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ST. LOUIS — The Jets saved their season yesterday. They saved it with take-away defense against old friend Brian Schottenheimer and overmatched quarterback Sam Bradford, they saved it with perfect red zone play calls that resulted in a pair of Bilal Powell touchdown runs, they saved it because Rex Ryan kept his team together during a desperate, turmoil-ravaged time.
But mostly, Mark Sanchez saved it.
He kept hope alive, at least until Bill Belichick and Tom Brady show up on Thanksgiving night at MetLife Stadium with their carving knives.
“Absolutely there’s hope,” Tim Tebow said after Jets 27, Rams 13.
This was the Mark Sanchez who disappeared on them, and on us. When Sanchez plays like this, with nerve and poise and moxie and smarts and swag, you won’t hear a peep about Tebow, nor should you.
“No, we’re not dead yet,” Yeremiah Bell said, “but at the same time, we know how far we need to climb.”
On a day when the desperate Jets needed to fight their way away from death’s door, when it was time for the embattled quarterback to get off the deck with a vengeance and lead his team the way a franchise quarterback is supposed to lead it, Sanchez was as good as he has been in a long time.
Ryan made sure to let everybody know that his quarterback was the one with the 118.3 quarterback rating, and Bradford was the one with the 67.4 QB rating.
Sanchez (15-for-20, 178 yards, 1 TD) was the commander in chief, the field general, The Manchez, orchestrating a formula (41-20 run-pass ratio) out of his playoff past. He was decisive. He was accurate. He would have been 17-for-20 if Stephen Hill and Joe McKnight hadn’t dropped gimmes. And Hill didn’t bother looking back for one shot down the left sidelines.
Only once, when Sanchez recovered his own fumble following a strip sack, did he remind you of the quarterback who too often has driven crazy the franchise who anointed him the franchise quarterback.
These were hardly the Kurt Warner Rams, mind you. Just one small step for the Jets, one giant leap for Jetkind. The alternative was a turkey trot back home. A welcome reminder for the quarterback from USC that winning is a habit.
“If you really believe that, and I think there’s guys in that locker room that do, this kind of stuff becomes habit if you make it a habit,” Sanchez said. “We can become a team that just doesn’t turn the ball over. That could be our identity if we want it to be and if we work at it.”
It starts with him, of course. It can’t become the Jets’ identity unless and until it becomes his identity. His careless disregard for the football sabotaged last season and has jeopardized this season.
“When Mark plays well, we play well,” GM Mike Tannenbaum said.
When Sanchez and offensive coordinator Tony Sparano become two minds inside one body, Woody Johnson doesn’t have to be defensive about selling hot dogs.
“It seemed like he [Sparano] called the right play at the right time,” Tannenbaum said.
Sanchez made the right throw at the right time two plays after Bart Scott returned a fumble 38 yards off a Muhammad Wilkerson strip- sack of Bradford. Sanchez pump-faked and hit Chaz Schilens with a 25-yard touchdown pass that made it Jets 10, Rams 7.
“When things go sour and south and nobody believes in you, that’s when you’re tested,” Sanchez said. “In some of our toughest times, we end up playing some of our best football. It’s a fast way to lose your hair and turn your hair gray. But whatever it takes to win. We’ve got to get wins. I think this team can really turn it around. We’ve shown we can handle pressure situations before. We’ve shown we can play well on the road, at home. Now we just have to keep building off it.”
His best moment may have been on third-and-3 from the Rams’ 23 toward the end of a 12-play, 63-yard TD drive when he looked right and found Konrad Reuland left for 18 yards.
“Great design by Coach Sparano,” Sanchez said.
The irony of it all is that the game plan called for more Tebow.
“They gave us some looks that we really weren’t expecting and that kinda maybe shut that down a little more than we had originally planned,” Ryan said.
Now let’s see if Sanchez can be Ram-tough against the Patriots.
“We still have a plan to make the playoffs,” Mike DeVito said.
Manchez or Bust.
steve.serby@nypost.com