Jets Slip, Slide Way Out of AFC Race

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Unbelievable. The New York Jets were one goal-line stand away from moving within inches of the playoffs, and the No. 1 defense in the NFL all but laid down in the end zone and started making snow angels.

Unthinkable. The Jets allowed the Atlanta Falcons to drive 73 yards on their final possession -- sound familiar, Gang Green fans? -- the holes in the formerly impenetrable dam growing bigger with every play, until there was Matt Ryan firing a 6-yard, fourth-down, score-or-go-home bullet into the gut of Tony Gonzalez at the lip of the end zone.

Incredible. Gonzalez, the perennial Pro Bowl tight end who was kept fairly invisible for much of Sunday, celebrated his catch of the game-winning touchdown with 1:38 left by dunking the football over the goalpost. The Jets, stuck in a zone with one defender over the top and two on each side of Gonzalez, stood numb, stunned, as if someone had just broken into their house and stolen all their Christmas presents.

Falcons 10, Jets 7. There was just enough time left for Mark Sanchez to throw one more interception, for the Jets to incur one more mindless penalty and for the angry, shivering masses to stretch their lungs with a rumble of boos and warm their arms by firing snowballs toward the frozen tundra.

Oh yes, there was an abundance of good cheer on this wretched afternoon. While the streets surrounding the Meadowlands were treacherous with black ice following Saturday's raging blizzard, the most astounding pileup took place inside Giants Stadium, as the Jets once again lost on their opponent's final drive. After the game ended the way it ended, it's a wonder the locals didn't commandeer a snow plow and steer it straight toward the home team's locker room.

"This is a hugely disappointing game. We thought we had a great chance to make it to the playoffs, but Atlanta found a way to win," Jets coach Rex Ryan said.

A tip of the wool hat to the Falcons, who were playing for pride after getting their NFC playoff hopes crushed Saturday night, courtesy of Dallas' win over New Orleans. But Ryan clearly was still in a how-could-this-happen-again daze while making his postgame remarks, because he was talking nonsense. It was Ryan's team that found a way to lose.

The Jets aren't quite mathematically eliminated from an AFC wild-card spot. All they have to do is win next week in Indianapolis, and then pray the stars and wise men align just perfectly for a miracle. Yes, Virginia, there is hope, as long as Peyton Manning suffers food poisoning from his Christmas feast.

With three botched field goal attempts by the special teams and three interceptions from Sanchez, the California rookie who better learn soon how to play in inclement conditions, the Jets, now 7-7, aren't playoff-worthy. Their defense, stellar for roughly three quarters and 13 minutes, has to figure how to ignore the fatigue and not choke in the final two minutes. Their composure, ripped asunder by personal fouls and too much pushing and shoving after the whistle, is just flat-out embarrassing.

For the third time this season, the Jets were gutted by an opponent's late-game touchdown. New York blew fourth-quarter leads against Miami and Jacksonville, but Sunday the Jets appeared to have rediscovered their groove. Riding a three-game winning streak, and so close to a playoff spot they could sniff it, the Jets made the Falcons look as if they were playing in ballet slippers.

Running back Michael Turner, working through an ankle sprain for five weeks now, lasted one play before rolling it again. Ryan, the quarterback who had missed the previous two games with turf toe, proved he still had some of his cold-weather flair (he wasn't "Matty Ice" at Boston College for nothing), but Atlanta still had only 167 offensive yards before its final drive. The Jets dropped at least four would-be interceptions.

They also left nine points on the turf, muffing three field goal attempts in three different ways in the swirling winds. Kellen Clemens fumbled the hold on Jay Feeley's 19-yard attempt, Feeley missed wide right on a 38-yarder and Chauncey Davis got a hand on Feeley's third try from 37 yards out, after a sky-high snap.

The pratfalls set the stage for Atlanta's final drive, on the edge of the two-minute mark: Roddy White's 16-yard catch on third-and-nine from the Falcons' 42; a 15-yard facemask penalty on the Jets' Donald Strickland; Jason Snelling, filling in from the first series for Turner, charging 20 yards up the middle to the 7.

The Jets' defense dug in, knocking away Ryan's pass intended for White in the end zone, and then Darrelle Revis, who can stop a runaway truck, nearly intercepted a pass meant for Gonzalez. On fourth-and-goal, with everyone in the Meadowlands standing up from their ice-covered seats, the Jets knew exactly what to expect.

A Matt Ryan dart to Gonzalez. It was like knowing Santa was about to come down the chimney, and still getting crushed by the dude in the red suit.

"There's no better runner of that route in this league than Tony Gonzalez. He ran a perfect route and was in the right spot -- the split in the zone -- and I threw the ball high and away and he brought it down. That's what he does in those kinds of situations. He seems to step up and make plays, said Ryan, the quarterback who made the perfect throw at the perfect moment.

Said Ryan, the coach who called for a zone defense to trap the Hall-of-Fame bound Gonzalez: "On the fourth-down play, we knew the exact play that was coming. We just never defended it. We never executed it, and what a surprise -- [Tony] Gonzalez gets it in the red zone. The kid (Matt Ryan) made a great play in the red zone. He was wide open and stuck it in there. You have to give them credit.

"It's a great coverage and hard to complete a ball, especially on a slant pass" Ryan added. "We run that a bunch and feel great about it. If I had to do it again, I'd make the same call, but make sure we executed it."

There was a minute and a chunk of change left, plenty of time for the Jets to flash a drive of their own and tie the game. Atlanta had done a fine job with eight men in the box, clogging the Jets' running game. But there was reason to believe the Jets could string together a miracle: Sanchez, his bum knee still worrisome, had dialed up a sparkling spiral to Braylon Edwards for a 65-yard touchdown for a 7-3 lead that stuck through three quarters. It was the rookie's longest completion as a pro, and the focal point of Edwards' first 100-yard receiving game as a Jet.

"I thought that helped. I thought it gave us a lot of momentum on offense. It was a big play and the sideline erupted," Sanchez said. "We haven't had a big play like that in a while, so it felt good. He made a heck of a catch, so it was the highlight of the game for sure."

Because these are the Jets, the lowlights of course came when they could hurt the most. With 1:30 left, guard Alan Faneca threw a block after the whistle, and got flagged for a personal foul. And then there was Sanchez, sliding with the ball, instead of heading for the sidelines. (There was Ryan, having a near coronary.) Sanchez, backed up 15 yards because of the penalty, sealed the Jets' fate on the next play, throwing his third interception of the day, straight into the arms of cornerback Brent Grimes.

Ryan had to be slightly loopy after this one, after watching a season that had begun so promisingly flitter away so astonishingly. As exasperated fans slipped and slid outside, as the Falcons celebrated a win that won't get them anywhere, Ryan told his team, "Hey this group right here is going to win us the Super Bowl. It just ain't going to be this year."

God bless the big man for continuing to believe.