Although they still have a long way to go, the Jets (5-6) can at least think about the playoffs if not talk about them. But that word didn’t even come up after the game. “This was a great team win,” head coach Rex Ryan said. “It feels good to say that. It’s been a while.”

The team’s much-maligned secondary stepped up on this day with four interceptions and sent 76,381 fans home happy. It all began on the Panthers’ opening drive, one in which they converted three third down plays. Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme then tried to hit Steve Smith on a slant that would have gone for a big gain, but there was apparent miscommunication and the wideout had yet to turn in. The ball caromed off his heel up in the air and right into the hands of Darrelle Revis, who returned it 67 yards for the Jets first defensive touchdown of the season.

“The great ones are lucky,” joked Ryan.

After trading field goals, the Jets capitalized on Delhomme’s third pick of the day when Kerry Rhodes – who was removed from the starting line-up this week in favor of Eric Smith – pulled down the floater and brought it back to the Carolina 38-yard line.

“The message was sent to me by Coach and now I’m moving on,” said Rhodes, who also had another interception and received a game ball. The Jets extended their lead to 14-3 when Thomas Jones (25 carries for 75 yards, 1 touchdown) plunged into the end zone from three yards out.

The big talk all week leading up to this game was that Ryan was going to take a more active role in the offense to try to cut down on the mistakes of his rookie quarterback. A more conservative game plan seem to benefit Mark Sanchez, who completed 13 out of 17 for 154 yards and one interception, but the USC product was not totally satisfied with his performance.

“I was playing smart on offense and we still gave up a couple of turnovers,” he said. “They (the coaches) were telling me in the meetings, ‘If you take a sack, that’s OK. Just don’t lose the ball.’”

Ryan added, “I thought he did a great job. He really managed the game well and had some nice runs. When in doubt, he checked the ball down.”

At one point in the third quarter, Sanchez was shaken up with an apparent knee injury and missed the majority of one series, but returned the next one. “He said he was good to go,” Ryan said. “I was just anxious to get him back in there.” Sanchez had the knee checked out by the team’s medical staff after the game and said that there was nothing abnormal found.

The Jets sealed the win with a 47-yard field goal by Feeley with 3:39 left to make the score 17-6. The big play on the drive was a 16-yard completion to converted running back Danny Woodhead on third down to move the chains.

“Coach put me in a great situation, Mark put the ball on me and the line did a great job so I just had to make the catch,” the wide receiver humbly said.

The Jets do not have much time to enjoy this win due to the Thursday night affair against the Bills in Toronto. “This is a short week for us, so we can enjoy it for about five hours,” said Ryan.

Better to enjoy the victory than wallow in another loss.

Photo by William J. Hauser

Besides all of the verbal barbs being traded during the week leading up to the game, Ryan made a plea to the fan base to step it up a notch, too. A recorded telephone message went out to all of the Jets season ticket holders telling them to make some noise and the 78,312 in attendance didn’t disappoint. The Patriots had four delay of game penalties called on them and the crowd was a major factor in the Jets snapping a home eight-game losing streak to their division rivals.

“The fans were huge in this victory,” said Ryan. “We’re giving them a game ball and putting it in our trophy case. This was a great win.”

The Jets offense put up just enough points to earn the victory while their staunch defense pitched a shutout as far as giving up touchdowns for the second consecutive game. “We’ve been preaching the whole time that if you do your job good things are going to happen to everybody,” safety Jim Leonhard, who finished the day with four tackles. “In the first two games, there have been guys all over the place making plays…different guys. No one is trying to do extra right now. Everyone is just doing their job.”

The mentality going into the game was to get New England quarterback Tom Brady off of his. Giving the perennial All-Pro different looks up until the last drive accomplished that. “If he knows what kind of defense you’re in, chances are he’s going to find the right spot to throw it to. You have to try to confuse him as much as you can. It doesn’t happen very often.

“On that last drive, we weren’t going to just sit back,” added Leonhard. “We were coming after him.”

Brady finished 23 for 47 for 216 yards, one interception and – most importantly – zero touchdowns. He led the Pats (1-1) to three field goals on drives that never seemed to get going. “We just didn’t do a good enough job,” Belechick said of his team’s struggles in the red zone. “They did a better job than we did.

A game of field goals resulted in a 9-3 halftime lead for the Pats. The Jets came out throwing in the second half when quarterback Mark Sanchez (14 for 22, 163 yards, one touchdown) found wideout Jerricho Cotchery open for a 45-yard gain to the New England 11-yard line. Two plays later, the rookie out of Southern Cal hit tight end Dustin Keller in the end zone and the Jets found themselves ahead, 10-9.

The Jets extended their lead to four points with 8:26 left in the third quarter but were close to making it more with an apparent six-yard touchdown pass from Sanchez to wide receiver Chancey Stuckey. The Patriots challenged the play and it was reversed after instant replays showed that he only had one foot in bounds. Although they had to settle for a short field goal, Sanchez did not see that as a negative.

“Those two drives coming out of halftime were great,” he said. “We really responded.”

Feeley hit his fourth field goal of the game, a 39-yarder, with 9:48 to go to extend the lead to 16-9. That is when the Jets had to bear down and hold on in a one-score game. Perhaps the biggest play of the day came on the ensuing drive. New England was facing a third-and-one situation at their own 37-yard line with 7:51 left in the game. Running back Fred Taylor tried to go left but was swarmed by linebackers Bryan Thomas and Bart Scott for a one-yard loss, forcing them to punt the ball away.

“That was a big momentum changer,” Thomas said. “They tried to load our defense to the right side so we knew at that time that they were going to try to do something to get that quick first down.”

The Jets improved to 2-0 on the young season and will face Tennessee next Sunday at the Meadowlands. The Titans are surprisingly winless so far after going 13-3 a year ago. As Ryan put it, “I get to enjoy (this win) for about a half an hour.

Although the Jets did win in Tennessee in 2008 to snap the Titans 10-game winning streak, there isn’t the same intense rivalry like the match-ups with the Patriots. So don’t expect a lot of bulletin board material this week.

“The big deal is, we’re a football team that should be respected,” said Ryan. “Sometimes we talk a little bit, but only because we have confidence in our football team.”

With two impressive wins to begin the campaign, as well they should.

Photo by Jim Leary