SAN DIEGO — Dustin Keller, the pride of Lafayette, Ind., gets to go home again for another crack at the Colts, for the right to go to Super Bowl XLIV.
“I guess if they gave us that win, this just gives us a chance to make it more legitimate. I don’t see them throwing starters out of this game, so I think we’re gonna get a great opportunity,” Keller said after Jets 17, Chargers 14. “Playing for the Super Bowl is enough motivation, but all the doubters saying that that game was given to us and all that, we definitely want to put those things to rest, also. I can’t wait to get back and play in front of the hometown crowd.”
Colts coach Jim Caldwell, of course, removed Peyton Manning late in the third quarter of the Jets-Colts regular season game for rookie Curtis Painter, who played quarterback for Keller’s Purdue.
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“This is just another chance for us to prove that that game wasn’t just given to us, that we were gonna win that game regardless,” Keller said.
Someone asked Keller: It wasn’t a phony win, then?”No, definitely not a phony win,” Keller said. “We needed to get in the playoffs, and we did what we had to do to win, and we did.”
Keller grew up a Colts fan, of course.
“Growing up in Indiana, and having Peyton Manning there, you couldn’t help but be a Colts fan,” Keller said.
Keller (3-19) warmed up for his homecoming by catching the two-yard TD pass from Mark Sanchez that gave the Jets a 10-7 lead they never relinquished.
“I was coming off, and I ran a corner, they actually covered it really well, so I just stepped back and Mark read it exactly like I did, put the ball low and where the defender couldn’t get it and I could. Just a perfect ball,” Keller said.
Keller was an emotional fireball when he stood up with the ball.
“I saw the referee give me the touchdown sign, and I just couldn’t do anything but scream,” Keller said, and smiled.
Keller was compared to Colts’ tight end Dallas Clark when GM Mike Tannenbaum traded up into the first round of the 2008 draft for him.
“There’s no real matchup between us,” Keller said. “A lot of people asked me also in this game, Antonio Gates and Dustin Keller, do I want to go out there and outplay him? Obviously, you want to be the best tight end on the field, play the best in the game, but the No. 1 goal is getting the win. I think he had an amazing game today. It’s tough to cover him, he’s a tough guy. But I’ll take the win any day.”
The Jets wouldn’t have made the playoffs if they hadn’t beaten the Colts last month. The Colts decided that a Super Bowl championship was more important than a perfect season. Now it’s every bit as important to Keller and the Jets.