truebluefan

JETS MORNING AFTER

This was supposed to be a nice, easy weekend trip to Cleveland. Get a win against the lowly Browns and get back to New York at 5-3. Well, yesterday the Jets dropped a winnable game and now stand at 4-4 and face the toughest part of their schedule.

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truebluefan

Add Reuben Droughns and the Cleveland Browns to the list of players and teams that have trouble running the football against everyone ... except the Jets.

The anemic Browns' ground game showed stunning verve against the Jets, accumulating 147 yards, more than twice its average in the first six games. And Droughns did his damage behind a piecemeal offensive line that was without starting right tackle Ryan Tucker and left guard Joe Andruzzi, who left with a knee injury in the second quarter.

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truebluefan

Jets tight end Chris Baker is convinced he would have gotten both feet inbounds.

Baker also realizes his opinion ultimately does not count for much.

"The only thing that really matters is what the officials say," he said.

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truebluefan

It looked like the ball was tipped. It had to be. What other reason would there be for Jets quarterback Chad Pennington to underthrow a wide-open Justin McCareins by nearly 15 yards?

On a third-and-seven from the Jets' 44-yard line midway through the fourth quarter and the Jets trailing by seven yesterday, McCareins got behind the Browns' defense by 10 yards and had a sure touchdown. But Pennington unleashed a dying quail that appeared to be tipped at the line of scrimmage.

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truebluefan

For a few seconds, it seemed as if in one play, the Jets might have won a reprieve from a day of sabotaging themselves.

Chad Pennington had just ducked a blitz and thrown the ball into the end zone near the right sideline, and tight end Chris Baker had beaten one man and made a terrific one-handed catch just as he was hit in mid-air and sent flying out of bounds by the Browns' Brodney Pool.


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truebluefan

No doubt there will be plenty of yelling and screaming today about how the officials robbed the Jets yesterday at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Talk shows will be flooded with callers, screaming: "We wuz robbed." And with for good reason.

Chris Baker's marvelous leaping catch on the Jets' final offensive play should have been ruled a game-tying touchdown. Just about everyone in the building could see Baker would have landed in the end zone if not for the jarring hit by safety Brodney Poole. But field judge Buddy Horton ruled him out of bounds and the rest of the officials backed his call, causing a smokescreen that will cloud the real reason the Jets went home a 20-13 loser to the Browns.

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truebluefan

You can't credit new Browns play-caller Jeff Davidson for the airtight coverage of New York Jets receivers or the maniacal play of safety Sean Jones.

You can't credit Davidson for two fortuitous rulings by the field officials that could have gone the Jets' way, one that was not overturned by replay review and one that didn't qualify for review.

But you have to credit Davidson for crafting and carrying out a game plan that lifted the Browns out of their offensive doldrums. They were aggressive, efficient, orderly and, at the end, rightfully conservative.

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truebluefan

The defensive formula against the Browns seemed so simple. Because when the Jets did blitz and put pressure on quarterback Charlie Frye and his makeshift offensive line, Cleveland could produce just one field goal.

Unfortunately for the Jets, who lost 20-13 yesterday, they didn't make that adjustment until the Browns had taken a two-touchdown lead on their first drive of the second half.

Where was that aggressive defense the first 34 minutes?

"I really can't tell you that,'' said defensive end Shaun Ellis, who had six tackles in his 100th NFL game. "We made adjustments and found things that worked.''

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truebluefan

A league-surprising 5-3 record at the midway point of the season and a bye week to bask in it hung precariously in the cool Lake Erie air last night at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

A fourth-down pass by Chad Pennington floated toward tight end Chris Baker in the end zone with about a minute left as the Jets trailed the Browns by a touchdown.

Baker leaped into the air and cherry-picked the ball out of the sky with his right hand and hauled it in.

Overtime appeared imminent.

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