Wild finish keeps Jets in first place

Yep, they did it again.

First Denver; then Detroit; then Cleveland; and now Houston.

The New York Jets pulled off another miracle yesterday by defeating the Houston Texans 30-27, with a 72 yard drive in 45 seconds to win the game.

Another Sunday, another wild victory.

After building a 23-7 cushion early in the fourth quarter. Rex Ryan’s club committed a pair of turnovers and looked lost in the secondary for the better part of the final 15 minutes. “We tried to mess it up,” said Ryan, whose defense had critical blown coverages that helped the Texans rally.

This time it was RB Shonn Greene who started the collapse with a fourth quarter fumble, followed by the Jets Defense.

Surrendering 20 points in the fourth quarter, the Jets trailed 27-23 with 55 seconds to go.

Then it was Mark Sanchez time.  Two short passes to LaDainian Tomlinson, followed by a perfect 42 yard sideline pass to Braylon Edwards, giving the Jets a first down at the Houston 6. On the next play, Sanchez found sidekick Santonio Holmes with a perfect floater into the corner of the end zone.

The pass to Edwards was Sanchez’ third long toss of the game, the first two missing open receivers. This one, however, was perfect.

“We knew when we drafted him that we drafted the right guy,” Rex Ryan said after Sanchez took his team 72 yards in 45 seconds for a game-winning touchdown. “He’s going to be the right guy for the next 10 years here.”

The Jets have won two overtime games on the road and Sanchez has now engineered two fourth-quarter comebacks in the last five games. The Jets are 8-2 as they prepare for a Thanksgiving night game against the Cincinnati Bengals who lost a dreadful game to the Buffalo Bills, then head to Foxborough for the New England Patriots.

Santonio Holmes proved yet again how valuable he is. For the third time in as many weeks, Holmes (7 catches, 126 yards, 2 TDs) made the pivotal play in crunch time.  Scary to think that the Jets acquired Holmes for a 5th round draft pick.

Think about the past New York Jets. You would probably be looking at a 4-6 team right now.

“We just had that feeling if we got the ball back, it was going to go our way,” said Jerricho Cotchery, who watched from the sideline with a groin injury. “It’s kind of crazy. Over the seven seasons I’ve been here, in any close game, if anything goes wrong like that, we’d end up with a loss. Now, we win the game. Hopefully, we’re changing a little bit of history.”

As for the 2010 Jets late comebacks this year: “If I have to apologize for it every week, I will all the way to the Super Bowl,” Ryan said.