JET NOTES
To a man, the Jets blamed themselves for yesterday’s 45-24 loss to the Colts, refusing to blame the Herman Edwards or his assistants or the new systems that have been implemented.
“We can’t play like this if we want to reach our goals,” Vinny Testaverde said.
“We played horrible,” Curtis Martin said. “I’m not a man of excuses, but I wish I had an excuse. I’m working for Herm. My job is to make Herm look good and we made him look bad. He did his job; we didn’t do our job.”
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The Jets were great and awful on special teams, with the best being PR/KR Chad Morton averaging 28.5 yards on two punt returns (one of 33 yards and one of 24 yards). All last season, the Jets’ longest punt return was a 19-yarder by Dedric Ward.
Also good for the Jets was S Nick Ferguson’s recovered fumble of a Terrence Wilkins muffed punt deep in Jet territory. Martin (21-79, 1 TD) scored from 6 yards out on the next play to cut the Colts’ lead to 17-14.
On the bad side, Wilkins redeemed himself on his next touch, returning a Tommy Parks punt 78 yards for a 31-14 halftime lead with 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The Colts’ 31 points were the most the Jets have allowed in one half since Sept. 1, 1996.
. . . Parks, making his NFL debut at age 32, performed well, averaging 47.6 yards gross on 5 punts.
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Jets’ WR Laveranues Coles, a star this summer, caught a 38-yard Testaverde (17-of-25, 175 yards, 2 TDs, 114.6 rating) TD pass to give the Jets a 7-0 lead four minutes into the game. Things went bad from there.
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The most agonizing play of the game came when Jets’ LB Marvin Jones picked off a Peyton Manning (22-of-32, 213 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs) pass in the end zone late in the second quarter and then, while trying to return it, fumbled it away without even being hit. Moments later, Manning connected with WR Jerome Pathon for a 21-yard TD and a 24-14 lead.
