Skip to main content

Nick Folk kicks Jets to New England, beats Manning & Colts

JETS 17
COLTS 16

Rex Ryan said it was personal. He wanted desperately to beat Peyton Manning in a game, playoffs or regular season, having lost to him five times.

Tonight in a game that combined some gritty play by the Jets offensive line and running game, combined with a bend but don't break play by the defense, and some really bizarre decisions by the Colts coaches, led to the Jets victory in the wild card round.

Now the Jets head back to New England where they got pasted 45-3 over a month ago.

Quarterback Mark Sanchez was not good. Even though he hit some big passes in the second half like the 18 yard pass to Braylon Edwards to set up the Nick Folk field goal with just 19 seconds to go, he played unevenly.

He overthrew his receivers, threw a huge interception in the first half that killed a potential scoring drive, and was erratic all day completing 18 of 31 for 189 yards.

Trailing the Colts 7-0, the Jets came out in the second half with a purpose to pound the football. with Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson. The Jets drove the ball on the opening drive of the half for six minutes culminating in a Tomlinson touchdown to tie it.

After the Colts got a field goal, a couple of big 11 yard passes by Sanchez to Edwards and Dustin Keller helped set up the Jets second score of the day, a five yard completion to Ben Hartsock to give the Jets the lead 14-10. The drive consumed 9:46 off the clock.

Then it got really bizarre. Peyton Manning marched the Colts down all the way the Jets 15 yard line. It appeared that the Colts were in great position to score the go-ahead score, but on a third and six at the 15, the Colts called a running play to Dominck Rhodes. Rhodes was tackled by Brodney Pool to force Indy to kick, settling for a 14-13 Jets lead.

Why did the Colts run it there? One will never know. Logic would tell you to put the ball in Manning's hands, but the Colts decided not to do it. It probably cost them dearly.

After the Jets failed to move the football, Manning got one more shot to make up for the previous drive. He hit Jacob Tamme twice for big gains, and Blair White for gains of 11 and 12 to set up Adam Vinatieri with a clutch 50 yard field goal to give the Colts a 16-14 lead.

With 53 seconds the Jets had one shot to get down field and give their own kicker, the unreliable Folk a shot to win it.

After the Jets ran the ball for no gain, the clock ticked down to 29 seconds before the Colts oddly called their final time out. Why call the timeout? Again another puzzling decision by the Colts coaching staff. The timeout gave the Jets time to think, which was a huge mistake.

On the next play, Sanchez hit Edwards for 18, before Folk won it with a field goal.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jets, Dolphins and Patriots Playoff Breakdown

Here are the formuli that could get the Jets into and out of the playoff party this season: 1) If the Jets win against Seattle and Miami, they win the AFC East based on a better conference record (8-4) than the New England Patriots, even if New England wins out as well. 2) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins win out and finish at 11-5, the Jets would be 10-6, or 9-7, and probably out of the playoffs. Both New England and Miami would make the playoffs, with the Dolphins as a divison winner and the Patriots as a wild card. The Patriots make the postseason if Baltimore loses one of its final two games. 3) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins and Jets split, then the Patriots win the AFC East. The Jets will have to hope that they beat Miami to win that tie-breaker and, further, hope that they have a better conference record than the Baltimore Ravens in order to clinch the sixth seed. 4) If the Patriots and Ravens win out and the Dolphins and Jets split their final two games, then ...
8 comments
Read more

Francisco Lindor Remains Red Hot as Mets Top Phillies

 Francisco Lindor remains the hottest player in Queens right now.  The Mets shortstop blasted two more home runs, including a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth inning, Monday night to help propel the Mets to a 5-4 win over Philadelphia.   Lindor who typically struggles in the month of April is putting together a heck of a month. Monday's two hit effort was the 10th game in the last 11 where Lindor has recorded a hit. In fact in the month of April alone this year, Lindor was hitting at .311 coming into Monday's action.  On the year, Lindor is batting .284 with five homers and 13 RBI.  Lindor's efforts proved to be prophetic, as the Phillies Alec Bohm crushed a three-run bomb off Edwin Diaz in the top of the ninth to cut the Mets lead to a single run. Fortunately for New York, Diaz was able to shut the door with strikeouts of Trea Turner and Bryce Harper.  New York (16-7) has now won five in a row.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Aaron Glenn in Danger of Getting Fired?

 According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio there is a "chance"   that Jets head coach Aaron Glenn could be fired at seasons end.  While Florio doesn't site any sources, the rumor has caught fire the last two days. The question is would it make sense? Let's examine this for a second?  Why it Makes Sense:  Glenn has not been great in his first year as Head Coach of this team. The talent has taken a major step backwards, granted two of those talented players were traded away in Sauce Gardner to Indianapolis and Quinnen Williams to Dallas.  The decision he and GM Darren Mougey made to give Justin Fields a two year deal proved to be a horrible mistake, and Glenn stuck with Fields for far too long before pulling the plug following the Jets loss to the Patriots on a Thursday night in mid November.  Glenn gave now former Defensive Coordinator Steve Wilks too much power to run the defense, and the players couldn't stand Wilks. Reports indicated this week af...
Post a Comment
Read more