Teams With Best Records Are Headliners in Conference Title Games

They gave him the damn ball, all right.

And in those rare minutes on Sunday when Keyshawn Johnson and the New York Jets didn’t have the ball, Johnson twice made it his business to wrest it back.

The Jets, a 1-15 team only two seasons ago, are in the AFC title game against Denver after a 34-24 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in front of 78,817 at Giants Stadium.

It was a crowd that was ravenous for the Jets’ first postseason victory since 1986, and whose team is a victory over the defending champion Broncos--no small task--from its first Super Bowl since Joe Namath so famously guaranteed a victory 30 years ago.

As for Johnson, it used to be the third-year receiver out of USC was always telling everyone how good he’d be.

On Sunday, in the first NFL playoff game of his career, he showed them.

He drove a dagger into the Jaguars with two touchdowns--one on a 21-yard catch and the other on a 10-yard end-around.

He plunged it deeper with a fumble recovery on a wild play that began with a fumble by the Jets--one Jacksonville recovered and was rambling with toward the end zone.

And finally, he gave the knife one last twist by intercepting the Jaguars’ desperate pass at the Jet seven-yard line in the final seconds of the game.

Yes, an interception. Jet Coach Bill Parcells had him in on defense.

“That was their idea,” Johnson said. “I hadn’t done that since college at USC, but that was when there was a lot more time on the clock.”

If the ball was anywhere near him Sunday, Johnson got his hands on it.

He caught nine passes for 121 yards--the Jets’ first 100-yard receiving performance in a playoff game since Wesley Walker’s against the Raiders in 1983, and he tied the club record of nine receptions in a postseason game set by Al Toon in 1985. He also picked up 28 yards rushing on two carries.

“I would hope this is one of the top games I’ve ever played, because it’s a step for me in the right direction,” Johnson said. “A step to take our team to the AFC championship game.”

Johnson has changed some in his three years in the NFL, learning to temper his words since the book he wrote after his rookie season that so brashly proclaimed his arrival, a book in which he criticized teammates and now-former coaches and was also the source of the famous “Just give me the damn ball” quote.

“I don’t have to demand the ball with these coaches,” Johnson said. “They recognize talent and want to get the ball to me. As a rookie, I had to demand the ball. We were 0-9 and I wasn’t getting the ball.”

It wasn’t all Johnson. It only seemed that way.

Vinny Testaverde threw for 284 yards, completing 24 of 36 passes with one touchdown and one interception.

More important, running back Curtis Martin rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns in 36 carries--outshining Jacksonville rookie Fred Taylor, who ran for 86 yards--and helped the Jets (13-4) control the ball for almost two-thirds of the game. Martin also had six catches for 58 yards.

Jacksonville (12-6) only had the ball 20 minutes 44 seconds, and in the second quarter, the Jaguars’ time of possession was a stunning 51 seconds--18 seconds when Mark Brunell threw an interception on the first play of a possession, and 33 seconds in which the Jaguars scored a touchdown as time expired in the half on a 52-yard pass to Jimmy Smith that helped trim the Jets’ lead to 17-7.

The Jaguars helped the Jets with their mistakes.

“It wasn’t always pretty,” Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin said. “It was dismal at times, but it’s a long game, and the courage and fortitude these people showed was tremendous.”

Brunell threw three interceptions, and completed only 12 of 31 passes for 156 yards.

One of the gaffes was by safety Chris Hudson, who picked up a second-quarter fumble by Martin at the Jacksonville 18 and returned it 47 yards before appearing to attempt a lateral.

Johnson pounced on the ball, and after debate over whether it was an illegal forward pass, it was ruled a bobbled ball and a Jet fumble recovery at their 35.

“I was just trying to make a play, that’s about it,” Hudson said. “I made eye contact with a teammate, and I was trying to make a play.”

Johnson and Testaverde ran down Hudson to make one themselves.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Johnson said. “One thing I’m going to do is I’m going to run. If they don’t catch him, I’m going to make damn sure I catch him somewhere down the line.”

But what was once a 24-7 Jet lead dwindled to 31-24 in the fourth quarter.

Reggie Barlow’s 88-yard kickoff return set up Brunell’s three-yard touchdown pass to Keenan McCardell in the third quarter that made the score 24-14.

After Martin’s second touchdown, the Jaguars scored on a 19-yard pass play from Brunell to Smith, and after a fumble by Jet receiver Wayne Chrebet was recovered by Dave Thomas, the Jaguars’ Mike Hollis kicked a field goal that cut the lead to seven points with 6:38 left.

The impact of Testaverde’s only interception, with 2:24 left, was lessened when safety Donovin Darius tried to return it out of the end zone and was tackled at the one-yard line.

Jacksonville couldn’t do anything, failing on fourth and three from the eight when Brunell’s pass to McCardell on the sideline fell incomplete with 1:59 left.

The Jets kicked a field goal for the 10-point lead before Jacksonville’s last desperate pass was intercepted by Johnson.

By picking off that pass, he completed a strange feat that hadn’t been accomplished in the NFL playoffs since 1937, when Jack Manders of the Chicago Bears also caught a touchdown pass, ran for a touchdown, recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass.

Keith Byars, the Jets’ veteran fullback, saw a young receiver take a step in his career Sunday.

“Someday, he wants to go down as one of the top receivers ever to play the game. You can’t do that in three years,” Byars said. “You do that over time. You do that by making the tough catch and the easy catch, by running your routes, by blocking. He sacrificed his body, laying it on linebackers. He even recovered a fumble.”

Now the Jets have to try to do it again against the Super Bowl champions.

“Denver is a hell of a team, as we all know,” Johnson said. “I was watching them yesterday, and for a minute, I was, ‘Oooh, I don’t want to play them.’ They’re the Super Bowl champions, and we can’t play like we did today and beat them.”

“Ed McCaffrey and Rod Smith and Shannon Sharpe? I hope we score 100. We’re going to need it.”

Sunday ‘s Championship Games

NFC

Atlanta (15-2) at Minnesota (16-1)

9:30 a.m.

TV: Channel 11

Radio: KNX (1070), XTRA (690)

* NEW IDEAS: Minnesota offensive coordinator Brian Billick showcased his creativity for his potential new employers by using David Palmer at quarterback. Page 7

* FIRST LOOK, Page 7

*

AFC

New York Jets (13-4) at Denver (15-2)

1 p.m.

TV: Channel 2

Radio: KNX (1070), XTRA (690)

* TOUGH DAY AHEAD: The New York Jets will play the Denver Broncos to try to win a trip to the Super Bowl, and everyone on the Jet squad knows it won’t be easy. Page 6

* FIRST LOOK, Page 6