Sometimes one play can change the course of a game.
In some cases, a single play can even alter a season.
In the case of a Mark Sanchez bad-luck interception in the final seconds of the first half in last night’s 23-17 loss to the Texans at MetLife Stadium, it surely changed the game.
What its big-picture ramifications might be on the 2-3 Jets’ season is yet to be determined.
But when this season is over for the Jets and if it ends with them miles from playoff contention, it very well might be a play the Jets look back on and lament as the beginning of the end.
The Jets were not only hanging in against the undefeated Texans, who dramatically outmanned them in talent, but they were about to tie the game at the half.
They had a second-and-five at the Houston 12 yard line with 29 seconds remaining in the half and still two timeouts in hand.
That’s when a quick Sanchez slant pass to Jeremy Kerley went bad thanks to the large right paw of Texans’ defensive end J.J. Watt, who tipped the pass and changed its direction — right into the waiting arms of cornerback Brice McCain, who returned it 86 yards to the Jets’ nine yard line with 14 seconds remaining in the half.
Three plays later, the Texans got a field goal out of it and turned a 14-7 lead into 17-7.
So, in a head-spinning few moments, the Jets went from either tying the game at 14-14 or at least cutting the Houston lead to 14-10 to trailing by 10 at the half because of that one debilitating play.
“The ball came out of my hand and the next thing I know it got tipped,’’ Sanchez said. “It felt good throwing it to ‘JK.’ He was ready to catch the ball, get down and call timeout so we could run a red zone play and hopefully punch it in and have the momentum going into the half.’’
Kerley called it “a great play’’ by Watt.
“At the last minute I was looking for the ball and [Watt] tipped it,’’ Kerley said. “He got his hand up and he tipped the ball and it fell right into [McCain’s] hands. There was nothing you could do about it. Great play by him.
“If we score right there we go into the half with momentum and it’s probably a different ball game. But it happened.’’
Before the freak play, Sanchez was in perhaps his best rhythm of the season despite throwing to backup receivers, completing passes of 12 and 10 yards to Chaz Schilens and a 36-yarder to Kerley on the drive.
“It was an unfortunate turn of events, because we had really started rolling,’’ Sanchez said. “It was nice to get into a rhythm like that.’’
Suddenly the rhythm was gone with the split second it took for that Watt tip and the McCain pick and so went the Jets’ night — and maybe their season.
“It’s one of those of those things,’’ coach Rex Ryan said. “We felt great about [the play]. We had them on their heels. We had timeouts, but we had them on their heels and that’s why you keep going. I’ve been on other end of it where you’re hoping a team calls a timeout.
“I thought we had a play we really liked and the kid [Watt] made an outstanding play on us.’’
The play had a sinister déjà vu element to it for the Jets.
A week ago at MetLife Stadium against a 49ers team that — like the Texans — is simply better and deeper than the Jets, Sanchez was strip-sacked to end a drive that reached the San Francisco 25 yard line with 1:22 remaining in the first half.
The 49ers recovered and drove down the field to turn a 7-0 lead into 10-0 with a field goal. The Jets, who ended up losing 34-0, of course never recovered.