FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Quiet Man had a loud night.
“This is time everyone is looking for a spark, and this entire year I’ve just been trying to get into a groove,” Jerricho Cotchery said after helping the Jets beat the Patriots 28-21 in an AFC divisional playoff last night. “I haven’t been able to get into a groove, and I think the last game against Buffalo in the regular season, being able to play when the starters were out, that allowed me to kinda get my feel back.”
Cotchery, an unsung and unappreciated hero, had five catches for 96 yards as he gave Mark Sanchez a formidable target over the middle.
“That’s my territory, man,” Cotchery said, and chuckled. “I’m the slot receiver on this team. So that’s my territory and I got to own it. I got to own it, and that’s what I tried to do tonight.”
Cotchery’s biggest moment came when he caught a Sanchez bullet over that territory he owned and raced down the right sideline for a 58-yard gain to set up Santonio Holmes’ 7-yard touchdown catch that bumped the Jets’ lead back to 21-11 early in the fourth quarter.
“[Offensive coordinator Brian] Schottenheimer said run after catch was gonna be big today, so after I caught the ball and I see that it was completely open, and I just tried to make something happen after that,” Cotchery said.