INDIANAPOLIS — Shonn Greene had become indispensable for the Jets, rushing for 263 yards and two touchdowns in their two playoff wins.
But yesterday, Greene was shelved after suffering a rib injury, and the absence of the rookie running back was a killer for the Jets.
Greene finished with 10 carries for 41 yards in the Jets’ 30-17 AFC Championship loss to the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the biggest problem is that those were his numbers after two second-half carries. At that point, Greene left with a rib injury and never came back, and the Jets offense wasn’t the same.
PHOTOS: JETS FALL SHORT IN INDIANAPOLIS
“Obviously very frustrating,” said Greene, who said he felt like he couldn’t breathe. “It [stinks] standing on the sideline.”
It wasn’t much better for the Jets, who were shut out in the second half. And the man who picked up the carries, Thomas Jones, finished with just 42 yards on 16 carries as the Jets’ top-ranked running game struggled, recording 29 carries for 86 yards and no touchdowns.
“Shonn’s a great player,” Braylon Edwards said. “Shonn has made tremendous plays for us in this playoff run. And not having him be able to split time with [Jones] or take the bulk of our runs and wear down that defense, it hurt.”
Though losing Greene wasn’t quite as dramatic a loss as Texas losing Colt McCoy early in the Longhorns’ championship defeat to Alabama, his value to the Jets had become enormous. Before yesterday, when he ran at least 10 times in a game, the Jets were 7-0, and in the first two playoff games, he racked up 135 yards against the Bengals and 128 versus the Chargers.
The Jets know they could have really used Greene later on in the game.
“He’s one of those guys that you don’t really want to tackle all day,” Jim Leonhard said. “You saw that. Some of those hits he was putting early, it’s kind of one of those things where you say, ‘Third, fourth quarter, they’re not going to want to do that.’ ”
Greene said he thought he got hurt on his first carry of the second half. He ran once more, picking up seven yards before leaving the game.
“By the time I got back out [on the sideline], T.J. was already in,” Greene said. “It was late in the game, so if I can’t do any better than him, it doesn’t make any sense for me to go in.”