Favre's 6 TD passes lead Jets' rout of Cardinals

BY ERIK BOLAND | erik.boland@newsday.com

September 29, 2008

Lost in the flurry of turnovers, blown assignments, electrifying plays and touchdowns - lots and lots of touchdowns - was this hard-to-believe item: It was 0-0 after the first quarter.

Behind a career-best six TD passes by Brett Favre, the Jets beat the Cardinals, 56-35, yesterday at the Meadowlands, the franchise's second-highest point output in history. It included a perfect storm of a second quarter that resulted in a club-record 34 points, followed by a third quarter in which the Jets gave a good portion of it back.

"That was a little more exciting than it really had to be," coach Eric Mangini said a bit wearily, though with a smile.

In scoring their most points since putting up 62 against Tampa Bay on Nov. 17, 1985, the Jets, wearing their navy blue and gold Titans throwback uniforms, forced seven turnovers - three interceptions, four fumble recoveries. The 38-year-old Favre went 24-for-34 for 289 yards with six touchdowns - tying Joe Namath's 1972 team record - and one interception. Favre's 37-year-old counterpart, Kurt Warner, was 40-for-57 for 472 yards with two scores and three picks. Three Cardinals had more than 100 yards receiving.

The afternoon left Jets players spent and in some cases speechless but, most important, after two straight ugly losses, 2-2 heading into their bye week.

"It sounds a lot different," defensive end Shaun Ellis said of being 2-2 instead of 1-3. "We go into the bye 2-2 and get a fresh start coming from the bye. We have another home game . Hopefully, we can get on a roll."

The Jets did that after a first quarter marred by sloppiness from both teams. It was - compared with what followed - a dull quarter that merely featured a Jets fumble recovery, an ugly Favre interception and the fourth blocked field goal of Kris Jenkins' career.

The second quarter started ominously as a holding penalty on Nick Mangold wiped out Favre's 2-yard touchdown pass to Bubba Franks and pushed the Jets back to Arizona's 12. But on third down, Favre slung one through coverage and hit Coles for the first of his career-best three TD catches, making it 7-0 with 14:44 left in the half.

The craziness had officially begun.

On the Cardinals' next possession, Warner, on third-and-8 from the 26, locked in on tight end Ben Patrick along the right sideline. Cornerback Darrelle Revis locked in on Warner and made the interception on the run at the 32, scoring easily to make it 14-0. It was Revis' fifth career pick and first touchdown. The defense, maligned after Monday's rout in San Diego, forced three more turnovers in the quarter and the Jets led 34-0 at halftime.

"We had a hell of a week of practice," said linebacker David Bowens, who had a heck of a game with two sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. "Everybody got the concept of what we wanted."

But when the Cardinals changed their game plan to throwing strictly short passes, they picked the Jets apart, scoring on all three of their third- quarter possessions. After Edgerrin James' 2-yard TD run and conversion run made it 34-15 with 5:41 left, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie recovered Neil Rackers' onside kick at the Cardinals' 46. It took Arizona seven plays to score, with Tim Hightower going in on a 1-yard run. The conversion pass failed, leaving the Jets ahead 34-21 with 2:50 left in the third.

"We have to put our foot down and stop things like that, so we don't get in those situations where they're suddenly two touchdowns behind and we're holding our breath," Revis said.

Favre provided some breathing room with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that extended into the fourth quarter. Favre found a wide-open Jerricho Cotchery on the right side for a 17-yard TD that made it 41-21 with 11:50 left.

Warner's 8-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin (10 receptions, 119 yards) with 9:49 left pulled the Cardinals to 41-28, which preceded the Jets' biggest play of the second half. The Jets went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Arizona 40 and Favre executed a perfect ball fake to Thomas Jones. He fired deep down the middle to the virtually alone Cotchery, who put the Jets ahead 48-28 with 7:26 left.

"I knew it was a touchdown all the way," Cotchery said of his feeling on hearing the play call.

Said Favre: "They attacked, and so did we."

That was the word of the day, when the Jets were able to show the potential they hadn't the previous two weeks.

"This is definitely what the team can be," Cotchery said. "We had a lot of kinks the first couple of games, lots of self-inflicted wounds that cause you to lose the game.

"Today, we took care of those things. We just wanted to eliminate those things and be more consistent as a group. Today, we took care of those things and were able to put up a lot of points."

Oct. 12

Bengals at Jets

1 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2

Radio: WEPN (1050)

HIGH-FLYING JETS

56 Jets points, second most in one game for franchise

34 Jets points in second quarter, most in franchise history

7 Turnovers created by Jets defense

6 TD passes by Brett Favre, a career high

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