The Jets' last playoff win came 15 years ago today: 'Can't wait!' to 'still waiting'

Bart Scott and other players ran onto the field with their arms extended as if they were jet wings and flew around Gillette Stadium. Braylon Edwards performed a cartwheel into a backflip.

The Jets had just finished off one of the biggest wins in franchise history. They shocked the top-seeded Patriots, 28-21, in the divisional round of the 2010 AFC playoffs to advance to the conference championship game against the Steelers.

Jets fans still recall Scott excitedly and emphatically saying “Can’t wait!” during an on-field interview after ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio said, “See you in Pittsburgh.”

That stirring performance on a cold Sunday in Foxborough on Jan. 16, 2011, seemed like a breakthrough for the Jets. Now 15 years have passed. That not only was their last playoff victory but the last time they made the postseason.

“It’s the only thing they still talk about,” Scott said recently. “Since ‘Can’t wait!’ we’re still waiting.”

The Jets eliminated Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in consecutive weeks to reach their second straight AFC Championship Game, a 24-19 loss. Ending the season for Brady and Bill Belichick meant everything to those Jets.

“If you went 2-14 but the two wins were against New England, it was a good year,” former Jets defensive end Mike DeVito said by phone recently from his Maine home. “We absolutely hated each other. That showed the week leading up to it. After the win, it was just incredible.”

DeVito remembers the Jets “letting it rip” and “talking crap” all week. They never worried about giving opponents bulletin-board material. They followed their head coach’s lead.

Rex Ryan was unapologetically bold and brash. He famously said, “I didn’t come here to kiss Bill Belichick’s rings.” Leading up to the game, Ryan called it “personal” and said, “This is about Bill Belichick versus Rex Ryan.”

Ryan’s bluster and supreme confidence fired up his players.

“Rex was like, [expletive] these guys. We’re going in there, we’re going to punch them in the mouth and they’re going to wish they never played us,’ ” DeVito said. “And boy, does that give you confidence and excitement going into it.”

‘Nobody gave us a chance’

Few outside of the Jets’ locker room truly believed they would win. The Patriots were 14-2 and had won eight straight. Six weeks earlier, they annihilated the Jets, 45-3, on Monday Night Football.

“They spanked us up there on ‘Monday Night,’ ” kicker Nick Folk said. “We got our butt kicked. I don’t think anyone gave us a chance. We came out and played a really good football game.”

The Jets had future Hall of Famers (Darrelle Revis, LaDainian Tomlinson and Jason Taylor), playmakers on both sides of the ball and a strong offensive line. They were 11-5 and beat New England in Week 2. That was before the Patriots got on a roll.

“Nobody gave us a chance,” Scott said. “We all believed in each other. We had an outstanding team meeting the night before and we all believed.”

Former Jets defensive end Dennis Byrd, who was paralyzed in a game in 1992, gave the team a powerful speech on Saturday night. The Jets honored Byrd as the captains carried his No. 90 jersey to midfield for the coin flip.

Both teams were confident. The outcome stunned the Patriots.

“It’s like you’re on a treadmill running 10 miles per hour and someone hits the stop button,” Brady said after the game.

The Jets’ aggressive defense bothered Brady. He was sacked five times — twice by Shaun Ellis — and picked off once.

Linebacker David Harris, who had 12 tackles, intercepted Brady in Jets territory on New England’s opening possession. He returned it 58 yards to the Patriots’ 12. It was Brady’s first interception in 11 games. DeVito remembers that clearly as the turning point.

“I never to this day felt such a change in momentum,” he said. “It was palpable. You could feel it from them. You could feel it from us. The second [Harris] got that and started running, I was like, ‘It’s over. It’s over. We won this game.’ ”

The Jets, though, didn’t score off the turnover. Folk, who kicked the 32-yard field goal as time expired to beat Indianapolis in the wild-card round, uncharacteristically missed a 30-yard attempt. The Patriots took a 3-0 lead on Shayne Graham’s 34-yard field goal on the ensuing series.

The Jets’ defense stiffened and held New England to 2 net yards in the second quarter. They led 14-3 at halftime after Mark Sanchez threw second-quarter touchdown passes to Tomlinson and Edwards.

The Patriots cut it to 14-11 on Brady’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler and Sammy Harris’ two-point conversion run with 13 seconds to go in the third.

Undeterred, the Jets answered quickly and resoundingly.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Sanchez threw a 7-yard pass over the middle to Jerricho Cotchery, and he sprinted another 51 yards to New England’s 13. Three plays later, it was Tone Time.

Santonio Holmes made a terrific leaping, back-to-the-play, over-the-shoulder catch in the left corner of the end zone. Sanchez’s third touchdown pass helped give the Jets a 21-11 cushion with 13 minutes to go.

“I think the pass that he threw was more tremendous than me making the catch because he placed it where the defender had no chance to make a play on it,” Holmes said that day.

The Patriots drove into Jets territory on the next series, but the defense shut them down. Sione Po’uha sacked Brady for a 3-yard loss from the 34. On fourth down, the Jets blitzed Brady, and his rushed throw to Deion Branch was incomplete.

On the next series, the Patriots had a first down at the Jets’ 18. They gained one more yard. Graham’s field goal made it 21-14 with 1:57 left.

‘Hell, no . . . we’re going to score’

The Jets needed another big play — and got it.

Graham’s onside kick squirted past Revis, but Antonio Cromartie picked it up and ran 23 yards. The Jets had the ball at New England’s 20. On second down, Shonn Greene ran it in from 16 yards out to help make it 28-14 with 1:41 remaining.

Folk noted that the Jets “could have iced it” and run out the clock had Greene gone down at the 1. New England had one timeout left. DeVito agreed but then laughed and said that wasn’t Ryan’s way.

“You’re talking about Rex and Rex’s style, and Shonn embodied that,” DeVito said. “It was like, ‘Hell, no, screw them, we’re not kneeling down. We’re going to score. We’re going to run it in and we’re going to talk crap doing it.’ ”

After Greene scored, he waved to the crowd, put the football down and used it as a pillow, as if to say “good night” to New England. Ryan lumbered to the end zone to celebrate, slapping Greene on the helmet.

The Patriots scored on a pass from Brady to Branch with 24 seconds left. Eric Smith recovered the onside kick for the Jets. This time they lined up in victory formation.

The Empire State Building was lit up in green and white that night. On the team flight home, the pilot got as close to it as possible.

“Outside of the Super Bowl that they won, that’s the biggest win in the history of the Jets’ franchise,” DeVito said. “To beat 14-2 New England in the divisional round of the playoffs after they had just beaten us handily, it’s as special as it gets.”

The franchise is trying to recapture those feelings, as Folk, 41, can attest. He played on this season’s 3-14 Jets team.

“It’s crazy to think that’s the way it’s gone, but it’s just kind of the way sports goes sometimes,” he said. “We’re just trying to get on that train, get on that track. It’ll come around.”

They’re still waiting.

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.