Jets Topple Steelers for First Win Since Season Opener
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Imagine being sequestered for the last nine weeks, with no access to television or smartphones or the news media, and that the first act of re-entry involved attending Sunday's game at MetLife Stadium.
That person would have come away certain that Jaiquawn Jarrett was set to be the first active player inducted into the Jets ' ring of honor; that T. J. Graham was a veritable Swiss army knife, as influential on offense as on special teams; and that the team was steaming toward a division title.
All would have reasonable conclusions to draw while watching the Jets beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-13, and avoid the ignominy of becoming the first squad in franchise history to lose nine consecutive games in a single season.
During a break at the end of the third quarter, with the Jets leading by 20-3, the team's Flight Crew danced in the end zone to 'We're Not Gonna Take It' by Twisted Sister, as if to say, 'Eight losses are fine, but nine, well, that's just unacceptable.'
How cathartic it must have been for Jets fans to cheer when Pittsburgh's Shaun Suisham hooked a 23-yard field-goal attempt or when Ben Roethlisberger, who had fired 12 touchdown passes the last two weeks, threw into triple coverage or when the Steelers (6-4) committed three first-half turnovers.
How disorienting it must have been for Jets fans to see anyone, let alone Jarrett, a reserve safety, recover a fumble and intercept two passes; to see Graham, who entered Sunday with one reception since signing six weeks ago, catch a touchdown pass and recover a fumble; and to see their team, which had lost its last two games by a combined 34 points, play with some measure of competence.
Instead of yearning for the bad old days of Rich Kotite, the Jets, who escaped with the victory after allowing an 80-yard touchdown to Martavis Bryant with 1 minute 16 seconds remaining, provided evidence that they are the best 2-8 team in the N.F.L.
In their first victory since their Sept. 7 season opener against Oakland, the Jets scored the first 17 points to stifle - a little, at least - the thousands of Terrible Towels twirling in the stands.
Three and a half hours before kickoff, the parking lots teemed with so many Steelers fans that the signs along the highways near MetLife Stadium could have read: 'Steelers game 1 p.m. Plan alternate route.' Sprinkled among the black and gold were considerable pockets of green and white, of Jets fans who decided to spend a splendid autumn day watching a 1-8 team instead of pursuing more enjoyable pastimes, like a colonoscopy.
'We still come,' said Griffin Handley, 42, a longtime season-ticket holder who works in finance and lives in Stamford, Conn., 'no matter what they do to our team.'
Handley's tent was loaded with high school friends from Connecticut, including Rich Fedeli, 41, the owner of a commercial printing company who lives in New Canaan and named his miniature poodle Geno, after the deposed quarterback Geno Smith.
'My dog looks at me like, Why'd you name me that?' Fedeli said.
Fedeli could not discern whether his dog wondered how differently this season might have gone had the Jets given Michael Vick a fair shot at winning the starting job out of training camp, or at least not waited until last week to award him his first start.
Vick led the Jets to 17 points on their first three series Sunday, completed 10 of 18 passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns, and, for the second consecutive week, did not commit a turnover. By running for 39 yards, Vick also surpassed 6,000 career rushing yards, extending his record for a quarterback.
In the first quarter the Jets outgained the Steelers, 164 yards to 5, and outscored them by 17-0. The same team that had three takeaways in its first nine games had three in the first 28 minutes. Roethlisberger, who entered Sunday with 862 passing yards in his last two games, had 54 at halftime. (He finished with 343.)
A four-play sequence in the first quarter encapsulated the Jets' fortunes: Jarrett's 10-yard sack of Roethlisberger on a third down, Vick's 67-yard touchdown pass to Graham, and Jarrett's recovery of an Antonio Brown fumble that gave the Jets possession at the Pittsburgh 20. Five plays later, on a third down, Vick fired a 5-yard touchdown pass to Jace Amaro in the back of the end zone.
On Graham's touchdown, the offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg called one of the best plays in this desultory season. The Jets lined up with three tight ends, which often signals that a running play is coming. Instead, Vick faked a handoff and connected over the middle with Graham, who caught the ball around the Pittsburgh 15 and darted into the end zone.
Instead of announcing the end of the first quarter, the referee Terry McAulay could have said, 'What just happened?' The crowd - Steelers and Jets fans alike - could have responded, 'We don't know.'
The teams did not swap uniforms in the parking lot. It was a comprehensive victory by a team that cannot be comprehended.
As often happens with the Jets, their week had drifted toward the surreal, with an airplane trailing a 'Fire John Idzik' banner over the team's practice fields one day and Coach Rex Ryan responding the next by sending up a toy helicopter with a sign reading, 'Go Jets.'
The airspace around the stadium Sunday contained only one plane toting a similar message: 'Jets rebuilding since 1969.' That could be true, but on this day it was difficult to tell.
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