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FOXBOROUGH — Almost, Rex.
Rex Ryan’s belief that the Jets would beat the Patriots fell just short in a wild game at Gillette Stadium that New England somehow won 29-26 in overtime.
The Jets nearly pulled off the upset over their hated division rivals, but now are looking up at the Patriots in the AFC East again.
“We missed a golden opportunity,” Jets linebacker Calvin Pace said. “A bunch of should have, would have, could haves. We just didn’t get it done.”
It looked as if the Jets were going to mount a comeback for the ages as they roared back from a 10-point deficit over the final six minutes of regulation to tie the game and even take a brief lead, but Tom Brady and the Patriots pushed the game into overtime where they found a way to win.
The game ended in overtime with Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez fumbling after getting sacked by Rob Ninkovich and Jermaine Cunningham. Ninkovich, who beat tackle Austin Howard around the outside, knocked the ball out of Sanchez’s hand and then recovered it to end the game.
The fumble came just after Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 48-yard field goal on the opening drive of overtime to put New England up 29-26. The drive was extended by a controversial third-down pass interference call on Jets cornerback Kyle Wilson.
When the Jets look back on the game, they will see a series of mistakes and missed opportunities that helped the Patriots win. The Jets gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown and a safety, committed two turnovers and settled for four field goals. All of that made the difference in the tight divisional showdown.
“We made too many mistakes to beat them,” said Ryan, who stated his belief last week the Jets would beat the Patriots. “I will say I’m proud of my team. We had an opportunity to win the game, unfortunately [we] didn’t get it done. We kept fighting.”
It did not look good for most of the day for the Jets. After marching down the field on the opening drive for a touchdown, the Jets allowed Devin McCourty to score on a 104-yard kickoff return, handing all the momentum back to New England.
The Jets sputtered through the first half, including giving up the safety on a fumbled handoff that Sanchez kicked out of the end zone and a would-be touchdown that Sanchez underthrew for an interception.
Even with all that, though, the Jets trailed only 16-10 at the half.
The Patriots stretched the lead to 23-13 on Rob Gronkowski’s second touchdown of the day with 2:39 left in the third quarter. That is when the Jets mounted their comeback.
Sanchez orchestrated a masterful 14-play, 92-yard drive that finished with him hitting Dustin Keller for a 7-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to three points with 5:44 left in the game. Sanchez had a pretty good day, completing 28-of-41 passes for 328 yards. The only knock on him were the two turnovers. He clicked with wide receiver Jeremy Kerley, who had career highs in catches (7) and yards (120).
The Jets got the ball back with 4:19 remaining and Sanchez moved them 40 yards in six plays, setting up a Nick Folk 43-yard field goal to tie the game. On the ensuing kickoff, McCourty fumbled the ball and Jets rookie Antonio Allen jumped on the ball at the Patriots 18.
At that moment it felt like destiny was on the Jets’ side.
“I just knew in my heart we had seven right there, but it didn’t happen for us,” Pace said. “I think that would have been it right there. It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”
After Sanchez was sacked on third down, the Jets settled for another Folk field goal, again from 43 yards, to take a 26-23 lead.
“I knew we were going to win,” wide receiver Chaz Schilens said. “I think if we could have gotten a touchdown there, it would have sealed the deal. Maybe a field goal left them some breathing room, which it did.”
Worse than not scoring was also leaving 1:37 on the clock for Brady to operate with. He sliced through the Jets defense, which played a soft zone. The Patriots went 54 yards in six plays and Gostkowski kicked a 43-yard field goal with five seconds left to send the game into overtime.
“We let them off the hook,” Jets safety LaRon Landry said. “There’s nothing that they did special.”
In overtime, Brady moved the Patriots 54 yards on 12 plays, the biggest play a pass interference call on Wilson against tight end Aaron Hernandez along the sideline that came on a late flag.
At 3-4, the Jets are now one game behind the Patriots going into next week’s matchup against the 3-3 Dolphins.
“Look, we’re going to go toe-to-toe with anybody,” Ryan said. “We have confidence in ourselves. Maybe the outside [world] will have more confidence in us, but we have plenty of confidence in ourselves.”