Playoffs Becoming a Kotite Situation

Bill Parcells didn’t kill all of the demons for the New York Jets.

In the midst of a terrific turnaround from last season’s Rich Kotite-produced 1-15 disaster, the New York Jets took a step backward in losing to the lowly Indianapolis Colts, 22-14, at Giants Stadium on Sunday.

The Jets (8-6), who have never won an NFL division title, fell out of a first-place tie in the AFC East and must win their last two games to keep postseason hopes alive.

“I’m quite embarrassed,” said Parcells, who promised changes in the lineup, even at this late stage of the season. “I’m very disappointed by this performance. I don’t have any excuses, except we really stunk today. I’m not going to put up with these kind of things.”

It was only the second victory in 14 games for the Colts, who used Marshall Faulk’s season-high 133 yards rushing and eight sacks to win for the eighth time in their last nine games against the Jets at the Meadowlands.

In addition to getting his third 100-yard rushing game this season, Faulk went 58 yards with a screen pass to set up the Colts’ first touchdown--a one-yard run by Zack Crockett. Faulk had 220 total yards.

“After all the badgering we’ve been taking,” Faulk said, “and all the prognosticators saying how bad our season would be, we knew we were a better team. We would go out and play hard every week, but not get the results. This game, we got the results.”

Especially in a mismatch between the Colts’ defensive line and the Jets’ injury-ravaged blocking unit.

Ellis Johnson had three sacks and Dan Footman got two against new Jet tackles, converted guard Lonnie Palelei and long-forgotten veteran Siupeli Malamala, along with rookie guard Lamont Burns.

The Jets were also held to 33 yards rushing, and quarterback Neil O’Donnell appeared uncertain in the pocket, often patting the ball and shuffling his feet looking for receivers before getting overwhelmed by the Colts’ usually anemic pass rush.

“It was horrible,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve been playing a long time and a lot of these guys have been playing a long time. They know that this is not acceptable.”

Said Burns, making his first start: “As a whole, we didn’t have the emotion that you need for the playoffs. It showed. We got our butts kicked.”