NFL Recap (New England-NY Jets)
Posted: Sun December 27, 1998 at 6:17 p.m. EST
NY JETS 31, NEW ENGLAND 10
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Vinny Testaverde capped an
amazing season by matching his career high with four touchdown passes as
the New York Jets reached
the 12-win plateau for the first time with a 31-10 wipeout of the New England Patriots.
With nothing to play for other than the pride of a team-record 12th
victory in referee Jerry Markbreit's final NFL regular-season game, the
Jets whipped New England from the opening kickoff as Testaverde registered
the third four-touchdown game of his career. He also threw four touchdowns
September 20th against Indianapolis in his first start of the season in
Week Three.
"Yeh, we got the running game going, but some of that was Vinny," said
Jets coach Bill Parcells, who is 3-1 against his former team since taking
over a 1-15 Jets outfit for the 1997 campaign. "He made the prudent
choice, deciding when to run and when to pull it down."
Once again without injured quarterback Drew Bledsoe, New England
(9-7) was trying to move into one of the top two wild-card spots, but
instead will play on the road against the AFC Central Division champion Jacksonville Jaguars next
week. A win by the Buffalo
Bills prevented New England from playing Miami in the wild-card round.
The Jets will have next week off before hosting a game in the
divisional playoffs as the AFC's second seed, a distinction they earned
with their first Eastern Division title since the AFL-NFL merger.
"I think we played championship football today," said Parcells, who
won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants and lost
one with the Patriots. "I kept telling the team, `You don't just do that
once in a while,' playing like a champion on occassion, `you do it every
day.' Some days it just doesn't work out, the ball bounces funny in this
game. But we played well today, and that's what pleases me. It means an
awful lot every time you go out there. Playing like this, that's what
makes me happy."
Testaverde completed 17-of-27 passes for 179 yards and was intercepted
once before leaving with just under nine minutes left in the fourth
quarter. He threw scoring passes to tight end Kyle Brady, running back
Curtis Martin, Dedric Ward and Keyshawn Johnson, raising
his season total to a team-record 29.
For Johnson, who was the first overall pick in the draft after a 3-13
season and suffered through the 1-15 campaign as a rookie, the 12-4
campaign was unthinkable.
"It's ridiculous, it was crazy," Johnson said of 1996, after which he
wrote a book titled "Just Give Me the Damn Ball." "You don't want to
criticize anyone, but what kind of coach is this, to do what he's done? To
go from nothing to a division (title) is unbelieveable. It's like night
and day. Every week he has a way to motivate you. This week he knew that
we needed to come out and not do what Denver did (in 1996), and Kansas City
(in 1997) -- slack off and then lose in the first playoff game."
"When you've got some guys who've been there before, those guys carry
the torch for the younger guys," Parcells explained. "A guy like Bryan
Cox, you can't tell him anything about what to do. But there are some
other guys who do do it. I don't think there's anyone in this room who
thought that with that last month we had that we'd be able to do what we
did (close the season with six straight wins). I don't think that anyone
thought that, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't sure myself. But that's
why I say they made a believer out of me."
Martin carried 29 times for 102 yards. His 369 carries this season
were a career high -- one better than the total in his rookie season for
New England -- while his 1,287 yards are the second-best single-season
effort in Jets history. Freeman McNeil established the standard with 1,331
yards in 1985.
"Obviously there are differences," Martin said, contrasting his new
team with his old. "They don't have Bill (Parcells), for one thing, they
also don't have me. They have injuries, so that's part of it. But you can
tell that there's a difference."
The Patriots were also playing without linebacker Ted Johnson and wide
receiver Terry Glenn,
who are out for the seaosn, while linebacker Willie McGinest is not at
full strength.
"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't (special to play New England),"
Martin said. "When the schedule came out, I circled a few games. I said,
`Let's see, New England, we must win that game.' Then I went further down
and saw New England and said, `We must win that game.' It's important to
win all these games and that's what Bill emphasized."
Testaverde led the Jets on a 15-play, 72-yard drive after the opening
kickoff, with John Hall
cashing in with a 36-yard field goal. New York's march devoured the first
8:39 off the clock and set the tone for the quarter, in which New England
managed just three offensive plays.
The Patriots lost 17 yards on their only series of the first quarter
and the Jets took over at their own 46-yard line. They melted the rest of
the clock and waited until 40 seconds into the second quarter before
Testaverde threw a four-yard scoring toss to Brady to make it 10-0. The
drive took 5:20 and boosted the Jets' possession-time advantage to
13:59-1:41.
Just when New England thought things could get no worse, rookie Robert Edwards fumbled
away the ball to Jets defensive end Anthony Pleasant on their
second play after the score, giving New York the ball 33 yards from the end
zone.
Martin carried three times for 14 yards, Testaverde hit Brady for
eight and Martin carried twice for three more before catching a swing pass
on the left side and finding the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown and a
17-0 lead with 9:05 left. Despite going only 33 yards, the Jets hacked off
another 4:17 from the clock.
"We came into this game, our approach was that this was a playoff
atmosphere, a playoff mentality, and we were nowhere near it; our level of
play, our inability to stop them on defense, and our ability to make a
first down," said Patriots coach Pete Carroll, a former Jets head man. "We
couldn't do anything today, we really accomplished nothing. There was
nothing that was redeemable today."
Carroll is not sure all is lost for their game next week at
Jacksonville, adding that there was a chance Bledsoe could play.
"We have been a team that has been resilient," he said. "We have been
able to bounce back, and that's what we're faced with. Playing next week is
what is critical. We missed this opportunity here, but now we have to find
out what we are all about."
Scott Zolak, New
England's long-time backup, then gave the Patriots their only scoring drive
of the first half, an 11-play, 70-yard march that led to a 19-yard field
goal by Adam Vinatieri
3:26 before the break.
Zolak was 14-of-31 for 127 yards and one touchdown without an
interception, while Edwards carried 12 times for 51 yards.
The defense held the Patriots to a three-and-out on the opening
possession of the second half and Testaverde took advantage. He threw a
15-yard pass to scatback Dave Meggett on 3rd-and-7 to bring the ball to the
New England 42 and ran 25 yards down the right sideline after an
incompletion. He hit Ward for the final 17 yards one play later as the
Jets increased the bulge to 24-3 with 4:29 gone in the third quarter.
After still another three-and-out, Testaverde handed the Jets their
longest drive of the season in terms of yardage and time, a monumental
96-yard romp that took 8:49 over 15 plays. Testaverde was 4-for-4 for 66
yards on third down during the drive, including a 24-yard TD strike to
Johnson that made it 31-3 on the first play of the final quarter.
Johnson caught six passes for 75 yards.
Zolak salvaged some pride for the Patriots with 1:31 remaining when he
connected with rookie Tony
Simmons on a 44-yard touchdown pass.
"It was a total washout all around," Zolak noted. "We got our butts
kicked, there's no dount about it. But I don't think any team is that much
better than us as far as the score indicated. But when it rains, it pours."
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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