October 8 vs Texans (17-23)

It was a special Monday Night Football game last night, with the Jets hosting the Houston Texans. (By the way, "Texans"? Really? What kind of name is that? Real Creative. But I digress.) It was a loss, but the most satisfying one I've ever experienced as a fan.

Here's why. We're talking about the Texans. A team which was and (unfortunately) still is undefeated so far this season. They boast incredible stats on all sides of the ball which effectively rank them as the top team in the league right now. For us, we were still missing our current two top receives from injury and still don't have a good run game going. Not to mention coming off that embarrassing loss last week. The result of this mismatch: the media writing obituaries for the Jets all week. 

But incredibly, we kept it close, going toe-to-toe with the Texans and never quitting. It would have been easy to: the Texans ran across the field on their first drive and got a touchdown within the first four minutes of the game, to which the Jets offense responded with a 3-and-out. But we kept fighting. Cromartie made an interception later in the half, which we capitalized on with a touchdown. The Texans put on a few more points after that, extending their lead to 20-7 as the momentum tipped in their favor.

I felt the game slowly slipping away as the Texans punted it back to us after a scoring drive. The camera cut to Fireman Ed, leaning over the railing, defeat written across his face. But then, new life: 

Joe McKnight received the ball, broke out of a whole bunch of tackles, and ran 100 yards for a touchdown, making it a game again at 20-14. If there was one thing I had to pick to remember from last night's game, it was that moment.

After that, each team tacked on a field goal, making the final score what it is. The Jets had the ball with 3 minutes left at their own 40 yard line but a tipped reception was caught by a waiting Texans linebacker, effectively ending the game.

Ultimately, a few opportunities presented themselves, but were squandered on tipped passes (some credit to the Texans defense), burned time-outs (play calling confusion), and not adequately stopping the run. But again, with Revis and Holmes out for the season and having to rely on receivers with not many starts, we put up a serious fight and gave the Texans their smallest margin of victory so far this year. Yes, it's a loss, but we've made serious progress that will continue.