Ex-Jet Brett Favre came up short on the heroics as the Jets moved to 4-1.
What Went Right
1. Favre From A Good Start – The Jets really limited Brett Favre from being effective in the first half, making it particularly difficult on third down. Favre also wasn’t helped by an offense that generated three penalties on their first offensive set of the game. Then on the Vikings second drive of the game, Drew Coleman unzipped Favre’s protection for a sack, dropping the quarterback for a seven-yard loss. The resulting punt gave the Jets good field position and the subsequent seven-play, 33-yard drive was capped off by a Nick Folk field goal for a 3-0 lead. How bad was it? The Vikings generated just one first down in the opening quarter. Late in the second quarter, Favre was caught with his pants down, fumbling an exchange under center that Bart Scott quickly pounced on in Minnesota territory.
2. Shock and Awe – It wasn’t the big numbers of last week when both LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene topped 100-yards rushing against Buffalo, but the Jets backfield was very effective in moving the ball and churning out yards. All told, the Jets backfield duo tallied 151 yards rushing, led by Tomlinson’s 94 yards on the ground. On a night where the passing game was wildly erratic, the rushing attack for the Jets slowly chipped away at Minnesota, eating up clock and keeping the Vikings offense off the field. Greene scored the Jets’ only offensive touchdown of the game, breaking off a 23-yard run to put the Jets up 22-13 with 4:40 left. “It was the first time the Minnesota Vikings have given up 150 yards rushing in 51 straight games,” Jets head coach Rex Ryan said.
3. Lowery Blow On Favre – His first career interception is one Dwight Lowery will always remember. Inside two minutes, the Vikings trailed, 22-20, and had third -and-5 at their own 21-yard line. Off a play action, Lowery perfectly read the pattern to tight end Visanthe Shiancoe to snag the ball in mid-air. Twenty-plus yards and some high-stepping later, Lowery rumbled into the end zone for a pick-six. In the Jets first preseason game, Lowery was one of the players in the secondary who was ripped by Jets fans for a poor second half performance to the Giants. Fair to say Lowery redeemed himself.
What Went Wrong
1. Jets All Wet – Blame it on the wet weather that caused slick conditions, but it was a sloppy game for the Jets. To start with, Nick Folk booted the opening kickoff out of bounds to give Minnesota good field position to start the game. In the first half alone, Jerricho Cotchery and Tony Richardson both got called for holding on what would have been big gains. And Braylon Edwards, the mark of consistency the past few weeks, dropped a catchable ball in the second quarter on third down, as did Santonio Holmes midway through the quarter.
2. Off The Mark – After tossing eight touchdown passes in his last three games, Mark Sanchez had a bit of a dud against Minnesota, or at the very least, a letdown performance. Symbolic of the night was a poor all around play right before the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter. On second-and-long with the clock running and Minnesota having no timeouts left, Sanchez inexplicably snapped the ball with 2:04 on the clock and threw an incompletion essentially giving the Vikings a free play. He then sailed a ball over the head of Braylon Edwards on third down to give the ball back to Favre with 1:48 left. Very poor game management by Sanchez who was a humbling 21-44 for 191 yards on the night, including just 52 yards in the second half.
3. Almost an epic fail – After shutting out the Vikings in the first half, the Jets played on their heels for much of the second half with Favre leading three touchdown drives for a combined 181 yards in a 17-minute span in the second half. Especially worrisome for the Jets was the big plays given up on third down on the drive. “Brett Favre is an amazing competitor,” Ryan said. On Minnesota’s first scoring drive, on their third possession of the second half, the Jets conceded three plays of 16 yards or greater on third down. They gambled with blitzes late and Favre killed them on single coverage, including a 37-yard tear drop to Randy Moss for a touchdown in the third quarter. If not for an overthrow to a wide-open Percy Harvin on the play before the pick-six, this very well could have been the Vikings night.
