Jets Suddenly Come Alive To Shock the Steelers

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The New York Sun

The Jets made it clear from the start yesterday that they were playing to win. And in one of the biggest upsets of this NFL season, they did.

The 19–16 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Meadowlands was by far the Jets’ best performance of the season, and it all started with their first drive. On the first play, Kellen Clemens handed off to Thomas Jones for 11 yards. On the second play, Clemens handed off to Jones, who turned around and pitched it back to Clemens, who threw long for Laveranues Coles. The Steelers’ defense was totally confused by that flea-flicker, and Coles picked up 56 yards. Two plays later Clemens found Chris Baker in the end zone for a one-yard touchdown pass, and the Jets were looking like a totally different team from the one that’s been on display all year.

A Mike Nugent field goal late in the first quarter gave the Jets a shocking 10–0 lead, and they stayed ahead for most of the game. The Steelers managed to come back and take the lead, 16–13, in the fourth quarter, and it looked like the Jets would find a way to lose once again. But Clemens led the offense on a 13-play, 76-yard drive in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter to set up a field goal from Nugent that sent the game into overtime. After the teams traded possessions in overtime, Nugent kicked the game winner.

The Jets were, for the first time all season, a good football team on offense, defense, and special teams yesterday.

Jones had his best game as a Jet. No running back had gained 100 yards against Pittsburgh’s outstanding defense in more than two years, but Jones finished yesterday’s game with 30 carries for 117 yards. Jones showed off a physical running style that has been missing for too much of this season, and he was helped by a big game from center Nick Mangold, who took on the Steelers’ enormous nose tackle, Casey Hampton, and got the better of their one-on-one matchup.

Even more than Jones, the Jets’ pass rush was the story of the day. Heading into yesterday, the Jets had recorded just nine sacks all season. Against Pittsburgh the Jets’ pass rush exploded, sacking Ben Roethlisberger seven times. Nose tackle Dewayne Robertson had 2.5 of those sacks and was a menace against the Steelers’ running game, for one of the best games of his career. Shaun Ellis added two sacks and a forced fumble.

The biggest mismatch of the game came on special teams, where the Steelers went into the game knowing that their kick coverage unit would be no match for the Jets’ excellent return man, Leon Washington. Because of that the Steelers sent all their kickoffs short, which set up the Jets’ offense in good field position all day. And when Washington finally got the ball in his hands with room to run, after a Steelers punt in overtime, he took it 33 yards to the 26-yard line, which set up Nugent’s game-winner.

It was a great win, but the Jets still have plenty of work to do, and most of that work is for Clemens, who showed promise as the Jets’ quarterback of the future but was mostly mediocre. Clemens threw 30 passes after that 56-yard bomb to Coles, and he completed just 13 of them, for 107 yards. Three times, the Jets had first-and-goal and ended up kicking a field goal. Twice the Jets went for it on fourth down; Clemens threw incomplete both times. Clemens also had a fumble just before halftime that would have cost the Jets an easy field goal if the Steelers hadn’t bailed him out by getting called for holding.

The Jets’ defense showed off excellent speed and play-making ability yesterday, but it also showed that it has work to do, especially against bigger, stronger running backs. The Jets were lucky that the Steelers mostly gave the ball to their smaller, faster runner, Willie Parker (who finished with 21 carries for 52 yards) and not to their bigger, stronger runners, Najeh Davenport and Carey Davis (who combined for 10 carries and 55 yards).

Still, the Jets improved their record to 2–8 yesterday because, for one day at least, they were the better team on the field at the Meadowlands. Not many people saw that coming against the Steelers, who fell to 7–3. On Thanksgiving, the Jets play another game against one of the league’s elite teams, the Dallas Cowboys, and yesterday’s effort indicates that they might actually have a chance.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.


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