Surprise! Gang boots Jags in OT
IN THE moments after a Week 2 loss to the Raiders, Josh McCown gave an honest assessment of where the Jets stood. They’d competed with a Super Bowl contender for most of the first half before a muffed punt changed the game. The Jets failed to move past the gaffe and eventually fell in lopsided fashion.
At the podium, McCown admitted to the inexperience on the team. “But we’ve got to find a way to overcome it,” he said of the muff. “That’s a lesson we have to learn.”
Two weeks later at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, the Jets faced similar adversity — a result of two costly fourthquarter turnovers from McCown, the team’s 38-year-old quarterback. This time, however, the Jets answered by banding together and willing themselves to a 23-20 victory sealed by Chandler Catanzaro’s 41-yard field goal with 28 seconds remaining in overtime.
For Todd Bowles, it was a sign of development from his young squad. And now the Jets — once thought to be in danger of becoming the fourth team since the merger to finish a season without a win — enter Week 5 at 2-2. They’re tied with the Patriots for second place in the AFC East.
“Three weeks ago, we wouldn’t have recovered from this,” Bowles said. “Right now, they’re growing every week. They didn’t flinch. They stood up and made some plays at the end. They knew the game wasn’t over, which is a credit to those guys.”
The fourth quarter and overtime included a series of bizarre plays and unfortunate Jet bounces that eventually allowed the Jaguars to erase a 10-point deficit — only to lose the contest in the waning moments of the extra period.
The Jets built a 20-10 lead through the first three quarters behind an explosive rushing attack and timely defensive stops.
Bilal Powell (75-yard) and rookie Elijah McGuire (69-yard) both broke off long touchdown runs. The duo combined for 256 rushing yards, including a career-high 163 from Powell, who started in place of Matt Forte (turf toe). In the third quarter, defensive end Kony Ealy batted down a Blake Bortles pass before hauling in an interception inside the Jacksonville 20-yard line, setting up a 26-yard Catanzaro field goal that extended the advantage to 10 points.
McCown then led the Jets down the field early in the fourth quarter. He connected with Robby Anderson on a 41-yard completion down the left sideline to move the Jets deep into Jacksonville territory.
On the next play, McCown fired to Powell on a swing screen into the right flat. But Powell wasn’t looking. The backward pass deflected off the running back’s shoulder pad and fell to the turf. Jags linebacker Myles Jack scooped up the live ball and returned it 81 yards for a touchdown, cutting the Jets lead to three points. The teams then traded punts before the Jets got the ball back with just less than five minutes remaining. McCown found Jermaine Kearse for a first down on 2nd-and-10. The clock ticked under four minutes.
McCown then tried to hit Powell on a slant on 3rd-and-6 from his own 34. But Powell slipped. Jags cornerback AJ Bouye was waiting and snagged the low McCown throw for a game-changing interception. Jacksonville kicker Jason Myers connected on a tying 22yard field goal just more than two minutes later to send the game to overtime.
“Just bad breaks,” McCown said. “It happens.”
In OT, Jeremy Kerley returned a punt to the Jags’ 40-yard line. The Jets gained another 15 yards when Jags linebacker Paul Posluszny was called for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Catanzaro drilled his second field goal of the day four plays later.
“It just proves that we’re competitors. We’re not going to sit there and just let you come roll us over in our house,” linebacker Jordan Jenkins said of the win. “We’re not going to just sit down and quit. All offseason, we heard, ‘Oh they’re going to be 0-16, oh they’re going to tank, oh we’re just going to sit there and we’re going to try and lose and give (games) away so we can get an early draft pick.’ Nah. That’s not us. We’re a team of competitors.”