PHILADELPHIA – Brett Favre and the rest of the Jets starters stood as idle as the empty baseball stadium that sits adjacent to Lincoln Financial Field, watching their team beat the Eagles 27-20 last night.
In place of the starters – who won’t be back in game uniforms until the real stuff begins on Sept. 7 in Miami, where a vengeful Chad Pennington and the Dolphins lie dangerously in wait – were backups. Many, many backups.
“This was an evaluation day,” linebacker David Bowens said.
“I understood why (coach Eric Mangini) didn’t want to play the starters,” Favre said. “Sure, I wanted to play, but it wasn’t a big deal. I never really brought it up.”
This has become an annual Backup Bowl between these two teams who never play their respective starters in the preseason finale – a blatant rip-off for the fans who are required to pay for all preseason games as part of their season-ticket packages.
“It was nice to finish with a win,” Mangini said of the Jets’ 3-1 preseason record. “Now we’ll move on to some really tough decisions (on roster cuts).”
One player who doesn’t need to worry about his roster spot is running back Jesse Chatman, the star of the show for the Jets with 180 total yards on offense and the game-winning touchdown.
Chatman finished with 93 rushing yards on 29 carries and 87 yards receiving on six catches.
To cap his busy night, he scored the winning points on a 2-yard run with 6:26 remaining in the game on his 34th offensive touch.
For the first four series of the game, the Jets rotated Kellen Clemens, who started, and Brett Ratliff at quarterback
Then, with 1:12 remaining in the half, rookie Erik Ainge took over and played the rest of the game.
Clemens (3-of-8, 18 yards) engi neered a 17-play, 73-yard drive that ate 8:06 off the clock and ended in a 22-yard Mike Nugent field goal to cut the deficit to 10-3 with 11:30 re maining in the first half.
After a 27-yard David Akers field goal that gave the Ea gles a 13-3 lead with 6:10 remaining in the half, the Jets cut it to 13-10 on an 11-yard scoring pass to wide receiver Paul Raymond by Ratliff (3-of-4, 48 yards).
Ainge, who looked better in this game than he has all summer (10-of-16, 131 yards, TD), gave the Jets a 17-13 lead with 8:36 remaining in the third quarter when he connected with wide receiver David Ball with a 6-yard scoring pass.
An interception by safety Abram Elam stopped an Eagles drive deep in Jets’ territory and led to a 33-yard Nugent field goal for a 20-13 Jets lead with 11:25 remaining the game.
The Eagles tied the game at 20-20 with 9:30 remaining on a 2-yard A.J. Feeley touchdown pass to Bam Childress.
A 60-yard Ben Graham punt was fumbled by Eagles cornerback Therrian Fontenot and recovered by Ahmad Carroll at the Philadelphia 17.
Three plays later, Chatman scored the game-winning touchdown.
The Jets showed an interesting look in the secondary last night, using wide receiver Chansi Stuckey as a cornerback playing in the slot for much of the night. Mangini is looking to use Stuckey similarly to the way he used Troy Brown in New England.
Thin at safety, the Jets used veteran corners David Barrett and Hank Poteat there for much of the game. One of those two is likely to be cut, probably Barrett, who counts $3 million against the salary cap. Another veteran who appears to be on the bubble is linebacker Matt Chatham, a locker room leader.
By tomorrow, the Jets must pare their roster to 53 players, meaning 21 players will be cut. They have depth issues on the offensive line, at inside linebacker and safety and likely will add players from the waiver wire.
Jets 27Eagles 20