Jets Head Into Playoffs in Top Form

With the AFC East crown already tucked away, the New York Jets didn’t let up.

“I think we played championship football,” Coach Bill Parcells said after Vinny Testaverde threw for four touchdowns in a 31-10 rout of Parcells’ former team, the New England Patriots.

“I told the team playing like a champion isn’t once in a while or a sometime thing. You try to do it all the time. Sometimes it does not work out.

“There were a lot of people in their ears telling them this game did not mean anything.”

The Jets were 1-15 the season before Parcells was hired. Now, two years later, he has guided the Jets to a franchise-best 12-4 and to a first-round playoff bye they clinched last week.

“I tried to make them believe it means a lot,” he said. “It’s about competition and achievement.”

The last time the Jets finished a season so hot, they won their only Super Bowl, in 1969 as a member of the American Football League.

“It’s been a dream season,” Testaverde said after the Jets’ sixth consecutive win; he is 12-1 as a starter. “But as good as it’s been, there is a lot more to be accomplished. If we keep working like we’ve been, we’ll continue to be successful.”

Testaverde set a club record with 29 touchdown passes. His 12th pro season has been his best by far and much more than anyone could have imagined when he signed in June as a free agent to back up Glenn Foley.

“I’ve watched Vinny in this league for a long time,” fullback Keith Byars said, “and he is like night and day. He’s quit trying to make this harder than it is and used the cast he has around him.”

The AFC’s leading passer, Testaverde had touchdown passes of four yards to Kyle Brady, eight to Curtis Martin, 17 to Dedric Ward and 24 to Keyshawn Johnson. He was 17 of 27.

Another key free-agent addition this year, Martin rushed 29 times for 102 yards as the Jets held the ball for 38:51.

“I really wanted to win this game,” said Martin, signed away from the Patriots. “I was pointing to this.”

And for all their firepower--416 points--the Jets also gave up the second-fewest points in the league, 266, trailing Miami by only one.

“I guess we showed the balance you have to have to be a championship team,” said linebacker Bryan Cox, yet another key newcomer.

The Patriots (9-7) already had made the playoffs despite a rash of injuries to key players. Among the missing Sunday were quarterback Drew Bledsoe, wide receiver Terry Glenn and inside linebacker Ted Johnson. And New England won’t have most of its wounded back for next weekend’s wild-card game at Jacksonville.

“We were looking to go into this game playing playoff-caliber football,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “But we were nowhere near that level of play; we got nothing accomplished.”

The Jets, whose previous high victory total was 11 in 1985, controlled the ball for 13:19 of the first quarter as they put their cold-weather offense through a test run in anticipation of their first playoff game on Jan. 9 or 10. Martin gained 37 yards in an 8 1/2-minute drive that led to a 36-yard field goal by John Hall on the opening possession. Testaverde passed to Brady alone in the back of the end zone only 40 seconds into the second quarter to make it 10-0.

After Ray Mickens recovered Robert Edwards’ fumble, Testaverde surpassed Namath’s 1967 season high with the touchdown pass to Martin.

The Jets began the second half with another touchdown pass by Testaverde. After he scrambled 25 yards to the Patriot 17, Testaverde lofted the ball to a diving Dedric Ward for a 24-3 lead.

Then Johnson beat fellow Pro Bowler Lawyer Milloy for his 10th touchdown reception.

New England did not get a first down until midway through the second quarter.

The Patriots got a 19-yard field goal from Adam Vinatieri to cap an 80-yard march in the second quarter, and a 44-yard touchdown pass from Scott Zolak to Tony Simmons with 1:31 left in the game.

Zolak, starting in place of Bledsoe, was only 14 of 31 for 127 yards.

The Jets, 6-27 in December in the 1990s, went 4-0 this year, their first spotless record in the month. Parcells is 36-20 in December.