Ryan Starts, and Stops Jets’ Skid in 35-15 Win

Onto the local calendar goes another holiday, St. Pat’s Day in honor of the ugly duckling who rose from the New York Jets’ bench and restored them to greatness, or at least a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, ducklings beyond redemption.

Would you believe this was a playoff game? Well it was. The Jets, losers of five in a row, and the Chiefs, 10-game winners by grace of a soft schedule and many recovered fumbles in opponents’ end zones, meeting in the AFC’s wild canard--uh, card game.

Someone had to win, so the Jets did, 35-15, Sunday as Pat Ryan, the little backup who could, turned the game around with a fourth-down quarterback draw and then threw three touchdown passes.

The Jets thus advance to the next round, which will consist of a game at Cleveland and a week of preparation wherein Coach Joe Walton is asked the question:

Who’s your quarterback?

“If I say anything now,” Walton said, “I’d probably change my mind later.”

For casual observers who have trouble differentiating between the two Irish names at the position, here’s some detail:

Ken O’Brien was the Jets’ No. 1 draft choice in the famous class of 1983. He’s a tall, classic drop-back quarterback with a rifle arm. Through 11 games, he had 23 touchdown passes, 8 intercepted, the NFL’s top rating and was being nominated as its best quarterback.

Then as the Jets went down the tubes, he threw 2 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions, leading to Walton’s desperate switch to:

Pat Ryan?

Ryan had 13 career NFL starts.

He wasn’t a starting quarterback at Tennessee, backing up Conredge Holloway, Randy Wallace and Jimmy Streator.

He didn’t even start at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City until his senior year when Tony Brantley, who had been ahead of him, graduated.

“He went to Notre Dame with 15 other quarterbacks,” Ryan said. “He ended up punting.”

Holloway, Wallace, Streator and Brantley have long since returned to civilian life. Ryan doesn’t have a rifle arm or magic wheels, or any illusions.

“It’s obvious to me and everyone else,” he said, “if I’d have shot my mouth off, I probably wouldn’t be here. . . . Joe (Walton) has said all along, and I back him 100%, Kenny is going to be our quarterback. He’s got a world of talent. Anyone can see that.”

But Ryan wasn’t in a horrific slump, either. When the defensive line and linebacker Lance Mehl were hurt, the pressure shifted onto the offense, which went under. The defense allowed 183 points in the last five games. The team, once the toast of New York, was buried in a Giant parade. The last home game drew 58,000 in a stadium that seats 70,000. This game didn’t sell out until shortly before kickoff.

So, well advised or not, however surprising, Ryan got the nod.

“Surprised?” Jet defensive tackle Barry Bennett said. “Yeah. It surprised us for the same reason it surprised you guys.”

Said Ryan: “Well, early in the week I didn’t feel any pressure. But everything I read was that I was the last hope. I opened the paper today and that’s all I saw. That kind of scared me.”

Wrote Dr. Eric Margenau, a psychologist retained by the New York Daily News: “Joe Walton, the father figure vested with the care of the Jets’ team ego . . . kills two psychological birds with one stone: He repairs the collective ego and provides a strong role model and leadership for the team/family.”

Huh?

The Chiefs had their own problems. Outgained in their last two games (265-263 by the Raiders, 515-171 by the Pittsburgh Steelers), they endured with stellar special teams play and the odd miracle but lost quarterback Bill Kenney, who reinjured his right hand in Pittsburgh. Todd Blackledge, another of the Class of ‘83, but one rapidly evolving into an ex-prospect, would start.

So on his first possession, Blackledge drove the Chiefs 67 yards for a touchdown. Anyone out there with Kansas City loyalties should stop reading here.

Ryan, whose first possession lasted three plays of which two were passes--both deflected at the line--returned. The Jets reached the Chiefs’ 33, where they faced a fourth and six. Walton decided to go for it. Walton sent in a quarterback draw.

O’Brien, whose well-being is important, is never asked to run draws, so the films the Chiefs saw had none of them to warn them. Ryan faked a pitch to the left, turned around and stepped into a yawning chasm off right guard. He ran 24 yards to the Chiefs’ 9 before the pursuit got back to him.

“I thought that helped,” Ryan said later. “We were bogged down. It was third and seven, third and eight.”

How about fourth and six?

“I don’t know what it was,” drawled Ryan, laughing. “We thought it would work if we split people out. I was in the secondary ‘fore they knew I was there.”

Two plays later, Freeman McNeil slammed the last four yards to score.

On the next Chiefs’ play, Larry Moriarty fumbled the ball away at his 47. Ryan then ground out the kind of drive Walton was praying for--safe, sane, 12 plays of which 8 were rushes, 6 of them by McNeil, plus 4 very short passes. The last was a one-yard touchdown pass to McNeil.

And just before the half ended, Ryan drove the Jets 62 yards, the last 11 on a pass to Al Toon curling into the end zone in front of Deron Cherry, who played it strangely passively for a Pro Bowl safety.

And on the first play of the second half, Blackledge threw a sideline pass to his tight end and instead hit Jet linebacker Kevin McArthur, who returned it 21 yards for a touchdown.

And after one last Chiefs’ specialty--Albert Lewis’ fourth blocked punt of the season, which he recovered for a touchdown--Ryan set up another scoring drive with a 38-yard pass that Wesley Walker took away from Cherry. It ended with another swing pass into the right flat, like the one McNeil had scored on earlier. The Chiefs still weren’t picking it up, so in walked tight end Billy Griggs, untouched.

By now, it was 35-13, time only for some heavy thinking before the victory speeches. The Jets had to punt from their end zone with 3:01 left, but Walton had Dave Jennings run out the back way and take the safety.

After a 15-year absence from the playoffs, the Chiefs will have to be satisfied with mere participation, however brief.

Ryan got a game ball and, unless Joe Walton is capable of bigger surprises, he’ll get another start. The team/family’s collective ego is back on the charts.

AFC Notes

Freeman McNeil, who had back-to-back 100-yard games to close out the regular season, gained 135 yards in 31 carries. Pat Ryan: “Our game plan was to run Freeman as long as he lasted. Ride that horse.” . . . The Jets gave another game ball to defensive coordinator Bud Carson, a Ram assistant when they reached the Super Bowl in 1980, and a Chief assistant until John Mackovic fired him two years ago. . . . When the Jets’ front three of Joe Klecko, Mark Gastineau and Marty Lyons, was lost, they auditioned several veterans including Derland Moore, Fred Dean and ex-and-future-Raider Elvis Franks. Dean was offered $15,000 a game and a possible playoff shot but asked for $50,000 a game and was turned down. Franks was signed and later waived. Moore was signed and stuck. Sunday, Moore knocked down one of Bill Kenney’s passes and had a strong day rushing the quarterback.