The Jets handed out green towels to the fans at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, but the most important colored fabric in the stadium was the yellow penalty flag thrown by the umpire in overtime.
The Patriots were flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when rookie Chris Jones pushed teammate Will Svitiek on a 56-yard field goal attempt by the Jets’ Nick Folk that sailed wide left. The penalty gave the Jets 15 yards and new life, and Folk booted a 42-yard game-winner four plays later to give the Jets an improbable 30-27 win over their division rivals.
“I was like, ‘You know what, it’s about time we got a break,’ ” Jets coach Rex Ryan said about his thoughts when the flag was thrown. “That’s really what I was thinking. It just worked out.”
It was the end of a wild game that featured a pick-six by each quarterback, four lead changes and the Patriots going 1-for-12 on third down.
When umpire Tony Michalek threw the flag on Folk’s miss, it threw the game into the surreal category. It was the first time the rule, which is new this season, had been enforced. The rule is simple: Teammates cannot give each other a shove into the kicking team’s formation on kicks anymore.
“Any push,” referee Jerome Boger explained to a pool reporter. “It could be with the body, not necessarily with the hand, but with the body into his teammate, into the formation. It’s any type of pushing action.”
The flag will draw the headlines, but it should not detract from a strong effort from the Jets, who ended a five-game losing streak against the Patriots. Geno Smith overcame an early pick-six to play well and the Jets’ defense got to Tom Brady often from late in the first half on.
Ryan made his team believe Saturday night, telling the players he was proud of them and they could win this game.
“We’ve got every opportunity to win the game,” defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson said of Ryan’s message. “We feel like we’re better than the Patriots. That was that. We just have to go out and prove it and we did.”
Asked if the Jets believe they are better than New England, Richardson nodded and said, “Yeah.”
The Jets (4-3) are now one game behind the Patriots (5-2) in the AFC East. They needed the win Sunday to keep things close in the division, particularly with tough games against the Bengals and Saints up next.
The Patriots held a 21-10 lead at halftime, with Brady slicing through the Jets defense a couple of times and Smith getting picked off by Logan Ryan, who returned it 79 yards for a touchdown.
But the momentum shifted at the half.
Quinton Coples sacked Brady on the first play of the second half and caused him to fumble. On second-and-16, Brady threw toward tight end Rob Gronkowski, who made his season debut, but Jets safety Antonio Allen cut under Gronkowski, intercepted the ball and took it 23 yards for a touchdown, cutting the score to 21-17.
“We told the DBs if you knock off his first two routes we have him,” Richardson said. “They did something even better. They came up with a play. The enthusiasm went through the roof. It went through the whole team.”
The Patriots punted on their next three possessions and the defense took Brady out of his rhythm. He finished 22-of-46 for 228 yards with no touchdowns and the one interception.
With the momentum on the Jets’ side, Smith led the Jets down the field midway through the third quarter. He scrambled on third-and-14 for a first down to get the Jets to the 10 and then scored on another scramble from 8 yards out two plays later to give the Jets a 24-21 lead.
“Every single win is big,” said Smith, who finished 17-of-33 for 233 yards with a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and the interception. “My progress is judged by my decision-making and the way I improve in that area. That comes with patience. … But I think I’ve improved steadily from week to week.”
The teams traded field goals and then the Patriots drove 66 yards at the end of regulation but could not reach the end zone. Gronkowski nearly made a one-handed grab that would have probably been a touchdown, but he dropped it. Stephen Gostkowski’s 44-yard field goal sent the game to overtime where the Jets defense stopped the Patriots on the first drive to set up the game-winning drive.
Chris Ivory led the way on that winning drive, rushing nine times. He had 34 carries for 104 yards in the game.
“We knew this was a big game,” wide receiver Jeremy Kerley, who had 97 receiving yards, said. “All the guys in the locker room had a chip on our shoulders. We wanted to come out and prove a point. We wanted to prove that we are in this division, too, and we want to win this division. That was the point we wanted to prove. I hope this sent a message that we’re a real contender and we have guys here that are elite just like they do and we’re a force to be reckoned with.’’