JET NOTES
The Jets’ 26-10 victory over the bumbling Raiders yesterday at Giants Stadium featured more bright spots than the team has had to feel good about in weeks.
The Jets’ last win came on Oct. 9, so yesterday ended a span of seven consecutive losses.
“I would say the feeling in here (the locker room) is one of more relief than euphoria,” Jets eloquent center Pete Kendall said, as usual perfectly capturing the moment.
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Brooks Bollinger, starting his sixth NFL game, finally got into the “win” column as he completed 14 of 26 passes for 119 yards, including a TD pass to WR Justin McCareins, and compiled a 78.8 rating.
Also impressive was the way he scrambled with the ball when in trouble. Bollinger set a Jets record for most rushing yards in a game by a QB with 56 yards on six runs, four of which went for key first downs.
“He played like ‘Crazy Legs’ Hirsch,” Herman Edwards said.
“When you’re playing quarterback, all you want to do is win,” Bollinger said.
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The Jets offense was buoyed by rookie RB Cedric Houston, who started in place of the injured Curtis Martin and rushed for a career-high 74 yards on 28 carries, including his first NFL TD. B.J. Askew, a little-used FB who fancies himself as a RB, rushed for a career-high 54 yards on nine carries.
As for Martin and his unfinished quest to become the first player in NFL history to rush for 1,000 or more yards in 11 consecutive seasons, Edwards said, “If that keeps him out of the Hall of Fame, then it should be called the Hall of Shame.”
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Mike Nugent had a terrific game kicking field goals, making all four of his tries (33, 20, 35 and 21 yards), but he was terrible on kickoffs (to the 18, 15, 17, out of bounds, seven and eight) . . . TE Doug Jolley, who had been boycotting the media all week, looked as if he was boycotting Bollinger yesterday, dropping a sure TD pass against his former teammates . . . Raiders WR Randy Moss was virtually invisible with two catches for 18 yards.
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Raiders RB LaMont Jordan, the former Jet, was a complete non-factor as well, with 49 yards on 14 carries – not enough to beat out the Jets’ rookie making his first NFL start and wearing Jordan’s No. 34. Then, Jordan ripped his coach, Norv Turner, for not giving him the ball more.
Maybe if he could have averaged better than the paltry 3.5 yards per carry he averaged yesterday, the Raiders could have kept more drives alive to give him the ball more.
With guys like Jordan, who claimed to have become a better person from his relationship with Martin, it’s always someone else’s fault. And that makes you wonder what exactly he really did learn from Martin.
