Jets upset Steelers in OT

Ben Graham, Mike Nugent and the Jets celebrate

The Jets improved their record to 2-8 thanks to an overtime game-winning field goal by Mike Nugent, left, who gets a hug from holder Ben Graham. (Newsday / David L. Pokress / November 18, 2007)

BY TOM ROCK | tom.rock@newsday.com

November 19, 2007

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Kellen Clemens saw Mike Nugent giving an interview in the locker room, no doubt regaling reporters with tales of his game-tying and game-winning field goals.

"Oh, Mike," Clemens squealed in a falsetto voice, "you're a hero!"

The Jets' locker room had been bereft of several things during the six-game losing streak that was snapped yesterday, and two of them finally were in abundance: guffaws and heroes. It was impossible to walk from one end of the room to the other without bumping into one of the two.

Besides Nugent, whose 38-yarder in overtime barely squeaked over the crossbar to give the Jets a 19-16 win over the Steelers and end their eight weeks of misery, there was a defense that posted seven sacks, a running back in Thomas Jones who ran for 117 yards against the league's top unit, a young quarterback in Clemens who has led game-tying drives in each of his three starts and finally had one stick, and a room full of folks who had been waiting a long, long time for this feeling to return.

"Let me give you a good example," Laveranues Coles said, trying to find just the right metaphor for the last month and a half. "You ever been thrown out of a moving car before?"

The Jets (2-8) were buckled in for this one, even if they had to swerve through some gnarly traffic along the way. They played with a nothing-to-lose attitude on the field and in the coaching strategy. It was the second time under Eric Mangini that the Jets came out of a bye week looking as if they were a different team and posting an improbable upset win.

"There was just something where we refused to lose today," tight end Chris Baker said.

The Jets took a 10-0 lead, but just as they had frittered away their previous three double-digit advantages, so too did they give away this one. The Steelers scored nine straight points on three field goals in the third and fourth quarters to take a 16-13 lead, the go-ahead points coming after the Jets turned the ball over on downs with 12:16 remaining. A number of Jets fans, so conditioned to defeat, started heading for the exits when the team failed to convert the fourth-down play, even though the score was tied.

The Jets flunked a second fourth-down test in the fourth quarter, but the defense gave Clemens the ball back with 2:23 remaining at the Jets' 14. Staring at the league's top defense, Clemens moved the Jets on a 13-play, 76-yard drive that included a circus catch by Baker on the first play, a 15-yard scramble by Clemens and Brad Smith's drop of a potential game-winning touchdown pass. But Nugent put through a 28-yarder with 23 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.

The teams traded three-and-outs before Leon Washington returned a Steelers punt 33 yards to the 26, easily in range of the game-winning points. After three runs by Jones, Nugent dropped his first career overtime field-goal attempt beyond the crossbar.

"I knew it would be good," Jets receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. "That's why we call him 'Money Mike.'"

The decision against the Steelers (7-3), a team bound for the playoffs and with serious Super Bowl aspirations, does bring to the front some obvious questions. They were questions that the players were asking themselves without much prodding from reporters.

"Obviously we'll think about that later on: If we can beat this team, how come we couldn't beat some other teams?" Baker asked.

Coles, who injured his ankle on the game's second play, was wise enough to recognize that one win will not salvage the season.

"It might not be the ultimate healer, but it's a pain pill that makes it go away, even if it's just for a moment," he said. "It's not something that'll cure what you got, but it soothes you for that moment."

Still, this win was something to be positive about in a season that has been largely negative.

"This was a good chance for us to come out against a good team and make a statement," safety Kerry Rhodes said. "It was a mini-statement, but it was a statement in its own right."

It's about (sack) time

The Jets had seven sacks against the Steelers yesterday after totaling nine in their first nine games. Their game-by-game sack totals entering yesterday:

Week 1 vs. New England 0