When New England's Devin McCourty fumbled away a kickoff return just before the two-minute warning, some unlikely possibilities were suddenly on the table.
The much-maligned Jets had the ball already in field-goal range in a tie game and were looking at taking over first place in the AFC East. The Patriots were inexplicably staring down 3-4, with four very close, late, heartbreaking losses. And anyone who happened to still be alive in their survivor pools were going to get knocked out taking an 11.5-point favorite to win.
The Jets made a mistake. They didn't put the Patriots away when they had the chance.
New York's first two plays were runs up the middle that gained 3 yards, including the first one on a Wildcat play from Tim Tebow, even though Mark Sanchez was in the middle of a 328-yard passing day against a Patriots secondary that has been suspect, at best. The third and 7 pass call resulted in a sack. Big and bold Rex Ryan played for a field goal when he had the chance to knock out the Patriots and one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
When the Jets got that field goal with 1:37 left, taking all of 24 seconds off the clock, the only question was whether Tom Brady was going to win the game in regulation or simply lead a game-tying drive to send it to overtime. Brady hit Rob Gronkowski for 15 yards, then 12 more. He hit Danny Woodhead for a pair of completions that gained 27 more. The Patriots tied the game on a Stephen Gostkowski field goal. That should have surprised nobody.
New England won the toss in overtime, Brady led another drive that ended with a Gostkowski field goal, then Sanchez fumbled on the Jets' only possession to allow the Patriots to escape with a win. New England is in first place in the division at 4-3.
New York played a very good game. Statistically, the Jets played the Patriots nearly even across the board. New York had a great chance for the upset win and first place in the AFC East at the two-minute warning. Instead, the Jets let Brady and the Patriots hang around and beat them.
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While the rain didn't move into Detroit until about 9:15 local time on Wednesday night — approximately 75 minutes after the game was scheduled to start — Major League Baseball made the decision to hold off on starting the game. That led to the strange sight of fans sitting in the stands around a tarp-less field, but MLB said the decision was made to "protect the integrity of a nine-inning game." It'd be hard for either side to argue with that logic given that it meant neither Sabathia nor Scherzer were used up for just an inning or two before a rain delay. That same situation happened when Game 1 of the ALDS was suspended in the middle of the second inning last year and the league attracted plenty of criticism for letting Sabathia and Justin Verlander effectively waste a start.
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