Jets Win Without Sacks by Gastineau

A curious thing has happened to the New York Jets. They are 9-1, best in the league, top of the heap, king of the hill, and their defensive end, Mark Gastineau, is nowhere to be found.

Over the past six seasons, Gastineau has been to the Jets what King Kong was to the Empire State Building: the barrel-chested guy on the roof, grabbing for it all. He has defined the team’s public image, rolling up 100 sacks in 94 games, dancing like Astaire on some fists-to-the-sky high, and shaving on TV with mom by his side.

But, what’s this, just two sacks in 10 games for Gastineau? And is it possible that meager total includes two half-sacks and another when Denver’s John Elway ran out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage? And New York is 9-1?

Even cornerback Bobby Humphery has three sacks. After the game in which Humphery recorded two of those sacks, he approached Gastineau, hugged him, gave him a pep talk and said: “I love you, Mark. I hid behind you (on the sacks).”

Gastineau, who has been suffering from a pulled abdomimal muscle all season and hurts inside from his lack of production, says, “One thing I’ll never do again: take for granted being able to run down a quarterback on the opposite side of field, jump back up and get back in the huddle and do it again. It’s been very frustrating for me. I know I can play better.”

So how are we to get a fix on the heart of the Jets, if Kong’s in his cage? To begin with, they have an even-keel fourth-year head coach, Joe Walton, who, as a long-time NFL assistant, was considered a keen offensive coach even if he did look goofy wearing his cap backwards on the sideline; they have a fourth-year quarterback, Ken O’Brien, who has been more accurate (nearly 70 percent completion rate) than any quarterback in the NFL and whom teammates often call Mr. Perfect; they have a second-year wide receiver, Al Toon, who is acrobatic and fearless of crossing the middle. He has caught a league-high 63 passes for 899 yards.

Toon’s presence also has made for the re-emergence of veteran receiver Wesley Walker, who is legally blind in one eye and doubly devastating when he turns on the burners, as he has for nine touchdown catches this season; and not to forget the place kicker, Pat Leahy, the oldest side-swiper in the NFL who has been bull’s-eye accurate this season. He has nearly 1,000 more points than St. Louis figured when they cut him as a rookie in 1974 and kept veteran Jim Bakken, instead.

Nor can we forget that inimitable, center-chucking nose tackle, Joe Klecko, who once passed up college for two years to drive a truck and who later played for the sandlot Aston (Pa.) Knights under the assumed name of Jim Jones.

“We’re not real flashy. We just don’t make mistakes. We play good football and pay attention to details,” said the Jets’ indomitable punt returner, Kurt Sohn, from the football factory at Fordham.

The man in front of it all has been O’Brien, 25. His touchdown passes-to-interception ratio (20-6) is the best in the league and a slight improvement over last season’s 25-8. That ratio helped him to become the first Jet ever to lead the league in pass efficiency (96.4).

O’Brien even completed 17 consecutive passes in last week’s 28-14 victory in Atlanta, three short of Ken Anderson’s NFL record. To many, it seems that O’Brien now has escaped the imposing shadow of Joe Namath, which once made former Jets quarterback Richard Todd plenty squeamish.

“I don’t feel a shadow at all,” said O’Brien, a UC Davis product who was the fifth quarterback selected in the 1983 draft, ahead of Miami’s Dan Marino. “He came a little before my time, although it’s always a pleasure to meet Joe.”

Mike Hickey, Jets personnel director, said, “The shadow has loomed large here, but it disappears more every week now.”

Asked this week if he would trade O’Brien for any quarterback in the league, Walton responded, “I’m kind of partial, but why would I want to do that?”

Toon has helped make O’Brien and Walker more efficient. “He can do things like turn a little eight-yard pattern into a 60-yard touchdown,” Walker said of Toon.

Toon, Walker and dependable tight end Mickey Shuler (76 catches last season broke George Sauer’s 1966 club record) give O’Brien the freedom of choice.

But on draft day ‘85, things didn’t look so last-piece-of-the-passing-game-puzzle perfect for the Jets. The team selected Toon, from Wisconsin, in the first round, and local draftniks at the Omni Hotel in Manhattan immediately began chanting from the balcony, “Goodbye, Wesley, we hate to see you go.”

Walker has averaged more than 40 yards on his nine scoring catches. Walker, 31, said he hadn’t heard of Toon before the draft, but said he hurt when he was told of the draftniks’ premature sendoff to him.

“It didn’t make me feel good,” he recalled. “But a lot of fans don’t know what’s going on. They said the same thing about drafting Ken O’Brien over Marino. That’s New York, and that’s professional football.”

Several factors have made these Jets remarkable. The defense has not yielded a rushing touchdown all year. The Jets have outscored opponents, 183-58, in the first half and have trimmed the number of quarterback sacks allowed from a franchise-poor 62 last season to just 26.

The offensive line has been superior to last year’s crew, and O’Brien, under the advisement of assistant coach Zeke Bratkowski, has learned to overcome his take-the-sack mentality. He now releases the ball more quickly, sometimes heaving it into the mezzanine, just to be safe.

The Jets have overcome injuries that might have wiped out a team with lesser toughness and fellowship. They lost all-pro running back Freeman McNeil for a month, center Joe Fields for six weeks and O’Brien for 1 1/2 weeks -- yet, they have lost just once. That’s because of backups named Johnny Hector, Guy Bingham and Pat Ryan.

The injury onslaught continues, too. Underrated linebacker Lance Mehl was lost for the season with a knee injury suffered two weeks ago.

This week, it was determined that a shoulder injury will sideline defensive lineman Marty Lyons at least six weeks and possibly the postseason, and that arthroscopic left-knee surgery will sideline Klecko for three to four weeks. It almost seems like October 1929 for the one-time New York Sack Exchange.

How many rabbits can New York keep pulling out of its hat?

Every day the Jets go to training camp at Hofstra University, they see reminders of the team’s 1968 Super Bowl season. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is in a glass case in the front foyer. Pictures of Namath are everywhere in Weeb Ewbank Hall.

But if O’Brien senses no shadow, why should anybody else? Gone is Namath, here is Mr. Perfect. This may explain why Hickey, with plenty of emphasis, said, “The King is Dead; Long Live the King.”