Monday, November 19, 2007
A Jets fan taunts a young Steelers fan late in the game Sunday, November 18, 2007 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets won, 19-16, in overtime.
EAST RUTHERFORD – The visiting towels indicted the winning coach. Thousands and thousands of gold-colored towels spinning frantically in the marshy winds, claiming Giants Stadium as decisively as a flag planted in the moon.
It took Eric Mangini only 14 regular-season home games over two seasons to completely surrender his turf. Heinz Field moved some 375 miles to the east Sunday, so in a stunning victory Mangini managed to find a large measure of defeat.
No, his Jets won't match Rich Kotite's 1-15. And no, there isn't any challenging the fact that Mangini's team played with spirit and intent in upsetting the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime to move its record to 2-8.
But with Bill Parcells in the house to honor Curtis Martin at halftime, it was a fitting time to remind Mangini that the NFL awards no medals for trying.
This isn't a leisurely morning of nobody-keeps-score soccer with the young ones. No trophies given or pizza parties thrown just for showing up.
Mangini is the man most responsible for this oil spill of a season, the one that allowed about 65 percent of the fans in attendance to color their allegiances in black and gold. The head coach fielded a product that kept his customers home. No doubt his billionaire boss, Woody Johnson, filed away the sights and sounds for a rainier day.
The embarrassment was tempered by a 19-16 victory that was about as likely as Louisiana-Monroe's triumph over Alabama. At his postgame news conference, Mangini actually showed a few teeth when he smiled. The scoreboard said it was a good weekend for counterfeit geniuses who learned under the most insufferable coach of all, Bill Belichick.
The day after Charlie Weis actually won a game in South Bend, Eric Mangini did the same in East Rutherford. He was positively chipper at the mike, all but daring the NFL to give him two weeks to prepare for each and every foe. Mangini had proven himself to be a beautiful bye-week mind, taking down the 2007 Steelers the way he took down the 2006 Patriots.
Thomas Jones battered the Steelers for 117 rushing yards, and a pass rush that had managed a grand sum of nine sacks all year got seven on Ben Roethlisberger, who suddenly didn't look like the draft-day quarterback the Giants should've hired instead of Eli Manning.
Leon Washington ripped off the big punt return in overtime, Mike Nugent nailed the deciding field goal and the Jets celebrated as if they were million-to-one college kids stoning a Goliath in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.
The fans surely would've joined in the celebration if they weren't facing a long, dreary drive to Pittsburgh, or if they weren't so exhausted from cheering on the defense when the Jets had the ball.
"Whenever there is a situation like that," Mangini said, "you try to minimize the things they're able to cheer for, and the amount of things they are able to wave their towels for. ... That's really all you can do."
What a remarkable, telling statement. The head coach of a winning home team was hoping to take the crowd out of the game.
Thomas Jones pitches the ball back to quarterback Kellen Clemens who threw a pass to Laveranues Coles for a 56 yard gain in the first quarter.
In the shotgun formation, Kellen Clemens had to use a silent count to combat the fans who were imploring the Steelers to sack him. On a first-possession flea-flicker, after Clemens hit Laveranues Coles for a 56-yarder to the Pittsburgh 1, the fans responded as if they'd been informed their tires had been slashed in the parking lot.
Had New Jersey state troopers stopped eastbound traffic at the Pennsylvania border, there would've been fewer fans in Giants Stadium than Seton Hall-Robert Morris drew at The Rock.
"We're used to it," Roethlisberger said. "We see so many of our fans everywhere we go. It's great, and that's why we've got the best fans in all of sports."
Pittsburgh fans are known to travel like no fan base in the NFL, but this was absurd. Ever since they moved to New Jersey, the Jets have suffered through a severe identity crisis – their stadium is named after another team, after all, and requires green wrapping paper on Giant-blue walls.
In losing seasons past, Jets' fans have quit making the brutal commute from Long Island and Queens. Only it's hard to recall a takeover of a home Jets' game any more hostile and humiliating than this one.
"I thought we were playing at a neutral site at first," said Kerry Rhodes, he of the breathtaking interception. "I thought we were somewhere between New York and Pittsburgh."
Yeah, like Latrobe.
Ten thousand Fireman Eds wouldn't have balanced the scales in the Jets' favor.
"It kind of ticked us off a little bit," Rhodes said.
The Jets channeled their anger toward an improbable result. They physically punished a team built around its physicality, and inspired the obvious question:
Where's this passion been hiding?
"When you lose five games by a total of 27 points," Mangini said, "it comes down to a handful of plays."
And if my grandmother had hair on her chin, she'd be my grandfather.
Mangini has used everyone from Mozart to Teddy Atlas to motivate his team (Atlas was one of the few fans dressed in Jet green Sunday), without any success. As it turned out, this frightening outbreak of Steelers' fans galvanized the Jets in a way their coach never could.
"The apple pie is going to taste better," Mangini said of his postgame dessert. "This is a lot better way to spend our Sunday night."
One way or another, the winning coach was going to enjoy a victory that would be filed under "Pyrrhic" on Woody Johnson's scorecard.
The owner is smart enough to know those Terrible Towels were made possible by Mangini's Terrible Team.
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