REX RYAN’S Jets had talked the talk, but they weren’t going to walk the walk unless their kid quarterback could stop crawling.
Now the second half began and here came Mark Sanchez, the precocious rookie who is not here to kiss Tom Brady’s rings.
“There’s no pressure when you play on a team like that,” Sanchez said after the 2-0 Rexorcists announced themselves on this raucous day of reckoning with a 16-9 throttling of the Patriots. “Look at the way we played. Look at the way guys were excited. Playing for each other. Playing for our head coach. Playing for this organization and the Jets logo, and what it represents.”
J-E-T-S used to represent Just End The Season.
Today it represents Just Enjoy The Swagger.
Or Just Enjoy the San-chise.
Jets owner Woody Johnson, standing outside the team’s locker room, was asked what Sanchez showed him in the second half.
“His job is to win the game, so we won the game,” Johnson said. “So I’d say A-plus.”
Sanchez was 3-for-5 for 15 yards at the half. He finished 14-for-22 for 163 yards and 1 TD. Which means he accomplished something Brady did not: He got his team in the end zone.
“We need to come out at halftime and set the tempo, make a statement on offense, and I felt like that’s what we did,” Sanchez said.
He came out slinging with a 45-yard strike to Cotchery and a 9-yard TD pass to Dustin Keller, lofted over safety Brandon McGowan to the back of the end zone.
“The Kid never lacks for confidence, that’s for sure,” Damien Woody said.
Soon, Sanchez rolled right and hit Stuckey with a 6-yard TD pass and immediately began sprinting to the Jets bench, naive enough to think that he might be able to pull a fast one on Bill Belichick, who challenged the call and got it overturned, because Stuckey only had one foot in bounds.
“They just said to stay smart. No interceptions in a game like this is crucial,” Sanchez said.
On third-and-goal, Sanchez overthrew Stuckey, wide open in the left corner of the end zone. Field goal.
“That’s a gotta-have it, that’s pitch-and-catch, and that’s all me,” Sanchez said. “Some people were saying that he might have stumbled coming out of the break. I ain’t buyin’ it. That’s a throw, I don’t care if I’m a rookie, I don’t care if I’m in seventh grade, I need to make that throw. Especially against that team.”
Brady had the ball and one last chance to force overtime, the nightmare scenario for every NFL franchise, especially the green-and-white one that hasn’t won anything in 41 years. Brady had it at his 10, no timeouts and 1:48 left.
The crowd at Jets Stadium was standing now, as loud as the place has ever been. On the sidelines, Jerricho Cotchery stood, suddenly no longer in fear of the champion quarterback who has spent a decade stabbing the Jets in the heart, and allowed himself to think something he would never before dare to think.
“The game is over,” Cotchery said.
Brady (23-47, 216 yards), frustrated and discom bobulated into back-to- back delay-of- game penalties and four in all, got only as far as his 28.
“His eyes were just wide open,” Shaun Ellis said. It was as if Brady saw 11 Jets defenders and Gang Green leg ends Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau com ing for him.
“It looks like you’re playing against 20 people,” Sanchez said.
And Darrelle Revis, blanketing Randy Moss (4-24), intercepted Brady and virtually made him play with 10. And even at the end, Mean Green never stopped attacking Brady, never stopped backing up safety Kerry Rhodes’ pre-game ambition of embarrassing the team that has made a living embarrassing him and them.
Ryan awarded a game ball to Jets fans. “Absolutely in my 10 years I’ve never seen a crowd like this,” Johnson said.
Yes, the Patriots have the better quarterback. Yes, the Patriots have the better head coach. On this day, however, the Jets had the better coach and the better quarterback and the better team.
“We can see that they’re playing for each other now, and that’s something I haven’t seen for a while, and it’s just a different deal,” Johnson said.
If the big games never scare the kid quarterback, this will be the real deal.