Marino Has 5 Scoring Passes, Gets Upstaged by Jets’ Double-Team

On this day, the New York Jets found that two quarterbacks are better than one.

Ken O’Brien replaced injured Pat Ryan and threw two touchdown passes that gave the New York Jets a 38-34 victory Sunday over the Miami Dolphins and Dan Marino, who threw five touchdown passes.

“It felt great to play again,” O’Brien said. “Pat was doing a fabulous job and the team was really coming off the ball. I haven’t given a thought to being a reliever. I did what you’re supposed to do.”

Ryan, having the best game of his career, left late in the third quarter with a slight concussion and the Jets (6-6-1) trailing, 34-24.

O’Brien came on and hit Mickey Shuler with a 7-yard scoring pass 51 seconds into the final quarter, and followed with an 18-yarder to Wesley Walker with 5:41 left for the winning points.

The Jets, who had the ball for 40 minutes 16 seconds, set an NFL record with 39 first downs and had a team-record 597 yards of total offense. They also won for the 17th straight time when Walker has caught a touchdown pass.

O’Brien helped the Jets snap a 3-game losing streak by completing 6 of 9 passes for 92 yards after Ryan set career highs for a non-strike game with 27 of 43 for 341 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Al Toon caught 14 passes for 181 yards, biggest output of his career.

Marino, meanwhile, was cutting down the Jets secondary just as he had last month. In a 44-30 Jets victory, Marino passed for 521 yards, the second most in NFL history. This time, he was 17 of 35 for 353 yards, with 2 scoring passes to both Mark Clayton and Fred Banks, and 1 to Ferrell Edmunds.

But Miami (5-8) fell to its seventh defeat without a victory in the AFC East.

“When we had to come up with the 10-15 yard big play at the end, we couldn’t,” Marino said. “When the Jets needed to, they could. It’s the story of our year.”

The Dolphins managed just 19 points the last 3 weeks and trailed, 24-14, in the third quarter when Marino brought them to life with a 31-yard scoring pass to Clayton.

After Miami recovered a fumble by New York’s Roger Vick moments later, Marino hit Clayton with a 25-yard scoring pass, but Fuad Reveiz missed the extra point and the Dolphins led, 27-24.

Marino made it 34-24 by hooking up with Edmunds on an 80-yard pass play before O’Brien brought the Jets back.

Marino also had scoring passes of 10 and 37 yards to Banks.