LEARNING TO FLY
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The damage was done, the initial shock having worn off, and there was only one thing for Bryce Petty to do. Apologize. “Hey guys, sorry, that’s on me,’’ the young Jets quarterback told his teammates in the huddle moments after he had thrown an interception on the second play from scrimmage deep in Jets territory that led to a 7-0 49er lead just 1:03 into the game. “The game starts now.’’ And so it did — albeit slowly. Petty, making the second NFL start of his career Sunday against the 49ers, was anything but perfect. But perfection is not what the Jets were expecting from him.
With all else long lost in the deep, dark abyss of this depressing season for the Jets, all they hoped for out of this game was a glimpse of some progress at the quarterback position. They hoped for baby steps by Petty, and they got more. Much more.
The Jets got a stirring 23-17 overtime comeback victory over that had the fingerprints of Petty’s moxie stamped all over it.
That Petty, who finished 23-of-35 for 257 yards, even got the Jets to overtime was a victory of sorts for the team considering his poor start to this day, which led to a 17-3 deficit.
“It was on me,’’ Petty told The Post after the game of his early gaffe. “There was nothing to say about it. You just got to go out there and fight. There was a ton of football left. I’ve been playing long enough to know that. You got to own up to stuff and understand stuff ’s going to happen.
“That’s how to I try to come across [to teammates], like, ‘Hey, it’s not going to bother me. It’s not going to affect me,’ to let those guys know that I’m going to keep fighting.’’
Fight is what Petty did — through some rough moments against a 49ers team that’s now an NFL-worst 1-12 having last won a game (Sept. 12) when the Yankee and Mets were still in pennant races.
Petty kept believing in himself — through that initial interception, through the six sacks he took from holding onto the ball too long — and stayed with a personal mantra of his.
“Know that you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t good,” he said. “That’s something I tell myself all the time.”
If he didn’t think that way Petty never would have delivered the play of the game — a 26-yard pass to Robby Anderson in overtime with 49ers’ defensive lineman DeForest Buckner having chased him from the pocket and close enough to breathe on his neck.
“He’s kind of one of those, as we like to call him in our QB room, ‘a QBfriendly guy,’ ’’ Petty said of Anderson, his favorite target dating back to their work together on the second team in training camp this summer.
“I knew he was going to put it up for me. I saw it in his eyes,’’ Anderson said. “I knew it was going to a big play, a play to win the game.’’
It was the biggest play of the game because it set up the gamewinning 19-yard walk-off touchdown run by Bilal Powell two plays later.
“See it, throw it,’’ Petty said. “That’s the kind of thing I want to continue to do. Trust yourself, trust your instincts, trust your preparation.’’
Petty led a 15-play, 66-yard drive that ended in a 5-yard Powell rushing touchdown with 5:04 remaining in regulation to cut the San Francisco lead to 17-12 at the time.
Petty then showed terrific toughness with a quarterback keeper on the two-point conversion when he dragged 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks into the end zone with him to cut the San Francisco lead to 17-14.
“Shoot, we needed it,’’ Petty said. “I think that’s the first time a stiffarm has ever worked in my life and I’m glad it worked at that moment.’’
According to people who watched the Jets practices last week, the coaches were very encouraged by Petty’s performance in preparation for the game and had high hopes for a continuation on Sunday.
After the rough start, they got what they hoped for.
“You’ve got to give him credit for his guts,’’ Jets coach Todd Bowles said. “For him to bounce back and get better as the game went on and calm himself down … it says a lot about his growth.’’
With no playoffs to play for, Petty’s growth is the most important thing to the Jets for the next three weeks until this season comes to its merciful end.