The Jets' Santonio Holmes had a chat with Dolphins cornerback Richard Marshall. Holmes had the last word with 147 yards receiving.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Jets commemorated their trip to Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, site of their New Year’s Day implosion, by doing everything wrong but winning. They escaped with a 23-20 victory against the Dolphins, secured by Nick Folk’s 33-yard field goal with 6 minutes 4 seconds left in overtime, despite offering little evidence that their offense and defense can play at a level worthy of a playoff contender. It was an important victory for the Jets, with the behemoths San Francisco and Houston up next on the schedule, but perhaps a costly one, too.
Without question, the most worrisome sight for the Jets involved their best player, Darrelle Revis, writhing on the field, his hands over his eyes, his season potentially jeopardized. He injured his left knee while making a cut late in the third quarter. He was carted off the field, his status uncertain.
Santonio Holmes, the symbol of the Jets’ dysfunction here last season, caught 9 passes for 147 yards — his first 100-yard game since 2010. His biggest play was a 38-yarder down the near sideline that set up Folk’s game-winner.
In their rare moments of bluster this season, the Jets brag about their defense — how good it is, how great it could be, how far it could take them. The final destination, they hope, is the Superdome in New Orleans, site of Super Bowl XLVII, but any dreams, however fanciful they seem at the moment, hinge on the availability of Revis. No one on the Jets is better at his job than Revis, who, sidelined by a concussion, was severely missed in Week 2 in Pittsburgh, where the defense allowed 275 passing yards.
Against the Dolphins, Revis’s replacement, Kyle Wilson, committed a costly 19-yard pass-interference call on third-and-10 from the Jets’ 42, allowing Miami to even the score with 16 seconds left on a field goal by Dan Carpenter, who missed a chance to win the game when he hooked a 48-yarder in overtime.
More and more, it seems as if the Jets’ opening-week eruption against Buffalo was an aberration. When Folk drilled a 33-yard field goal 1:50 before halftime, it ended a scoring drought of 12 possessions. When Sanchez connected with Jeremy Kerley in the end zone on a 7-yard slant to give the Jets a short-lived 20-17 lead with 3:01 remaining, it was the offense’s first touchdown since the opening drive last week in Pittsburgh.
Not all of it is Sanchez’s fault. His offensive line is inconsistent. His running game, which averaged 2.7 yards on 33 carries Sunday, is suspect. And his receiving corps, outside of Holmes, is unproven and prone to dropping the ball, as illustrated by Stephen Hill’s woeful muff on a back-shoulder fade in the end zone. But Sanchez misfired on several passes Sunday, a stretch of imprecision that dates to the second quarter last week. In his last seven quarters and overtime, Sanchez has completed 27 of 67 passes for 364 yards.
The Jets were nearly undermined by a lack of discipline, committing 9 penalties for 108 yards. The biggest culprit was Eric Smith, who was called for two critical personal fouls — one on a roughing-the-punter call that cost the Jets a chance to have the ball in Miami territory with two time outs in the final minute of the first half, the other on a late hit that compounded a 14-yard catch by Davone Bess. Three plays later, Jorvorskie Lane bulled into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown run, putting Miami ahead by 17-10.
Trailing by that margin after three quarters, the Jets drew closer on a 20-yard field goal by Nick Folk, a drive aided by a 66-yard catch-and-run by Kerley.
