In huge black block letters on the cover of yesterday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports section read the word: “Whew!”
As they woke up yesterday hung over and still reeling from the shock of their 20-17 overtime loss to the Steelers in Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff game at Heinz Field, the Jets and their millions of disconsolate fans had other four-letter words sitting much more prominently at the tip of their tongues.
For the Steelers, now waiting to host next Sunday’s AFC title game, “whew” tells you all you need to know about them: They know they got away with one. They know the Jets outplayed them. They know the Jets might well deserve to be in that AFC Championship game more than they do.
Any team that watches in horror from its sideline as the opposing kicker twice lines up to kick potential game-winning field goals – only to miss both – knows Divine Intervention might have had a hand in the victory.
“It felt like it was in my hands – the AFC Championship game,” Jets TE Anthony Becht said, looking pained as the words left his mouth. “For an instant, I think the Steelers thought it was done.”
For more than an instant.
“We were very lucky and we recognize that,” Steelers head coach Bill Cowher said.
“God had His hand in that game,” Steelers WR Antwaan Randle El said. “Nobody misses field goals like that, having opportunity after opportunity to win a game. We had no chance. It wasn’t even in our hands. When that happens, you thank Him and move on.”
Added Steelers’ LB Larry Foote: “I hate using that word miracle. Miracles are when you heal the blind and the crippled can walk, but this was the closest thing to a miracle that it gets.”
The crestfallen Jets, who in the end were victims of their dormant offense and two Doug Brien missed game-winning field goal attempts in the final 1:58 of regulation, are still awaiting their miracle.
They have a very sound foundation of young players and veterans and, with some offseason roster tweaking, they’ll get even better.
But you never know when you’re going to get this far again. Just because you made it this far this year guarantees you nothing next year.
Just ask Bill Parcells. After his 1998 Jets made it to the AFC title game and came within 30 minutes of upsetting the Broncos in Denver to get to the Super Bowl, the Jets were a chalk pick to get to the Super Bowl the following season.
A Vinny Testaverde ruptured Achilles tendon in the ’99 season opener later, and Parcells still hasn’t won a postseason game since that near-miss ’98 season.
“It’s frustrating,” Chad Pennington said. “But I understand the process you have to go through to win, and it doesn’t happen overnight. I think it’s going to make us better as a team. As long as Coach (Herman) Edwards is our coach and as long as we have character guys like we had this year in the locker room, we’re going to punch through eventually. I feel good about that, but this is going to take awhile to get over.”
Curtis Martin, the heartbeat of the Jets’ locker room, was so bothered by this loss that, when asked to assess how the team can improve from this, Martin couldn’t muster the positive energy to do it.
“Right now I’m just not interested in saying anything about that,” Martin said. “We’ve got Monday. We’ve got all offseason to think about how we can grow from this. Now is not the time. I don’t want to talk about it, about how we grow from this.
“We left our heart out there. After we lost (to the Steelers a month ago), we prayed we’d have another chance and we got our second chance. We didn’t get the outcome we wanted.”
DE Shaun Ellis, who played his best football down the stretch, said the loss left him feeling “like somebody just ripped something out of you.”
For the heartbroken Jets, it’ll be a long offseason thinking about a litany of what-ifs and what-could-have-beens.
