Stupid Jets
Tape reveals confusion amid Jet collapse
BY RICH CIMINI
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Chad Pennington (l.), Herm Edwards (c.) and Jets are picture of confusion on sideline Sunday.
In the final, ill-fated seconds of the Jets' fourth-quarter fiasco against the Ravens, with the play clock ticking and players standing around on the field, a person on the Jets' sideline yelled, "Get the play in!" - another clue in the evolving Clockgate controversy. It supports the growing theory that the coaching staff was late in delivering the call to Quincy Carter on the third-down play that never happened.
The revelation came last night on the NFL Network, which featured the Jets-Ravens contest in its Game of the Week. Eleven participants wore microphones during the game. If there were any incriminating comments in the unedited version, they probably wound up on the cutting-room floor. But the final version did have a few nuggets. For instance:
Immediately after Carter's incompletion with eight seconds on the game clock, Herman Edwards, speaking on his headset (presumably to offensive coordinator Paul Hackett), says, "We got one more play. You want another pass? We got a timeout. Why don't we take another pass? We gotta throw it."
At that moment, running backs coach Bishop Harris yells, "Tiger, Tiger!" - a personnel grouping that means two tight ends.
Hackett calls the play upstairs, with receivers coach Jim Hostler (on the sideline) relaying it to Carter. This time, there appears to be a breakdown. Panic hits the sideline. With about 25 seconds remaining on the 40-second play clock, an unidentified voice on the sideline yells, "Get the play in!"
It's not Edwards', but the voice could belong to Dick Curl, Edwards' clock-management specialist. Curl is standing near Edwards. It's possible the person is yelling to Carter, but that doesn't seem likely.
Time is running out to get the call to Carter. By rule, the speaker in Carter's helmet shuts off with 15 seconds on the play clock. At 10 seconds, Edwards starts screaming: "Hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up! Quincy!" Carter breaks the huddle with seven seconds left.
The Jets burn their final timeout with the play clock about to expire.
"They got to kick it now," Ravens coach Brian Billick says.
"Can we run a play?" Jets special teams coach Mike Westhoff asks Edwards.
"Nah, we gotta kick a field goal," Edwards replies. "Kick the field goal. Kick the field goal, Paul. ... Can't take a chance."
The Jets kick the field goal, sending it to overtime. They lose, 20-17.
The NFL Network's microphones also catch interesting byplay before and after LaMont Jordan's halfback option pass, an interception that turned the game in the second quarter. Moments before the play, Edwards asks Harris, "LaMont knows to throw it out of bounds, right?"
Then, with the play breaking down, Edwards yells, "Don't throw it, LaMont! Don't throw it!"
Moments later, on the sideline, center Kevin Mawae applauds Hackett's controversial decision to call the trick play.
"Well, it was a great call, just a bad decision (by Jordan)," Mawae says to a teammate or a coach. "He was trying to get the ball out of bounds. You gotta throw it away. I don't think he saw that guy. He had two guys in his face. He didn't see that guy (Ed Reed) in the end zone."
