MIAMI — This was The Ugliest Game Ever Played, and when it finally ended, Rex Ryan, the coach of The Luckiest Team That Ever Played, summed it up best in one word:
“Whew!”
The storyline within the storyline, the one that would propel the Jets to a 23-20 victory, occurred between the time Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter missed his 48-yard overtime field goal and Nick Folk had his blocked 33-yard field goal that preceded his game-winner negated because Joe Philbin had tried to ice him with a most untimely timeout.
It featured Mark Sanchez and Santonio Holmes.
Holmes (career-high nine catches, 147 yards) quit on this quarterback and this team here in last year’s season finale.
Yesterday they left sailing together on Biscayne Bay aboard The Love Boat.
“[Sanchez] and I talked about winning this ballgame together,” Holmes said. “We believed in each other and [offensive coordinator Tony] Sparano allowed us to go and play Holmes-and-Sanchez football, and we got the job done.”
Someone asked: “What is Holmes-and-Sanchez football?”
“Exactly what you saw today,” Holmes said. “Just allowing us to play football and having a little fun with it.
“Trust.”
Maybe it was the erratic Sanchez (21-for-45, 306 yards, two interceptions, one in the end zone) showing Holmes up close and personal what never quitting in the face of adversity is supposed to look like, maybe not. But there was no way a year ago they would have been able to connect on the monster 38-yard completion to the Miami 18 that won this game. Hell, they never bothered to talk to each other for a good part of 2011, before all hell broke loose in the huddle at the end of the season when Holmes imploded.
In their team’s most desperate hour yesterday, Sanchez spoke eloquently with his arm and Holmes listened obediently with his hands.
“Santonio played his [butt] off,” Sanchez said. “I mean, that guy — say what you want about him — he played his absolute [butt] off, and I was so proud of him.
“To come back into an environment that brought back so many bad memories, and for him to fight it off … to make some unbelievable catches, some Santonio Holmes-like catches…”
Sanchez, for all his maddening throws — one particularly egregious one off the fingertips of a wide-open Chaz Schilens should have been an easy touchdown, one high throw on second-and-goal at the 1 for Jeff Cumberland led to the Jets settling for a field goal — had driven the Jets to the go-ahead touchdown on a 7-yard TD toss to Jeremy Kerley with 3:01 remaining in regulation, before a costly interference penalty against Kyle Wilson enabled the Dolphins to force overtime.
Now the football gods who once tormented the likes of Scott Norwood and Doug Brien decided to let Sanchez have the ball again at his 38 with 7:53 left in overtime.
“He said, ‘We’re gonna score,’ ” Kerley said about Sanchez in the huddle.
Sanchez had lost Stephen Hill, who had dropped a touchdown pass before his hamstring betrayed him.
Tone Time, at last.
“He had those cornerbacks on their heels all day,” Sanchez said. “They didn’t know where he was going, which way he was turning, whether it was underneath route or a deep route, and it was really impressive to watch. Really impressive to watch.”
Holmes versus Richard Marshall, who was also flagged for holding and illegal contact, was a mismatch. Sanchez looked deep left. Marshall tried futilely to jam Holmes.
“He beat the guy up the sideline, and it’s my job to get him the ball, so I got him the best I could, and caught the thing in stride, and I thought he was gonna score,” Sanchez said.
Game over nevertheless.
“The ball was placed beautiful,” Holmes said.
Holmes talked about winning this one for Sparano in the coordinator’s homecoming. Holmes swore he had nothing to prove in this place.
“[Receivers] coach Sanjay [Lal] just talked to me about playing the game that I know how to play, and I believed every word that he told me, and I allowed the game to come to me. … I just went out and played Santonio Holmes football,” Holmes said. “Sanchez really felt comfortable giving me the ball, putting it in great places, and we went out and did what we had to do and steal a victory here in Miami.”
A-Tone Time.
steve.serby@nypost.com