Jets 19, Steelers 16, O.T. Nugent?s Field Goal Lifts Jets in Overtime By GREG BISHOP Published: November 19, 2007 EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Nov. 18 ? The Jets won a football game on Sunday. It really happened. After a bye week, four quarters of football that ended gridlocked at 16-16, and an overtime, the Jets ended on the right end of the scoreboard. They beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 19-16, in front of a Giants Stadium crowd split in its loyalties. The winning points came from Mike Nugent, whose 38-yard field goal, his fourth of the game, sealed the victory before teammates mobbed him in the middle of the field. For the Jets, who last won six weeks ago, it appeared to be more relief than elation. Asked what it felt like to smile for the first time in a couple of weeks, Coach Eric Mangini said, ?It seems like it?s been more than a couple of weeks.? Linebacker Victor Hobson said it was not that the Jets forgot how to win, but that ?it?s been so long I can?t explain the feeling.? Thomas Jones put the Jets (2-8) in position for the win. On a day when the Jets honored the retired running back Curtis Martin at halftime, Jones did his best Martin impersonation, cutting and strutting all over Giants Stadium. The Jets ran the ball Sunday. They even stopped the run at times. The Jets got an extra week to rest and prepare for the Steelers. They got Jones at his best. They got a fourth-quarter, game-tying drive from Kellen Clemens, who earned his first victory in three N.F.L. starts. They got a defense that created pressure and swarmed the football, a defense that picked off a pass and forced a fumble. The teams looked as if they switched uniforms early on. The Jets received the ball first, facing the No. 1-ranked defense in the N.F.L. Jones bounced upfield for 11 yards. He got the ball on the next play, turned and flipped it back to Clemens for a good, old-fashioned flea-flicker. Clemens connected for 56 yards with receiver Laveranues Coles, who was back after missing one game with a concussion. Two plays later, Clemens found Chris Baker for a 1-yard touchdown pass that gave the Jets a 7-0 lead. Coles played only sparingly after that 56-yard reception, and his left ankle was heavily wrapped after the game. True to form, he had no comment on whether, or how severely, he was injured. The Steelers? offense, ranked No. 2 in the league in rushing, took its turn against a Jets defense ranked 30th in the N.F.L. The role reversal continued, as the Jets pressured quarterback Ben Roethlisberger with three-man rushes, with linebacker David Harris, with different players from different angles. This flustered the Steelers early, with Roethlisberger running for his life and running back Willie Parker running into swarms of Jets defenders. The Jets took the ball back, and received 41 yards on a pass-interference penalty that went against Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor. Nugent kicked a 25-yard field goal to extend the lead to 10-0. In contrast to so many recent Sundays for the Jets, everything went right early. The first quarter might have been the best quarter the Jets played all season. But these are the Steelers, at 7-2 entering this game for many reasons. They were not going away quietly. Roethlisberger threw deep for Ward early in the second quarter, and Ward tipped the ball into the arms of teammate Santonio Holmes. Holmes capped the eight-play drive with a 7-yard scoring reception. On the Steelers? next possession, Roethlisberger unloaded deep again, only this time Jets cornerback David Barrett batted the ball in the air, and safety Kerry Rhodes came down with it. This gave the Jets a short field, which Jones shortened even more with a 26-yard scamper toward the corner of the end zone. The Steelers dragged him down near the goal line, and after a defensive holding, the Jets took over first-and-goal at the 1-yard line with less than 20 seconds to play in the first half. Nugent?s 19-yard field goal gave the Jets a 13-7 lead at the break. Jones played like the running back the Jets expected when they signed him in the off-season. More important, the Jets gave Jones the carries he expected when he signed with them. He gained 68 yards on 14 carries in the first half, broke off multiple big runs and went over 100 yards rushing on the first play in the fourth quarter. He finished with 117 yards on 30 carries. The Steelers? stingy defense had allowed one 100-yard rusher in its previous 59 games and not a single 100-yard rusher in the past 34 contests. The Jets marched inside the Steelers? 10-yard line twice in the first half. Four times Clemens attempted passes. Four times they fell incomplete. Settling for field goals instead proved costly in the third quarter as the Steelers climbed back into the game behind place-kicker Jeff Reed. He converted a 37-yard field goal, a 33-yard field goal and a 48-yard field goal with 8 minutes 41 seconds remaining to give the Steelers a 16-13 lead. The Jets gave the ball right back, as a Clemens deep pass to Jerricho Cotchery sailed into the arms of Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend. But Shaun Ellis gave the Jets the ball back. In what was his best game of the season thus far, Ellis sacked and stripped Roethlisberger, recovering the ball and giving Clemens another chance. The Jets did not score, but they got the ball back yet again. The big play came from Clemens, who once more showed his mobility by scampering 15 yards to the Steelers? 30-yard line. Clemens found Justin McCareins for 11 more yards, then Baker, the tight end, for 14 more. Clemens was 14 of 31 for 162 yards with one touchdown and one interception. ?He showed really good poise,? Mangini said of Clemens. ?What I like about Kellen, he?s resilient.? With the Jets 5 yards from the end zone with 37 seconds left, a Clemens fade to Brad Smith bounced off a diving Smith?s hands on first down. A delay of game pushed the Jets back 5 yards. Another fade to Smith fell incomplete before Nugent kicked the tying 28-yard field goal. Last season, the Jets went 6-2 after their bye week, including an upset of New England on the road. Can they do something like that again?
