AFC NOTES
DENVER – Quietly, a little-used rookie tight end by the name of Blake Spence was included by Bill Parcells on the active roster for yesterday’s AFC Championship game. And for a mo-ment it looked like he might send the Jets to the Super Bowl.
It was the first time Spence had been active since an Oct. 25 game against the Falcons, so you can imagine why the Broncos probably didn’t notice him.
For awhile, it looked like Spence would be the hero of the game for the Jets, as he made the play of his life, a play that probably should have led to a Jet victory had it not been for the litany of mistakes they made.
Bursting through the line on a Broncos’ punt, Spence blocked a Tom Rouen punt with 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter. The ball was recovered by Fred Baxter on the Denver one-yard line and one play later, Curtis Martin scored to give the Jets a shocking 10-0 lead that they would later blow.
“It was bittersweet,” Spence said. “It was a shot in the dark, because I didn’t even expect to play this week and I didn’t even work on punt return (teams) until late in the week. I saw an opening, saw a huge hole open up and my eyes got really big.”
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One of the plays that rendered the Spence play meaningless in the end was a botched Broncos’ KO that Denver LB Keith Burns recovered two minutes after the Martin TD.
Denver K Jason Elam booted a high KO that stopped dead in the 30 mph wind and bounced as a live ball as the unsuspecting Jets scrambled for possession. Jets’ KO returner David Meggett raced up from near the goal line in vain to try to catch the ball, but it bounced near the Jets’ 30-yard line.
“If there was any way I could get to it, I would have gotten to it,” Meggett said afterward. “My thinking was that I have to get to the ball. That was my focus. At the start, I thought I had a pretty good chance to get to it, but the ball just stopped completely.”
Jets’ LB James Farrior, who was already beginning to block thinking Meggett would get the ball, was closest, getting a hand on it before Burns emerged from a huge, violent pile with the ball.
“When I turned to block my man, I saw out of the corner of my eye, and I saw the ball was rolling around,” Farrior said. “Then I just tried to make a play on it. I missed it, a couple of other guys missed it and they got the ball. But it was a total surprise to me. I don’t know if (Elam) did it on purpose or if it was a mis-kick. It turned out to be a big play for them.”
Said Bill Parcells, “We didn’t do a good job on that.”
Said Denver LB Bill Romanowski, “When we recovered that kickoff, that seemed like the turning point.”
Elam said, “It was supposed to be a deep kickoff, but I just got under the ball too much and the wind held it up. At different parts of the stadium, the wind was blowing in different directions.”