Percy Harvin demonstrates why Jets wanted him
Percy Harvin #16 of the New York Jets runs the ball against Phillip Gaines #23 of the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of a game at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 2, 2014 in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: Getty Images / Peter Aiken
Percy Harvin arrived as a Jet last month with enough personal baggage to weigh down any man, even one as fleet as he is.
But none of that diminished his talent, and he demonstrated Sunday why the Jets decided he was worth the risk.
On another day with little to celebrate, they at least could watch Harvin do his multifaceted thing in a 24-10 loss to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
He finished with 11 receptions for 129 yards, including one catch for 42, and returned two kickoffs for 88 yards, one for 65. He also rushed once for 8 yards.
"Let's face it; the guy is an outstanding talent, and that's why we were excited to bring him in," coach Rex Ryan said.
It was Harvin's first 100-yard receiving game since 2012, which was two teams ago, when he was a Viking. He has 419 all-purpose yards in two games, the most for a Jet in consecutive games since Chad Morton's 454 in 2002.
Harvin was not pleased with how he was used in Seattle before being dealt to the Jets. He's happy now.
"Definitely," he said. "I think I'm getting the ball in space, utilizing my speed a little bit, but like I said, we didn't get the victory, so we all have work to do."
At times, the Chiefs used short kickoffs to keep the ball away from Harvin, but on one deep kick, he came close to getting the Jets within a touchdown at halftime.
In the final minute of the first half, he took the ball 8 yards deep in the end zone and ran it to the Chiefs' 43-yard line, where rookie kicker Cairo Santos made a desperate and dangerous, but effective, play by sticking out a leg to trip him up.
The ensuing 10-yard penalty gave the Jets the ball at the Kansas City 33 with 31 seconds left, but the Jets were unable to get more than a field goal out of it.
"It was great blocking, a left return up the gut," Harvin said. "The blockers did a heck of a job. It was a wide hole and as I got through it, the kicker kind of slowed me up a little bit with him trying to clip me . . . It was just too bad we couldn't capitalize on it."
Asked if he thought Santos' action was dangerous, Harvin said: "I didn't think too much of it, other than it was kind of, I wouldn't say dirty, but I guess he was doing the best he could. But he clearly stuck his foot out. He moved out of the way and kind of stuck his foot out."
Harvin said he "absolutely" would have scored otherwise. "He was kind of the last one left. I kind of felt that he felt that in sticking his leg out. But it happened. We'll move on."
Santos said he expects teammates to poke fun at him when they watch the play on tape, but he said: "I can't do that. I'm just trying to prevent a touchdown, but I can't do things like that."
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
