New York Jets advance with win over the Indianapolis Colts
New York Jets coach Rex Ryan doesn’t hold back. Before his team faced the Indianapolis Colts, Ryan had started a war of words. He said that beating Peyton Manning was ‘personal’, and a lot of his players felt the same way. Ryan and the Jets needed this win
to save face after their big talk, as much as they needed it to advance in the playoffs.
They got their win and the Colts were knocked out by New York. Manning had long tormented Rex Ryan in the playoffs, and he will be relieved that the Colts quarterback wasn’t the one who ended his team’s playoff run again.
New York almost lost the game. In the final minutes it was the Indianapolis fans who were riled up because they believed they were going to witness a Colts win. Adam Vinatieri scored a field goal for the Colts with just 57 seconds left on the clock. The
field goal gave Indianapolis a two-point lead over the Jets, and no one expected New York to mount a comeback. However, Antonio Cromartie had other ideas. After the field goal, Cromartie hit a return to New York’s 46 yard line. With 45 seconds remaining, quarterback
Mark Sanchez took the first snap. In that shotgun play Sanchez threw a nine-yard pass and called a timeout.
With 40 seconds remaining, Sanchez threw 11 yards, and Tomlinson rushed two more yards to take New York to the 32-yard line. Surprisingly the Colts called their last time out at this point. From the 32 the Jets could attempt the field goal and the Colts
knew that there were still 29 second on the clock, enough time to make one more attempt. The Colts had to push the Jets back to stop the field goal, but New York didn’t concede. From the 32-yard line, Sanchez threw an 18-yard deep right pass to set up an easy
field goal for Nick Folk. The jets attempted the field goal in the final seconds of the game, and the attempt was good.
That field goal meant the Jets won the game, as Peyton Manning watched from the sidelines. Ryan was ecstatic. He said, “I'll tell you what, it feels awesome because this is the playoffs and we're moving on. You know, he (Manning) is the best, and he almost
did it to us again.” He almost certainly did. The Colts scored three field goals against the Jets, one of them from the 14-yard line and another from the 29. The final field goal would have been the game winner for the Colts if they hadn’t scored it in a hurry.
The Jets kept up with the Colts throughout the game. Indianapolis scored a touchdown first, but New York equalised in the third quarter. The Colts took the lead again with a field goal, only to be overtaken by a second touchdown. In the final quarter Manning
led the Colts on two scoring drives and took the lead, but they weren’t able to hold on to it for long.
New York’s running game proved decisive against the Colts. Indianapolis’ Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes put together 99 rushing yards but scored no touchdowns. New York’s Shonn Greene rushed 70 yards on 19 carries, but it was LaDainian Tomlinson who dominated
the running game. In 16 carries he rushed 82 yards and scored both of New York’s touchdowns. Tomlinson said, “It's emotional, exciting and all those things at once. We knew it was going to be a dogfight against a great team.”
Perhaps the most important factor in New York’s victory was the timeout called by Indianapolis in the last minute. Sanchez returned on the field after the timeout and threw his 18-yard pass, which set up the game winning field goal.
“We've got to tip our hat to our offence. It was unbelievable,” Ryan said. “On defence, we had to hold serve. Against Peyton, you're not going to stop him completely, but our guys played well enough to get it done and keep him out of the end zone. Our offence
was just spectacular.”
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