The Hartford Courant, Conn., Jeff Jacobs column: Credit Jets And Pats, Not The NFL

Nov 14, 2008 (The Hartford Courant - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CMCSA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- You missed one heck of a game, Connecticut.

Late in the first half of this AFC East showdown Thursday night, it was going to be a blowout. Leon Washington was scoring touchdowns every way possible, while Brett Favre was dancing around like a 7-year-old and celebrating like it was New Year's Eve.

It wasn't even the Super Bowl and there was Jerricho Cotchery making one of those pin-the-ball-to-the-helmet catches.

We were feeling sorry for Troy Brown at that point. After all, it was his night. He was being honored at halftime for 15 years of extraordinary service to the Patriots, and with less than a minute left in the second quarter, there were the Jets, ahead 24-6 and looking to win 44-6.

The Jets needed this one for so many reasons.

They had lost to the Patriots in 11 of the previous 12 meetings.

They would rise up only to have the Patriots box their ears time after time.

They had invested so many millions in talent during the offseason and then invested their football lives in Favre.

They were coming off the most-lopsided victory in their history and had won five of six games, while the Patriots were missing Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Laurence Maroney, Adalius Thomas and Ty Warren.

Yep, this one was ripe for the Jets to pick and they were picking.

But wouldn't you know it? By the end of the third quarter, the Jets were looking as if they may choke away one of their grander victories in recent memory.

Only they didn't.

Instead, this one turned into a beauty -- a beauty too many folks in Connecticut didn't see.

The Patriots tied it up. The Jets answered with a touchdown on 14-play, 67-yard drive to seal it with 3:10 left. Only they didn't seal it. There was Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel playing like he thought his name was Brady. Hyperbole? Maybe not on this night. He went 30-for-51 for 400 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He ran for 62 yards, too, something Brady wasn't about to do.

"Any time you can come back from a 24-6 deficit, it's a building block," Cassel said. "I hope I've earned the confidence of the team."

And get this. He found Randy Moss one second before the final buzzer. Moss posted up Ty Law -- that's right, the former Patriot who signed this week with the Jets -- like he was some kind of power forward in the NBA and barely kept both feet in bounds to force overtime. As Boston and New York held their breath -- not Connecticut, Connecticut was sleeping -- the replay upheld the touchdown.

"That is why Randy is as special as he is," Cassel said. "A magnificent catch."

You should have seen it, Connecticut.

"Ebbed and flowed," Jets coach Eric Mangini said of the emotional tide, "ebbed and flowed."

This game had a little bit of everything. There was Jets wide receiver Brad Smith ripping off a big gain on a direct snap. There was Favre running down the sideline after Washington's 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. And there was Favre chasing down Cotchery after the wide receiver dived into the end zone for 24-6 lead, screaming at him in celebration.

Favre was 10-for-13 at that point with two touchdown passes and would have been 11-for-13 with three TD passes if a wide-open Dustin Keller hadn't dropped a pass.

But the Patriots roared back. And they did it by going no-huddle and spreading the offense.

"But it's not enough in a tight one like this, unfortunately " Cassel said.

In the end, as magnificent as Moss' catch was, no catch was bigger than Keller's 16-yard reception of a Favre pass on third-and-15 to help set up Jay Feely's winning field goal. Final: Jets 34, Patriots 31. Net result: The Jets are in sole possession of first place for the first time since Nov. 19, 2001.

"Huge win," Favre said.

"It shows how much character we have," Washington said.

"It's a great feeling for us," Mangini said.

Both teams will take some good from this game. The Patriots came back. The Jets held their balance after blowing the lead. There is no perfect way to end an overtime game, even on a perfect night of entertainment. The college way is flawed. The pro way is flawed. And on this night, when you're looking for something special to put a bow on a heart-stopping finish in regulation ... well, the Jets still earned the win.

Besides, the manner of deciding overtime is not one-tenth as disappointing as the NFL Network fiasco with Comcast that left so much of our state in the dark.

The NFL can make all the rules. Comcast can make all the excuses. The NFL Network can make all the excuses. But the Patriots and the New York teams are local teams for Connecticut, and when the Patriots face the Jets it's a local game. This one should have been available to everyone on basic cable.

I don't want to hear it from either side. We know your tired arguments.

It's greed, greed, greed.

Anyway, it also was a great game.

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