The Jets are like cockroaches. You can’t kill them.
How else do you explain what’s going on with this team right now?
How else do you explain the Jets becoming the first team in NFL history to win back-to-back overtime games on the road the last two weeks and then doing what they did yesterday — stealing a 30-27 victory from the clutches of defeat against the Texans at the Meadowlands?
How else do you explain allowing a 23-7 fourth-quarter lead to melt into a 27-23 deficit and still winning the game?
How else do you explain the Jets, trailing 27-23, starting a drive from their own 28-yard line with 49 seconds remaining and with no timeouts, needing a touchdown to win … and doing it?
PHOTOS: JETS BEAT TEXANS, 30-27
When Mark Sanchez and the Jets’ offense took over the ball for that final drive, needing 72 yards to win the game, who truly thought the Jets were going to win the game?
“I was thinking that we’ve done it over and over this year so I was like, ‘All right, let’s see how we get out of this this time,’ “ safety Jim Leonhard said.
“Obviously, we had our doubts,” tackle Wayne Hunter said. “But the way we’ve been playing these last three games anything can happen with us.”
Well, anything is exactly what happened.
Sanchez, channeling his inner Elway and Montana on that desperate winning drive, completed four passes for those 72 yards, the last six coming on a perfectly-spun pass to Santonio Holmes, who was running a fade pattern into the left corner of the end zone, with 10 seconds remaining in the game.
It was the third consecutive week Holmes made the decisive game-winning play. Last week in Cleveland, he scored the game-winning TD on an electric catch-and-run in overtime. The week before in Detroit, it was his long catch-and-run that put the Jets in winning field-goal range in overtime.
“Santonio’s been the home run hitter we thought he was going to be,” linebacker Calvin Pace said.
“The guy is a gamer,” said Sanchez, who earlier connected with Holmes on a 41-yard TD for a 20-7 lead. “The last drive, we’re down, no timeouts left, less than a minute and he says, ‘All right, let’s get it.’ That’s it. That’s all he says.”
One play before the game-winner, Sanchez connected with Braylon Edwards on a 42-yard strike down the right sideline to give the Jets a first-and-goal from the 6 with 16 seconds remaining.
It all left everyone inside both the Jets and Texans locker rooms shaking their heads — albeit with wildly differing emotions.
“Can you explain it? Because I can’t explain it,” Jets veteran right tackle Damien Woody said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in one season. It seems like it’s just one of those seasons, man.”
It’s certainly one of those seasons for the 5-6 Texans, losers of their last four games, including last week on a fluke Hail Mary tipped pass on the final play of the game.
Texans players were bewildered and distraught in the visitors’ locker room.
“This is ridiculous,” Houston safety Bernard Pollard said. “We should not be leaving this place with a loss. All we had to do was play perfect for 49 seconds. How in God’s name can we not get that done?”
Texans receiver Andre Johnson said, “Words can’t describe this. I really don’t know what to say.”
Here’s what the Jets, who are now 8-2 and tied for the best record in the NFL and with the Patriots for first place in the AFC East, will not say: “We’re sorry.”
There were no apologies from the Jets despite blowing the 23-7 fourth-quarter lead thanks to a Shonn Greene fumble and an inexplicable sloppy defense that allowed 20 points in the final 12:21.
“We keep finding ways to win, and that’s what championship teams do,” coach Rex Ryan said. “If I have to apologize for every week I will — all the way to the Super Bowl.”
Woody was asked if the team felt “charmed” or “blessed.” He politely stopped the questioner and said, “Go ahead and say it: ‘Lucky.’ Hey, if we’re going to keep lucking our way into wins I’ll keep taking it. Good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose. I’ve been on the other side of that. This year, we’re catching all the breaks.”
mcannizzaro@nypost.com