The attention in the week leading up to Monday night's game between the Jets and the Titans was focused on Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair's right leg. But Jets quarterback Chad Pennington has a right arm that has buoyed the franchise through a difficult season, and it was Pennington who led the Jets to their first victory of the season over a team with a winning record and kept them tethered by a thread to their playoff hopes.
Pennington's two second-half touchdown passes sent the Jets to a 24-17 victory over the Titans, one of the premier teams in the league. It snapped the Titans' six-game winning streak.
If the Jets (5-7) do not make the playoffs this season, they appear poised to at least make it harder for the contenders. The Titans (9-3) head home for a critical game against the Indianapolis Colts, who are tied with Tennessee atop the American Football Conference South.
McNair entered the game as the top-rated passer in the league, having thrown for 18 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, but the calf strain that kept him out of practice all week clearly limited his mobility. McNair finished 21 of 35 for 272 yards.
Pennington was 18 of 23 for 231 yards.
The Jets tried to match McNair's big-play ability, and late in the third quarter, two big plays helped give the Jets a 17-10 lead. Curtis Conway caught a 27-yard pass on a flea-flicker that put the Jets at the Titans' 27-yard line. On the next play, Pennington launched a pass to Kevin Swayne -- who had not caught a pass this season and had been supplanted as the Jets' third receiver by Jonathan Carter -- in the end zone. Swayne seemed to fake Lance Schulters by keeping his hands down until the last moment. Schulters never put his hands up, and Swayne, the former Arena Football League player who has been a fringe receiver for the Jets for three seasons, had his first NFL touchdown.
With help from their pass rush, the Jets had particular success against the Titans on third down; the Titans converted just three of nine through three quarters.
A sack of McNair on third down ended the Titans' next drive. With the Jets still holding a 7-point lead, Pennington led the Jets on an 80-yard drive that included a circus-like catch by Santana Moss. The ball bounced off Chris Baker and into Moss' hands for a 31-yard gain. Two plays later, Pennington, with a defender in his face, launched a fade pass to Conway that he caught as he fell out of bounds, with his tiptoes still in. That gave the Jets a two-touchdown lead.
At one point, Pennington was 7 of 7 for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns in the second half. But it was a stunning defensive stop from a beleaguered unit that kept the Titans from mounting a comeback. The Titans drove 73 yards on 14 plays, and a pass-interference call on safety Tyrone Carter gave the Titans the ball on the Jets' 3-yard line. The Jets have the worst run defense in the league, but the Titans passed and McNair, who had completed eight passes in a row, threw incomplete on two of the passes.
On fourth down from the 3, a healthy McNair would have probably run for the touchdown. But instead, he pulled up and tried to rifle a pass to Erron Kinney. With Sam Garnes blanketing him, Kinney dropped the ball and the cushion was preserved.
too little, too late
The next time the Titans had the ball, McNair led a 52-yard drive and drilled an 8-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Mason to make the score 24-17 with 1 minute 52 seconds remaining. Tennessee attempted an onside kick, but Baker recovered a high hop, and, with Tennessee out of timeouts, the Jets ran out the clock.
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