Piece of cake.
The Jets 34-31 win in New England last night was anything but, as head coach Eric Mangini saw his team collapse twice, first blowing a 24-6 first half lead followed by a fourth quarter, game tying touchdown drive which ended with a miraculous throw and catch forcing overtime.
Despite both meltdowns, the Jets would win the coin toss in overtime and never relinquish the ball, driving 64 yards and setting up a game winning, 34 yard field goal from Jay Feely.
The win gave the Jets sole possesstion of first place in the AFC East, and at 7-3, the Jets hold the second best record in the conference behind the undefeated Tennessee Titans.
Brett Favre put any final doubters of his acquisition to rest, playing his best game of the year under the circumstances, going 26-33 for 258 yds, two touchdowns and most importantly, no interceptions.
Favre was brilliant when it mattered most, engineering two drives, one late in the fourth quarter ending in a one yard touchdown run by Thomas Jones, the second in overtime when he went 5-6 for 56 yards including a key third down conversion, needing fifteen yards and connecting with rookie tight end Dustin Keller for sixteen.
Speaking of Keller, the rookie had his coming out party last night (8-87), and coming up with a handful of big catches both in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Jets went up early with a methodical opening drive culminating in a touchdown pass to Leon Washington.
Washington wasn't done, as he brought back a kickoff 92 yards following a Patriots field goal in the second quarter, putting the Jets up 17-6 at that point.
The offense then went back to work after the defense forced the Patriots to punt, with Favre hitting Jerricho Cotchery for a fifteen yard touchdown strike giving the Jets a seemingly safe 24-6 lead.
However Patriots head coach Bill Bellichick pressed all the right buttons from that point on, as his team scored an important touchdown before the end of the first half, as quarterback Matt Cassel hit Jabar Gaffney for 19 yards, ending the first half with the score 24-13 in favor of New York.
New England would get the ball in the second half, but Ben Watson fumbled on the opening drive, giving the Jets an opportunity to go for the throat. However the play-calling stayed conservative, as the Jets would be forced to punt on three consecutive possessions.
Cassel finally rewarded his defense with a 10 yard touchdown pass to Watson, and with the two-point conversion the Patriots were within a field goal heading into the fourth.
When things couldn't seem to be going worse for the Jets, Cotchery fumbled on the ensuing possession, which set up a game tying field goal for New England with just over ten minutes to play.
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