Behind a rare convincing performance from the offense, the Jets came away with a much-needed victory in tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup against the division rival Miami Dolphins.
This was considered to be a must-win for both teams, as the Dolphins are still winless and the Jets were on the verge of letting the season slip away after losing three straight on a road trip.
It looked as though the Dolphins would take an early lead after recovering a fumble on a kickoff after scoring the game’s first points on a Dan Carpenter field goal. On a 3rd-and-7 from the Jets 15-yard line, Matt Moore dropped back and saw Brandon Marshall in the end zone, eyeing an early ten point lead.
Darrelle Revis had already let Marshall beat him more than once, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again. The star cornerback jumped the pass and picked off Moore, taking it out of the end zone and behind impeccable blocking going the full hundred yards for the coast-to-coast score, tied for the longest interception return in Jets history.
Gang Green held onto that lead for the rest of the night, picking up the offensive play after four punts on their first four drives and going on to establish some consistency through the second half.
Mark Sanchez completed 14 of 25 passes in the game for 201 yards and a 38-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes in the fourth quarter that capped off the scoring at 24-6. On a 3rd-and-4 from the Miami five-yard line late in the first half, a designed keeper up the middle gave Sanchez a wide-open touchdown run.
Matt Moore, replacing Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne who separated his shoulder two weeks ago and will miss the season, struggled to find any rhythm at all in the game amidst heavy pressure from the defense. The Jets racked up four sacks in the game, including two from Calvin Pace, and hit Moore ten times.
Darrelle Revis was able to capitalize on Moore a second time in the game late in the fourth quarter. Moore took a snap out of the shotgun from the Jets’ 45-yard line and immediately saw pressure from David Harris on the blitz. Moore was on the receiving end of the biggest hit he took all day as he released the ball deep left, a perfect pass to Revis for his second pick of the night.
Reggie Bush took advantage of a Jets’ defensive front that has had trouble stopping the run this season. His ten carries went for a total of 71 yards and rookie Daniel Thomas took the ball another fifteen times for 47 yards.
The Dolphins totaled 308 yards and 11 first downs, more than the Jets in both category, but failed to score a touchdown and were held to just two first half field goals.
I said before the game that this would be a must-win for both teams, and the Jets were able to stay perfect at home and finally put together a win to silence the critics for at least one week.
They will see the 4-1 San Diego Chargers come to New Jersey next Sunday at 1:00 p.m. in what should be a battle to watch between Philip Rivers and the Jets’ secondary.
The Dolphins will go back to Miami next weekend to play the 1-4 Denver Broncos, who lost to the Chargers this weekend, at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.
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