Mike Vaccaro

Mike Vaccaro

NFL

Geno’s third-quarter runs show his growth

He had already made one play with his legs that had filled the joint with a jolt of belief. That was two plays before. That one was third-and-14, and Geno Smith had serpentined his way through the New England secondary, was flying toward the sideline a yard short, then thrust his arm — and the football — just past the first-down marker.

That one had brought the 76,957 inside MetLife to the edges of their seats.

This one ordered them to their feet:

Second-and-goal from the 8, Smith abandoning the pocket again, faking left, feinting right, hitting a razor-thin seam, making it the full eight. Suddenly, the Jets were ahead of the Patriots, 24-21, after being behind 21-10. Suddenly a game — and a season — that had felt like it was careening toward an expiration date was turned upside down.

“That,” Rex Ryan would say, “is just something he has.”

He was referring to Smith’s athleticism, yes, but also to something else, to the motor that keeps Smith positive even when logic says he should be pouting, to the confidence that allows the rookie quarterback to believe he belongs even when the evidence is running counter to the postulate.

Josh Cribbs, newcomer, who became a Jet 15 minutes ago and so has no long-standing loyalties to consider, put it this way: “He’s already at a point where you have to fear him in the pocket. He showed his team that today. And he showed the Patriots that, too.”

None of this provides a pass for next week, when the Jets travel to Cincinnati for another date with another AFC big shot, when they try to make this 30-27 overtime thriller stick and win consecutive games for the first time in 11 months. Smith’s step-forward-step-backward year, in fact, tells us the Bengals might well have their way with the kid.

But it did seem Smith turned an important corner Sunday, and not just because he threw for five more yards and one more touchdown than Brady (and also out-rated him 71.9-53.5). In truth, it would have been easy to see Smith crawl into a shell after allowing a first-quarter pick-six that felt like a stadium-wide stomach punch as Logan Ryan took a leisurely gallop toward the end zone 79 yards away.

“I can’t speak for anyone else,” Smith said, “but I’m not going to crumble. That’s not in me. It’s much harder for me to give up than it is to try.”

So you can go through an extensive list of reasons and causes the Jets are still very much alive in the AFC East race through seven weeks.

You can start with Rule 9.1.3.2 — “Team B players cannot push teammates on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation” — if you wish, and you can find a random Patriots fan to debate you if this was the proper time to unveil it, teeth of overtime, Nick Folk attempting an absurdly long field goal.

You can go with Folk himself, still technically perfect on the year (thanks to Rule 9.1.3.2), his right foot personally responsible for the winning points in three of those four wins. You can talk about the defense, which helped the Jets to a third quarter that might well have been the most perfect 15 minutes in team history.

The coach? He baffles you with interesting choices every week, but he also has instilled in this team a stubborn, defiant resilience that not only brushes aside critics (he does love to regularly remind the world ESPN had the Jets 32 out of 32 at season’s start) but the regressions that have interrupted every one of the Jets’ forward thrusts this year.

But amazingly, it is impossible not to label the kid QB the biggest difference. Numbers don’t lie. He is the first quarterback since the merger in 1970 to lead four game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime in his first seven games. Digest that one for a while, think of all the quarterbacks we’re talking about across the last 43 years. And he’s the first.

Early in the week, David Lee, the Jets’ QB coach, told Geno: “Son, you’re going to have to make two plays with your legs for us to win this week.”

“Maybe he’s psychic,” Smith said, laughing.

What he could have said is: Son, you’ll need to bring your whole arsenal this week. Legs. Arm. And that motor that keeps you moving forward, even when it seems ridiculous to expect it. Hell of an attitude. Hell of a story. And, maybe, a damn good quarterback on the come, too.