My Jets Favorite Games

Historically the New York Jets have not had a lot to cheer about the last 20 or so years. Tom Brady and the New England Patriot’s domination of the AFC East has been both stunning and frustrating for Jet fans like myself. I’ve followed the green and white since 1964 and besides the 1968 season capped off with a Super Bowl win in 1969, there has not been a lot to celebrate. Throughout this dry spell though, there have been some fun games that stand out. The Wild Card game against the Indianapolis Colts on January 4th 2003 was one of those games.

  Herman Edwards became coach of the Jets in 2001. He came to a team that had some rebuilding in place thanks to Bill Parcells. Parcells inherited a team that went 1-15. His three years as head coach of the Jets was the start of a solid foundation when he suddenly quit followed by Bill Belichick quitting only 24 hours after accepting the head coaching job. Al Groh took over and went 9-7 his only year at the helm when new owner Woody Johnson then hired Edwards as head coach.

  Edwards went 10-6 his rookie head coaching year. In his second year the Jets captured the AFC East with a 9-7 record. This despite starting the season 2-5. It was after a 24-21 loss to the Cleveland Browns that Edwards delivered his famous “You play to win the game” line in the post game press conference after some reporters accused the Jets of quitting.

  The 2002 Jets roster was pretty formidable with players such as: Chad Pennington, Curtis Martin, Wayne Chrebet, Santana Moss, Kevin Mawae, John Abraham, Mo Lewis and Ray Mickens making up some of the roster. The Colts were 10-6 and Peyton Manning was just starting to make his mark in the NFL.

  The January 4th game was played at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The Jets started the scoring early with a 56 yard screen pass to Richie Anderson from Chad Pennington. Building up more and more momentum, the Jets were getting better as the game went on and at halftime they were ahead 24-0. They continued their dominance in the second half with the final score 41-0 .

  There were a lot of players who had great games including Chad Penington, Richie Anderson, Chad Morton and John Abraham. But to me it was running back LaMont Jordan who really stood out. He had 102 yards rushing with 2 touchdowns. But it was in the second half that Jordan played his best football ever in his four year career with the Jets. He was just steamrolling the Colt defense making sure it took multiple players to take him down. He looked more like Earl Campbell than himself wearing down the Colts front seven.

  The 41-0 playoff victory is up there with one of favorite New York Jet games of all time. It was a combination of fun and exhilaration watching the green and white go up and down the field doing very little wrong. My own adrenalin kept me on a high and I remember not getting to sleep that night until very late.  I kept sneaking down stairs quietly to watch highlights on my VCR that I luckily recorded. New York Jet fans need more memories like this one!

Wild Card - Indianapolis Colts at

New York Jets - January 4th, 2003