PITTSBURGH — Brian Schottenheimer had made it perfectly clear a few days ago that he heard you. Loud and clear.
He’d heard the boos that rained down on his offense last week at the Meadowlands. He undoubtedly heard the “Fire Schotty!” chants in the bar that adjoins the Jets’ locker room. And surely he heard how often his name was taken in vain on talk radio all week.
“We just didn’t make any plays,” he said Thursday. Later, defiantly, he declared, “I know I’m a good football coach. I’m good at what I do. We’ve had a lot of success here.”
The rest of the season is bound to be a referendum on this son of a coach, and yesterday’s 22-17 win was as much a reflection of that as anything. The Jets opened their playbook wide — they threw on running downs and ran on throwing downs, mostly to great effect.
And when they were absolutely dying for a touchdown, when the offense’s touchdown drought had reached 11 quarters and was halfway through No. 12, Schottenheimer drew as deep in the playbook as a coordinator can dig.
And it just may have turned the season around.
It certainly turned the game around.
The situation: fourth-and-1, ball at the Pittsburgh 7, 5:21 left in the third quarter. The Jets trailed 17-10, and while they had put together a nice seven-play, 59-yard drive, it had stalled. It seemed the prudent move to take a field goal, cut the lead, hope the defense could make a few plays.
Rex Ryan said no. He wanted to go for it.
Schottenheimer had just the play to satisfy his boss’ aggressiveness and Jets fans’ yearning for something new. Sanchez seemed to stuff the ball in Shonn Greene’s gut, and Greene seemed to vault the pile to a clear first down.
That would’ve been good enough. There was only one problem: Greene didn’t have the ball.
Sanchez did. And by the time the Steelers realized this, he was trundling into the end zone with the game-tying touchdown, a daring gamble that seemed to energize the entire team.
“What a great call by Schottie,” Ryan gushed.
“If felt good,” Sanchez said. “It was a gutsy call and great execution. We practiced it against our defense and it just caught [the Steelers] off guard. A great call at the right time.”
A game-changer. Maybe a season-turner.
Maybe a career-saver.