and two touchdowns, both long throws to Justin McCareins. Clemens is trying to win the backup job to Chad Pennington, who finished 19-of-30 for 186 yards and a TD for the green team. “I think I’ve come along quite a ways,” Clemens, who also had an interception, said. “Being in my second year in the system now, things are slowing down and I’m able to see things more. I understand things more without having to think about them quite as much.”

Clemens’s main competition appears to be Tuiasosopo, who was 11-of-18 for 103 yards and a touchdown. Brad Smith, the Jets’ Mr. Versatility, was 4-of-5 for 37 yards, caught four passes for 56 yards, and ran for 12 yards on two carries for the white team.

Thomas Jones, acquired in the off-season from Chicago to be the Jets’ no. 1 back, had just 9 yards on five carries for the green team but caught a game-high seven passes for 54 yards. Leon Washington had a game-high 41 yards on 15 carries, including a 1-yard diving touchdown for Team White.