6 days after blowing an 11 point lead with 4 minutes left against Miami, New England rebounded big time, handing the Jets a 23-7 defeat that denied New York a chance to clinch a wild card berth. The Jets will have to win next Sunday’s game in St. Louis in order to make the playoffs.
(Pennington, wondering if that “greatest athletes in the world” line was such a good idea after all)
At 13-2, the Patriots guaranteed themselves a first round bye and at least one home playoff game. Tom Brady was 21-32 (2 TD’s, no INT’s, 264 yards) in a typically mistake-free performance. His counterpart, Chad Pennington, will have the NY press corps questioning just how priviledged they were to observe his
rough afternoon after being picked off by Teddy Bruschi and Gene Wilson. Some portion of Pennington’s struggles can be directed towards the Jets’ inability to establish their running game, as they gained a mere 46 yards on the ground, 33 of them courtesy of a frustrated Curtis Martin against his old team.