All touchdowns are worth six points on the scoreboard, but in the heart, clearly some are worth more than others. Marcus Coleman’s Hail Mary on the final play of the first half yesterday lifted the Jets’ spirits and ripped out the Bills’ guts in a 27-14 Gang Green win at Giants Stadium. Coleman’s 45-yard TD with no time on the clock sent the Jets into halftime with a 21-14 lead, and gave them all the momentum.
“It was a better seven-point lead, [even though] the math reads the same,” Jets coach Al Groh said. “It was better for our heart.”
And worse for Buffalo’s. The Bills, who had just one turnover coming into the game, coughed the ball up four times in the second half. The crowd of 77,884 at Giants Stadium came alive. And despite the litany of gaffes by his team yesterday, Buffalo coach Wade Phillips had no trouble pinpointing their biggest mistake.
“The last play of the half, you get a Hail Mary. That turned the game around completely. We had them going into halftime, had the crowd out of it. That’s ridiculous,” Phillips huffed. “We should have everybody back on the goal line. They should be waiting for the ball, instead of jumping for the ball. We need a guy running with the guy down the field jamming him. We just relaxed, and it cost us. That’s something you can’t afford.”
Coleman had been beaten for a 74-yard Jeremy McDaniel TD to knot the score at 14-all with 1:17 left in the half. The Jets got the ball back and moved it to the Buffalo 45 with :04 left. With four receivers spit wide, Coleman lined up in the slot and ran a fly pattern. CB Daryl Porter, the nearest defender, just let him go, and by the time Keion Carpenter, Donovan Greer and Ken Irvin converged on him, he outjumped all three for the TD.
“Take that Hail Mary away, take that [Kevin Williams] kickoff away, and what have you got? We beat ourselves. We shot ourselves in the foot,” Carpenter said,
“That’s a play you don’t expect, but their guy came down with it. That was big,” said Porter. “It’s basically a jump ball, and their guy jumped higher than our guys did. It’s a Hail Mary, throw-it-up and pray, and their guys prayed a little harder and came down with it.”
