FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The score tied, the division possibly at stake, the season potentially on the line and God at quarterback for the Jets.
Sorry, meant Brett Favre at quarterback.
Though after what he did against the New England Patriots, it's hard to tell if there's a difference.
Because Favre won this spectacularly played game in overtime 34-31. Not by himself -- but just about.
He didn't beat the Patriots once. He beat them twice. In a single contest.
Favre, God. God, Favre. Who can tell the difference after this one?
"We could have easily folded," Favre said.
Then, expressing what many people, particularly Jets fans, were thinking after the Patriots tied the game in regulation at 31: " ... based on the history, most people were betting against us."
They are the Jets after all. If you ain't bettin' against them, then you ain't bettin.
But these weren't the Same Old Jets.
In the fourth quarter, there was a drive that should be called the Favre-trot at Foxborough and in overtime, there was the Gang Green Gallop. Both will go down in Jets lore.
For the game, Favre didn't throw an interception. In the crucial final drive in regulation as well as the huge drive in overtime, there was no spazzing. He didn't choke. He didn't retire. He didn't un-retire. What Favre did was engineer two of the great drives in the history of the Jets and in doing so changed the fortunes -- at least for the season -- of these two franchises embroiled in a nasty rivalry.
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| Brett Favre saves the Jets with a 119.4 QB rating, going 26-for-33 with two TDs against the Pats. (AP) |
It was a stunning sight. Favre wasn't erratic, he was calm. He wasn't hyper, he was cool. Favre was a systematic perfectionist in those final two drives quarterbacked with the bone chilling coolness of a hired killer.
In the first one, Favre's Jets ate up seven minutes and six seconds of clock. In the overtime drive, Favre was even better.
You kept waiting and waiting for that killer Favre pick. It never came.
It's admission time. I thought Favre's best days were long behind him but Favre proved me and a lot of others dead wrong.
When the Jets signed Favre and re-engineered their team with big salary free agents, it was done solely with the idea of beating the Patriots and winning the AFC East. It was an extremely risky move signing the aging quarterback who's been more finger pointer than winner in recent years.
The Jets signed Favre for days like these and it worked. For now, it worked.
In the final regulation drive, Favre hit passes for 7, 5, 14 and 3 yards. Three of those passes were for first downs and three were incompletions but of those incomplete passes, two ended in defensive holding penalties. He kept the drive moving and most importantly he was error free.
The Jets thought they had the game won then came the Patriots comeback with Randy Moss catching a score with one second left. What was the emotion on the Jets sideline?
"Quiet," Favre said.
"I couldn't watch," he added. "I saw the replay."
In overtime, after the Jets won the toss, Favre took a sack on first down and threw an incompletion on second. "After (those) first two plays," Favre said, "I thought, 'Oh, boy, here we go.'"
This was when, with the Jets facing third-and-15, you thought Favre would toss a pick six. He didn't. He hit Dustin Keller, who is Jason Witten in the making, for a first down. Favre then threw completions of 12, 8, 4 and 16 yards. All but one was for first downs.
Favre threw 33 times and had only seven misses. His rating for the game was 119.4.
If there was a co-deity for the Jets, it was Leon Washington. In the beginning of the game, before the Favre heroics, Washington walked towards a tall metal cylinder, grabbed a mask protruding from it, put the mask to his face and took a long, deep breath. He was energized by the fresh oxygen and trotted onto the field. Seconds later, Washington would knock the wind out of the Patriots with a 92-yard kickoff return for a score.
It was the beginning of a shocking onslaught by the Jets that was unexpected, unparalleled and without mercy.
If you saw this game coming, play the lottery now, and start your own psychic hotline.
Instead of playing the role of the Same Old Jets, the Jets treated the defending conference champions like they were Michael Spinks and the Jets were Mike Tyson.
Has the torch, this year, been officially passed? Are the Jets now the best in the AFC East? It certainly looks that way.
In this Spygate-tainted rivalry featuring Eric Mangini who ratted out his boss, Bill Belichick, in the video fiasco, there hasn't been a Jets team this multi-faceted, deep or dangerous.
The excuses will roll in from Patriot Nation. "We didn't have Tom Brady." "We didn't have Adalius Thomas." "There was no Laurence Maroney." Some of that is true but even if those players were back I'm not so certain the Jets still wouldn't have won.
Because they have God.
I mean, Favre.
