HARD TO WATCH: Mark Sanchez can only stand helplessly on the sidelines as Stephen Gostkowski drills a 43-yard field goal on the last play of regulation to force overtime last night. The Patriots went on to win 29-26 when Sanchez fumbled the ball in OT. (
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FOXBOROUGH — These can be season-changing moments, even career-changing moments. When it is overtime in a brutally hostile place, when first place on the line, when you find yourself eyeball-to-eyeball with Tom Brady.
A field goal ties it.
A touchdown wins it.
Brady had just untied it.
“We were actually excited ’cause they kicked a field goal,” Stephen Hill said.
No one more than Sanchez.
These are the games you win in your dreams.
After all the blown opportunities, after an interception on a bomb for Hill that should have been a touchdown, after suspect and conservative red zone play-calling, after Rex Ryan’s beloved defense could not make the end-of-the-game stand that dominant defenses are supposed to make, Sanchez had the ball and the game in his hands at the 15-yard line.
“You want to win, go take it,” Sanchez said in the huddle. “Let’s go attack these guys … don’t hold back … keep fighting … keep having fun … and go snatch us a win.”
But when Patriots 29, Jets 26 ended, it ended because the Jets somehow managed to snatch the jaws of defeat from what should have been a shock-the-world victory.
It ended because, in the most simplistic analysis, Brady got his team a field goal in overtime, and Sanchez did not.
It ended because when you wait too long to play to win, you deserve to lose.
Sanchez, who had been mostly heroic in the fourth quarter bringing the Jets back from a 23-13 deficit, hit Jeremy Kerley with a 17-yard strike, to the Jets’ 40. Only 25 more yards and Nick Folk could try to keep hope alive. Only 60 more yards and no one dares call for Tim Tebow to replace him.
But here came Jermaine Cunningham and Rob Ninkovich, and down went Sanchez, and out came the ball, and there went the Hollywood ending for him. And instead of first place, the Jets are tied for last in a tightly bunched AFC East.
“We got pressure inside. I was trying to get rid of the football and didn’t feel Ninkovich on the outside,” Sanchez said, “It’s too bad; you don’t see that guy coming.”
It was 23-13 when Sanchez resembled the quarterback the Jets thought they had drafted four long years ago.
The drive began at the 4 after a false start penalty against Konrad Reuland. When Sanchez rifled one through a tight window to Dustin Keller, it was 23-20.
Sanchez was 9-for-10 on the drive.
Fourteen plays, 92 yards, 6:58.
“It was a monster,” Sanchez said, and chuckled.
Keller had a theory.
“I know a lot of times guys want to point the finger at him, talking about he didn’t do this or that,” Keller said, “but I think more times than not, it’s guys around him not where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there.”
But Sanchez will kill himself when he watches the tape of Alfonzo Dennard’s interception at the 2 on an underthrow to Hill in the second quarter.
“Just a little late,” Sanchez said. “I just got to get rid of that ball sooner and give Stephen a chance sooner. I tried a little too hard there, and missed it.”
The Jets were trailing 16-7 at the time because penetration from Vince Wilfork earlier in the second quarter had caused a sense of panic between Sanchez and Shonn Greene.
“It was a little bit of a wider play, and so Shonn was feeling the pressure as I’m handing him the ball, and I’m extending the football and he’s starting to run back inside when it’s usually an outside-hitting play,” Sanchez said.
As the fumble rolled backwards, Sanchez wisely booted the ball out of the end zone.
The Jets were fighting for their lives at the end because they lacked the killer instinct that all finishers summon under duress. When your special teams gives you the ball at the New England 18 with two minutes left, throw for the end zone. Instead: Tebow for 2 yards. Joe McKnight for a yard. Sack. Field goal.
And: Third-and-a-short-2 at the Patriots’ 2, early third quarter. Two-down territory. Make a statement. Tony Sparano turns into Brian Schottenheimer and dials up a Sanchez slant for Chaz schilens. Field goal.
“We said it early in the week — you can’t kick field goals against this team,” Sanchez said. “You got to get seven points.”
No one to blame but themselves.
First to worst. In the worst possible way.