NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Yeremiah Bell was the only one still trying, still pumping his fists and pumping his legs in pursuit of Chris Johnson, who was 10 yards away from the longest touchdown run in Titans franchise history.
With 9:06 to go in the second quarter, the door was closing on the Jets' season though they didn't know it yet. The game was still too close to tell. But a rude awakening was on it's way to ruin a two week period of solace, where the post-season was still in reach and the mid-season engine stall didn't seem so bad. All the scrapes and holes they'd managed to patch would come to light again.
A possible game-winning drive, where the Jets had the ball, trailing by four points, at the Titans' 23-yard line, ended when Sanchez lofted a pass to Jeff Cumberland into triple coverage, free to be picked off by Michael Griffin with 1:39 remaining.
A second possible game-winning drive, after the Titans shanked a punt to their own 25 yard line and gave the Jets the ball with 53 seconds remaining, ended when Sanchez fumbled a shotgun snap, leaving a sideline stunned in disbelief alongside him.
It was a familiar, stinging way for the Jets to get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs tonight. In a 14-10 loss to the Titans underneath the bright lights of Monday Night football, they showed they were the same team that's pinballed through this season of highs and unbearable lows.
The Jets began the night ignoring the playoffs publicly, saying that they weren't even worthy of dreaming such dreams when sitting a game below .500.
But as the AFC North tangled around them, creating a pair of viable scenarios to make the postseason, the pipe dream became more of a possibility. Ryan admitted to watching games on the periphery that could help push them in.
They needed to stay in control, to ride the momentum of two straight wins and three in their last four games. And it appeared to stay true as Ryan watched his field goal block swat away an opening drive field goal attempt by the Titans, jolting the sideline.
The offense countered with a lengthy drive of their own, settling for a field goal after a Jeff Cumberland touchdown was overturned. Braylon Edwards, who looked strong in his return, caught a key third down pass to push the drive forward.
That's when momentum turned and the Jets problems, swept under the rug through the winning streak, began to resurface. That's when Johnson busted loose and ran largely untouched through the length of the football field in the second quarter with 9:06 to go.
That's when Tim Tebow played his first entire series as a Jets quarterback and was sacked for a loss of seven yards before throwing the ball away on a third-and-16. It was his eighth attempt of the season.
That's when Sanchez threw the first of his four picks shortly after (one came at the 4:03 mark in the second and the other at the 13:42 mark in the third), both to Rutgers product Jason McCourty, bringing his season turnover total to 24, 17 of them interceptions.
That's when the offensive line broke down and began to bat Sanchez around and swat his passes to the ground. It was at the 7:05 mark in the third quarter, after a Zach Brown sack. The Jets trailed 7-3, though it felt like a two touchdown deficit.
Fortunes changed, though, after a Titans shanked punt. The Jets started a late third quarter drive with the ball at the Tennessee 35. Joe Mcknight darted upfield for 20 yards. Sanchez recovered a fumble by McKnight two plays later. Then, on third-and-12, the quarterback hit Cumberland for a go-ahead score while the defender, Tim Shaw, stood with his back turned to the play.
That's when momentum and luck ran out, though. The Titans bulled their way back down the field and capped it with a 13-yard touchdown run by Jake Locker. That's when winning ugly looked like didn't work anymore.
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