By MARK CANNIZZARO
Last updated: 3:38 pm
September 8, 2008
Posted: 4:47 am
September 8, 2008
MIAMI - The drama you anticipated dripping from this delicious match-up between the Brett Favre Jets and the Chad Pennington Dolphins did not disappoint yesterday.
In the end, it delivered about everything you could have asked for in the Jets' stressful 20-14 season-opening victory at Dolphin Stadium.
Vaccaro: Mangini Nearly Allowed Chad To Get His Revenge
You had Favre dramatics: two touchdown passes, including a long bomb and a Hail Mary heave.
You had a bizarre scenario that left the Jets without a kicker in the first half when Mike Nugent hurt his left thigh and was unable even to attempt an extra point or a kickoff.
You had Jets running back Thomas Jones running for 101 yards and equaling his 2007 rushing TD total with a six-yard scoring run that provided the winning points.
And finally, you had Pennington, the former Jet of the last eight seasons and a master of the two-minute drill, with the ball and 1:43 remaining and no timeouts, 61 tantalizing yards away from the dream of his life - exacting revenge on the team that discarded him in the middle of the night a month ago in Cleveland.
Pennington, who threw for 163 yards in a frantic fourth-quarter comeback bid, nearly willed his new team to victory - a win that would have been crushing to the Jets.
"It was a stressful one," Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum said.
Watching Pennington (26-of-43, 251 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) drive the Dolphins toward the end zone in the final moments? "It was hard; it was really hard," Tannenbaum said.
At the end of this eventful afternoon in the sweltering south Florida sun, though, Pennington's final pass - intended for Ted Ginn Jr. and thrown from the Jets' 18-yard line - landed in the arms of Jets' cornerback Darrelle Revis, who brilliantly boxed out Ginn and picked it off in the right corner of the end zone with five seconds remaining.
"All week, I was looking forward to the finish," Eric Mangini said afterward. "And I was proud of the finish we had."
Jets linebacker David Bowens said of Pennington and the two-minute drill, "It's his thing. That made it stressful."
Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis added, "He knows our operation and we knew he was going to come back and make a strong push."
In the end, though, the Jets' push was stronger.
They ran the ball well and stopped the Miami rushing attack, holding the Dolphins to 49 yards and a 2.9-yard average. They got lucky, too, when Favre and second-year wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, making his NFL debut, did their Eli Manning to David Tyree impression in the second quarter.
Forced to go for it on fourth-and-14 from the Miami 22 because Nugent was too hurt to try a field goal, Favre escaped a sack with Dolphins' linebacker Joey Porter draped all over him and heaved the ball high into the air toward the end zone.
Stuckey made an improbable leaping catch at the goal line and fell forward into the end zone to give the Jets a 13-7 lead.
"I just tried to throw it to where someone was, try to give someone a chance," Favre (15-of-22, 194 yards, 2 TDs) said. "I saw (Stuckey). I didn't think he had a chance in hell of catching it."
Nor did the Dolphins.
"That's all luck," Porter said with disgust. "You don't practice, 'Close my eyes and throw up a Hail Mary.'" With Nugent hurting, the Jets went for two after the Stuckey touchdown and failed. Earlier, Favre had given the Jets a 7-0 lead on a 56-yard scoring strike to Jerricho Cotchery.
"We're having a lot of fun out there right now," Cotchery said.
After Patriots quarterback Tom Brady injured his knee during the Pats' 17-10 win over the Chiefs, the Jets, who opened as 3-point favorites over their rivals, have a better chance to keep the fun going.
Jets: 20
Dolphins: 14
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