What a strange trip it's been
Topic: Football
Gang Green's still kicking
Jets survive gaffe, Brien boots S.D. in OT
By RICH CIMINI
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Anthony Becht leaps into arms of Brandon Moore after scoring on 13-yard touchdown pass in Jets' 20-17 OT win last night.
Santana Moss hauls in 47-yard TD bomb from Chad Pennington that gives Jets 14-7 lead as Chargers corner Quentin Jammer watches ball slip through his hands.
Chad Pennington throws for 279 yards and two TDs, with no INTs.
After Eric Barton's roughing-the-passer penalty gives Chargers life, TE Antonio Gates scores game-tying TD.
Doug Brien's 28-yarder with 14:55 gone in overtime ends wild playoff game.
SAN DIEGO - It was rainy and foggy last night, a fitting backdrop to the most surreal postseason game in the Jets' rainy and foggy history.
Overcoming a fourth-quarter meltdown that included a ridiculously dumb roughing-the-passer penalty on Eric Barton - shades of Mark Gastineau at Cleveland in the 1986 playoffs - the Jets defeated the Chargers, 20-17, in a wild and crazy overtime game that will go down as a classic.
The Jets, who blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, finally won it at 12:03 a.m. on Doug Brien's second field goal, a 28-yarder with 14:55 gone in overtime. Minutes earlier, Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding had replaced Barton as the goat, missing wide right on a 40-yard attempt that would have given the Chargers their first postseason win since 1994.
In an ecstatic locker room, no one was happier than Barton, who came perilously close to being the Bill Buckner in Jets' lore.
"I made a stupid mistake," Barton said. "To almost be responsible for the team not winning, it's a sick feeling."
Asked if he was relieved, Barton said, "You have no idea."
After Kaeding's miss, Chad Pennington, who threw for two touchdowns in perhaps the best clutch performance of his career, took over at his 30-yard line and led the Jets 60 yards in eight plays. In came Brien, who had endured a shaky night. Earlier, he missed from 33 yards and doinked another off the right upright on a 42-yarder that was good.
"It was a relief," Brien said. "I didn't want to be the one who let the team down."
It was the Jets' first road playoff victory in 22 years, the biggest win of the Herm Edwards era. They advanced to the divisional round, where they will meet the Patriots or Steelers. For Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer, it was another in a long line of crushing playoff defeats. Schottenheimer, who hurt his team with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, dropped to 5-12 in the postseason.
In one breathless stretch, the Jets went from apparent winners to apparent losers to winners. In between, there was a heated sideline shouting match between Edwards and running backs coach Bishop Harris.
This game had just about everything.
"I just believed we were going to win this game," said Edwards, who called his altercation with Harris a "family feud" that was quickly resolved. "I believed it all week."
The game was all but over, but Barton gave the Chargers a new life, roughing Drew Brees with a senseless forearm to his helmet. It ruined a dramatic goal-line stand. Brees, under heavy pressure by Victor Hobson and Barton, retreated in the pocket and made a fourth-down heave into the end zone. It fell incomplete
It was at this point i started rooting AGAINST the Jets!!!All year i have been rooting for teams that have been arch enemies...the Cowboys, the Redskins, dah Bears,and even the fucking Rams!!! Last night i found myself cheering for the Jets, who went into San Diego as bigger underdogs than they deserved to be.
The sagacity of Chad not being able to throw the ball down field was all bullshit to me, and the slop that they had to play in meant that Curtis Martin would have a GREAT game, even though he didn't. When Barton hit Drew Brees on the helmet with his forearm, i jumped over to the Chargers camp. THERE WAS NO REASON for him to do that, even if it was in frustration,
which it wasn't.Barton had the sack, and the Jets would have had the game, and like Bill Parcells i get mad at stupid plays.
So, i'm hoping that the Jets will be playing Pittsburgh because
i think they CAN beat them, which will set the stage for a Patriots/Jets AFC Championship which will be the prelude for a New England/Green Bay Super Bowl.
Posted by eminemsrevenge
at 9:25 AM EST