AFC Wild Card Playoff: Jets 24, Bengals 14

PREGAME
Looks like we could be in for an old-fashioned playoff game to start the weekend. It should be a cold night in Cincinnati, and both of these teams thrive on running and playing defense. Can the Bengals turn around last week's 37-0 blowout loss? We'll see. I think the brilliance in the Jets' turning Brad Smith loose last week is that Cincinnati's had to spend extra time preparing for him and the Jets can thrash them now with everything else they do well.

FIRST QUARTER
NBC's very interesting broadcast crew for this game: Tom Hammond, Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann. Has Gibbs ever done a game? Today's drinking game: take one for every Redskins or Notre Dame reference.

11 degree wind chill in Cincy. You folks who insist St. Louis' future stadium be an outdoor one want to think that over again? If you're going to drive me out of my season tickets with vastly inflated ticket and seat-license prices, at least do it for a dome with a retractable roof.

Didn't take the Bengals long to reverse last week's trend. A 57-yard kick return will fix a lot things for a team. Their left-side linebacker was hurt on the return, though, and they're now down to their #3 on that side. Hmm, who will the Jets be likely to be running at all day?

They don't take advantage of the long kick return AT ALL, though, as Bengal karma kicks in on their 3rd play from scrimmage and Laveurnes Coles fumbles what should have been a first down pass back to his old team. Ominous...

Apparently wanting to humiliate his own wide receiver further on national TV, Marvin Lewis uselessly challenges the call, which only serves to show Coles knocked the ball out with his own knee...

And wastes a timeout...

And a challenge...

The Bengals hold, though, after a pretty dumb sequence by the Jets. They run blitz and stuff a Thomas Jones run on 2nd-and-7, then the Jets roll out the Wildcat with Brad Smith and take a penalty, then try to throw a screen pass to him on third and a mile. If there's one guy the Bengal D is going to be all over today, it's Brad Smith.

And momentum is definitely with the Bengals. They break another long special teams play, returning the punt (by Jay Feely?) to the Jet 45, then Cedric Benson explodes for 20 more off the left side behind big blocks by the LT and the LG getting to the 2nd level. Would be nice if any of Carson Palmer's passes were within six feet of their intended receiver, though. He does scramble out of trouble and hit Coles at the 15 to keep the drive alive. Coles shows he has learned nothing from his fumble by continuing to hold the ball as far away from his body as possible. He may be good for multiple turnovers today.

Andre Caldwell loses the handle on the ball at the 3 after getting flipped head-over-heels by Jim Leonhard, so Rex Ryan's challenging that. Does a player's head equal a foot? His hand landed first (not down), then his head.

I guess not; Ryan wins the challenge and the Bengals are set back to the 15. Cincy recovers from that, though, as Coles beats Dwight Lowry for the game's first score. The Jets were rushing eight on that play, dropping the linebacker back very late, leaving Lowery 1-on-1 and at least six yards off of Coles on the line of scrimmage. That play's in the dictionary next to "doomed to fail".

Bengals 7, Jets 0.

The Jets again idiotically try a Wildcat play at midfield after a good run by Shonn Greene. THE BENGALS ARE GOING TO BE ALL OVER THAT TODAY. Gains squat on 2nd-and-11. Jets get away with two players false-starting on 3rd-and-11 but almost get intercepted and punt again. Feely is still punting because punter Steve Weatherford "is sick". Really? You're going to go with that? I can't play in the playoff game because "I'm sick"? Because, PUSSY.

Benson bounces up off a Jet pulling him down on his own body and turns a 2-yard loss into a 7-yard gain. That's followed by A BRIAN LEONARD SIGHTING. He can catch swing passes for no gain as well in Cincinnati as he could here. Lowry breaks up a short pass to Caldwell to force the punt.

I love Hammond's liberal affectation to pronounce the Jet QB's last name Sanch-EZ. It's part of the liberal media's attempt to show how Latino cool they are, going along with ESPN suddenly putting diacritical marks over the E's in every Latino baseball player's names recently, complete with Jon Miller's affected pronunciation emphasizing the last syllable of every Latino player's name. A sudden change in spelling and pronouncing people's names after decades of doing it one way. See, Latino people? We are liberal and hip and cool and pronounce and spell your names the way you do. Viva la raza!

Except you know how Mark Sanchez pronounces HIS OWN NAME? SAN-chez. No diacritical marks; no stuffy liberal affectations.

The Jets smartly get back to their traditional running game, but for some reason, Greene's getting all the carries and Jones is cooling his heels on the bench. I don't understand that at all, but I haven't followed the Jets closely, either. The seem stymied after a false start, but Jerricho Cotchery's sideline catch keeps the drive going on 3rd-and-long.

Maybe. Marvin Lewis is challenging again. Crowd doesn't like the call, either, but it looks pretty clearly like he dragged his back foot. Gibbs and Theismann have been too friendly to Marvin Lewis in saying that both his challenges have been good ones. They haven't. They both have been poor challenges. It was pretty clear from the first view of each replay that the original call was correct.

Lewis' challenge fails as expected, and he is out of challenges FOR THE GAME. Meanwhile, Braylon Edwards has a PERFECT TD bomb from Sanchez slip right through his hands. How much did the Jets give up to get him? Quarter's over with the Bengals ahead and the Jets facing a third down at the Bengal 40.

End of first quarter: Bengals 7, Jets 0.
SECOND QUARTER
Brandon Johnson, who's made a couple of plays today for Cincy, bats down Sanchez' pass to force another Feely punt. Feely actually gets one to check up at the 6-yard line; beautiful work. Some of the screwing around kickers do all day during training camp paid off right there.

Bryan Thomas stuffs Benson on 3rd-and-2 to force a 3-and-out. Cotchery sets the Jets up just across midfield with the return.

I have seen some gross fast food in my 44-plus years on this earth; for instance, Hardee's fried bologna breakfast biscuit, but that McDonald's Big Mac Snack Wrap takes the urinal cake. It doesn't look a whole lot different than what it would look like to take a piece of paper and pick up some dog poop with it.

Hey, Thomas Jones is finally back, and rips off an 8-yard gain. The Jets follow that with a 90-flip to Greene, and with Dustin Keller getting away with a block in the back out on the wing, he sprints 38 yards for the tying TD. Theismann says Keller made a great block. There was an official looking right at it. HE BLOCKED THE MAN IN THE BACK! That's as illegal on running plays as it is on kickoffs.

Anyway, Jets 7, Bengals 7.

The Jets got back to what they do best that series, and it paid off.

Palmer continues his awful game with an incompletion behind one receiver and a horrible overthrow of Caldwell, but the refs let him off with a bogus call against Darrelle Revis. We have heard squat from Chad JOHNSON today, btw. Palmer does hit Coles with a nice sideline pass to get them out of a hole after a false start. Benson then rumbles for 13 to get them across midfield. The Bengal LT is having a standout game. As good as the Bengal running game is, I wasn't expecting them to run as successfully on the Jets as they have. Benson's averaging a lot per carry. But after a false start, Revis makes a beautiful play on a pass down the sideline for JOHNSON and picks Palmer off. He returns it to near midfield.

Palmer is still having an awful game. Maybe not as awful as the totally-silenced JOHNSON, but pretty damn bad all the same.

I just did an in-game post on the Seahawks hiring Pete Carroll, and, no, I'm not happy about it. The way they went about it, the way the NFL's letting them get away with it, is total and absolute bullshit.

Back to the playoff game. Brandon Johnson's filling in for Rashad Jeanty, who got hurt on the opening kickoff and was filling in for Rey Maualuga, and is doing a hell of a job, stuffing a Jones draw play for a big loss. Sanchez answers with a slant to Cotchery for a first down, then a beautiful play to Dustin Keller for a lead TD. The Jets had Brad Smith out wide, and everybody, including Hammond, overfocused on him, and Keller broke wide open behind Dhani Jones (as overrated as his deodorant commercials are bad), and Sanchez, rolling to right, to the opposite side of the field as Smith, hits him on the deep cross-field flag route for a 45-yard TD. Beauty in strategy and execution.

Jets 14, Bengals 7.

Some details I've been overlooking: 6:14 left in the half. Benson is averaging about 6 yards a run. Coles, by far Cincy's best receiver today, even with the fumble, is out with a thumb injury. And we have another BRIAN LEONARD SIGHTING, returning the ensuing short kickoff out to the 30.

Remember week 3 of preseason when the Rams beat the Bengals and looked pretty good doing it? Which of the two did you think was more likely to make the playoffs back in August?

Palmer scrambles and dives out of bounds for a first down on 3rd-and-2, but Revis would have spared him the effort with another illegal contact penalty. The Bengals use their last timeout for no explicable reason.

Hold on, pizza's here.

Jets bring Leonhard on a dog blitz right up the middle and nearly get a huge turnover on the sack. Cincinnati very lucky not to lose the ball there. Saving the day for the Bengals?

BRIAN LEONARD.

Cotchery returns the punt the next play to the Jet 42, but they punt right back after three ineffective handoffs. That looked like a missed opportunity there. They get the ball back to start the 2nd half, but why not try to at least tack on 3? Very Spagnuolian strategy there.

The Bengals just run out the clock with Benson and we head to halftime.

Halftime score: Jets 14, Bengals 7.

Obviously we're looking for the Jets to try to pound down the clock in the 2nd half. Their problem is, they haven't really run the ball down Cincinnati's throat. They've capitalized on big plays. Cincinnati needs Palmer to get his head out of his ass, and they need Coles back on the field, because he's head-and-shoulders their best receiving threat today. Do they even have a tight end they throw to? Ever? They've got to find some way to make up for Revis pwning JOHNSON, which could be Coles, who pwned Lowery when he was in there. Bengals are certainly still in this, but the Jets are exactly where they want to be at the half.

THIRD QUARTER
The Jets are quickly out to midfield after a bizarre kickoff that appeared to be an onside kick gone bad. Um, booth, you might want to discuss that. Ok, don't. Greene bashes out a couple of close-to-ten-yard carries. Thomas Who? They're down to the 30 on 4 Greene carries and Cincinnati's at risk of being run out of the game. The stupid Wildcat fails again; Smith=decoy today, Jets! That's why you have the lead! Instead, the Wildcat killed the momentum Greene gave them, and then they HAND OFF TO JONES ON THIRD AND SIX. Deservedly, the refs call them for holding on the initial FG attempt, which Feely made from 42, then a false start on the re-kick, which Feely made from 52. Feely stays in, but to punt, and I believe the refs knew the Jets did not deserve to score there.

The Jets have not pressed their advantage either of the last two possessions; look for the Bengals to capitalize on that soon.

Or look for my TiVo to freeze up at the 10:10 mark of the third quarter. I'm getting legendary for this kind of crap happening to me in the postseason. I'm the Marty Schottenheimer of bloggers.

Let's have a race between NFL.com and my TiVo. My browser hung up twice while TiVo was still on the welcome screen. But it's back now, and TiVo's made it to the ironically optimistic "Almost there" screen. I now see I can thank my TiVo for missing the Jets' third TD. Meanwhile, 6 minutes of the third quarter is as unknown to me as the missing 18 minutes of the Nixon White House tapes. TiVo still not up. Neither is NFL.com play-by-play navigation, which I could really freaking use right about now.

OK, NFL.com won. Here's the last quarter of play. The Bengals got a 27-yard run from Benson and a long DPI against Revis before Bart Scott stuffed a run, the Bengals blew a 3rd-and-5 pass and Shayne Graham then blew a chippie FG. Still 14-7, Jets.

As often happens off one team's missed FG, the other team scores. Sanchez makes key completions to Cotchery and Edwards, Greene mixes in a long run and Jones takes it in from 9 and the Jets are ahead 21-7. Game over, right? That's your score heading into the 4th quarter.

End of third quarter: Jets 21, Bengals 7.
FOURTH QUARTER
Not so fast, premature-ending-breath. After the teams trade punts, we're back to the point where my TiVo comes back to life, and not a moment too soon. Benson explodes through a hole on the right side for a 47-yard TD. The key block shows Cincinnati does actually have a tight end, Daniel Coats.

Jets 21, Bengals 14.

Now I have lost another 4 minutes of the game trying to re-program the TiVo 30-second skip. The Jets have added a FG thanks to a long completion to Keller. Which I have no way to break down for this post.

I hate my life.

Jets 24, Bengals 14.

OK, the Jets kicked that FG on 4th-and-1 at the Bengals 2. Looks like SS Ndukwe had a couple of big stops for the Bengals in close. Rex Ryan's offensive approach has been total Spagnuolo today, but he does have a ten-point lead with 5:47 left.

Damn, Chad JOHNSON had an actual catch and I missed that, too.

Huh, Keller's latest long catch was just a screen that Cincinnati covered really, really poorly. Looked like Greene got him a block downfield, then he just ran across the field for 40-some-odd yards before anybody caught up with him.

Bengals have gone to the hurry-up. Coats drops a poor pass as Palmer continues to wear the goat horns today. Coles is out being checked for concussion symptoms but Quan Cosby gets a first-down catch. Bengals at the Jets 40. Jets have been blitzing all day with little impact but flush Palmer and induce an incompletion. Chad Johnson breaks in on a long ball Palmer throws outside. Third down. Cosby can't make a one-handed catch that would have been short of the first down but lobbies successfully for illegal contact on Drew Coleman. Palmer vastly overthrows Cosby and gets booed. How often do you get to see playoff games at home, Bengals fans? And you're booing your star player? What, you're entitled to better postseason performance because of your franchise's long, rich playoff history? The Jets don't back me up, giving Cincy 25 yards on a Cosby catch and a late hit out of bounds. Chad Johnson just misses a diving catch of a fade pass in the end zone against Revis. Fine effort by Chad there; he's certainly not quitting today. The RT shoves Calvin Pace right into Palmer on 2nd down and Carson just barely ditches the ball away and avoids the sack. Poor pass for Caldwell on an out route in the end zone, but Leonhard had him blanketed, too. Spagnuolo, er, Lewis, is settling for the FG here, and Graham MISSES ANOTHER CHIPPIE. BRUTAL performance by the Bengal kicker today, missing from 35 and 28. Cincinnati can legitimately blame him for losing this game.

Jets ball with 3:49 left. Cincy has all 3 timeouts. They stop Jones 3 times, use all 3 timeouts, and get the ball back with 3:27 left.

Bengals start near midfield. Chad Johnson is actually heard from again, for 20, as the Jets. Are. Playing. PREVENT!!!!! Idiots. Now here's FREAKING BRIAN LEONARD crashing for 18 yards inside the 20!!!!! Nope, a hold's calling back the nifty play call. MINI LEONARD LEAP! on a screen pass that nets 6. Bomb to Caldwell misses. Bryan Thomas tops off a terrific game by beating Bobbie Williams, who has had a terrible game, to sack Palmer and force 4th-and-22. Shaun Ellis gets the sack on 4th down, with Lowery complicating Palmer's life with a good blitz off RT, to send the Jets to the next round. And the Bengal fans boo a team that has survived through injury and blood and sweat and the death of a teammate to get as far as they are. Sorry, Cincinnati, but you deserve an 0-16 team next year. If I'm a Bengals player, I'll be damned if you fans will be anything that motivates me.

MVP: Sanchez, Greene and Keller are worthy MVP candidates today, but the key to this game was the Jets shutting down the Bengals' passing game. (They sure didn't stop the run: Benson ran for 169.) I think the Coles injury was critical to the Bengals, but that's just half the factor that made Palmer look so bad today; the other was Revis pwning Chad Johnson for the second straight week, and despite a couple of long penalties, I'm giving Revis, the CB (correction) the Rams passed up in 2007 to draft Adam Carriker, today's game ball.

Looking ahead: the Bengals are more than likely going to suck again next season because, well, they're the Bengals. They need a receiving threat besides Chad, but Caldwell could become that guy. They need a pass-catching TE but will get Mizzou Tiger Chase Coffman back from injury. They got gashed by the run today but played without Maualuga. They don't look like they have severe needs heading into the offseason. Their pass rush was silent today, so I'd say they need to look there, as well as LB depth, speed on offense. And more than likely a kicker.

A Patriots win tomorrow sends the Jets to Indianapolis, where the Colts'll play the starters all 4 quarters this time. That doesn't mean the Jets can't hang with the Colts. They were always one of the very few teams I thought had a chance to beat the Colts when Indy was still undefeated. If Revis takes away Reggie Wayne, Peyton Manning's really going to be pressed to move the Colt offense. I think the Colts are going to be ready for the Jets this time, however, and I'm not sure the Jets will have an answer for Dallas Clark. Indy's my pick in a close one.

Eagles vs. Cowboys in just a sec.