Titans Fumble One Away to Upstart Jets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The loneliest man in the stadium sat alone on a bench, his thoughts drowning out anything the crazed blob of 70,000 might be yelling at him. How could he have let not one, but two kicks trickle through his hands on a day like this, when the Tennessee Titans so desperately needed a win? How could he wrap such perfect gifts for the New York Jets, his fumbles turning into touchdowns for the wrong team? His teammates tried to comfort him with arm squeezes or soothing words, but Ryan Mouton just squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

Mouton would offer the exact same gestures an hour or so later, this time as he stood in the visitor's locker room and tried to explain how he got pulled into a vortex that resulted in the worst game of his short professional career. The ball was covered in a fine slippery sheen on this rainy, messy afternoon in the Meadowlands, where the Jets beat the Titans, 24-17. Mouton, a third-round pick out of Hawaii, is a rookie still growing accustomed to fielding punts and kickoffs. Partial excuses flew at Mouton from all corners.

"Doesn't matter. It's on me. They're my mistakes," Mouton said. "I did a poor job."

The Titans' 0-3 start is nearly as stunning as the Jets' 3-0 mark out of the gates. While one rookie's awful day on special teams deflected attention from the Titans' other woes, another rookie's up-and-down day at quarterback sparked all sorts of delirium. Mark Sanchez passed for two touchdowns, ran for another, went through an entire quarter without hitting a receiver, coughed up a couple of nervous fumbles, was sacked three times, threw one interception, scared the hair off the owner's head by going nose first at the goal line rather than sensibly sliding -- and when it was over, he had become the first rookie QB in history to go 3-0 to start a season.

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"Each week, it seems like every phase has their moments in the game," said the newly mustachioed Sanchez, after completing 17 of 30 passes for 171 yards and TD tosses to Jerricho Cotchery and Ben Hartsock. "The special teams were huge. Two big-time plays for this team -- that was big for us. We're in this thing together."

The NFL is indeed a curious puzzle. Last season, the Titans won a league-best 13 games and sailed into the playoffs. Now Tennessee's desperation is as obvious as the bombs Kerry Collins throws over his receivers' outstretched hands. Last season, the Jets thought they had bottled magic in Brett Favre's arm, until the fantasy popped. Now the Jets have a quarterback fans can finally believe in, and a frothing, ferocious defense every bit as fine as its top rating suggests.

"No panic stage, nothing. We're going to keep working," said Titans coach Jeff Fisher, still clinging to the notion that must-win games occur only in the playoffs and not in September.

On a wet, sponge-like field, the Jets opened with a no-huddle offense, attacking early the weak Titans' secondary. It was an impressive first series for the home team, proving the Jets had no hangover from an emotional win over the Patriots one Sunday earlier. Sanchez, facing third-and-10 from the Tennessee 14. and looking more and more at home in the red zone, scampered, broke a tackle and took a shot from the Titans' Michael Griffin, but still spun across the goal line, head-first, for a 7-0 Jets' lead.

"That felt pretty good," Sanchez said. "That was a big-time hit on the goal line. I hadn't had a rushing touchdown probably since high school, at least a long rushing touchdown, and 14 [yards] is long for me."

Jets linebacker Bart Scott offered his own twist, ripping Griffin for failing to bring down the QB. "I think that guy should be embarrassed. Maybe Sanchez's post-rookie player card should have that run-over on the end of it," Scott said. "They should make it a Fathead."

Mouton's first mistake soon buried Griffin's blunder. Mouton returned the ensuing kickoff for 14 yards but was hit by Jason Trusnik, who forced the ball to squirt out and then recovered Mouton's fumble. Mouton did everything but hand the ball to the Jets in a blue box, because Sanchez orchestrated a quick drive from the Titans' 19-yard line. It ended five plays later, on a perfect play-action, with Sanchez faking a handoff and finding tight end Hartsock on an arcing soft toss in the end zone. In two touchdown drives, Sanchez connected with six different receivers, and somewhere Pete Carroll must have been wondering why he was suddenly noticing so many new frown lines in the mirror.


After staggering to a 0-2 start, including that inexplicable loss to the Texans last week, the Titans looked defenseless. The ridiculous uniforms both teams were wearing in honor of the 50th anniversary of the AFL's inaugural season didn't help: The Jets were the 1960 Titans, the Titans were the powder-blue Houston Oilers, and the poor referees looked like they escaped from a Sesame Street skit. Fisher patrolled the sidelines in clothes no self-respecting high school coach would ever wear. But hey, who's complaining, as long as the NFL makes more piles of money from saps willing to buy throwback unis.

Sanchez's No. 6 is fast becoming a NY fashion do, but the kid still has his don't moments. Early in the second quarter, as the Jets were again driving, Sanchez had the ball stripped by defensive tackle Tony Brown. The fumble gave the Titans possession at their 45-yard line, and soon the Jets' defensive streak of going nine quarters without allowing a touchdown came to a halt. LenDale White, slimmed down considerably from last season, broke a couple of tackles from six yards out and rushed into the end zone with another defender clinging to his jersey.

Though it's not impossible to rebound from an 0-3 start and reach the playoffs -- think 1998 Buffalo and, true story, Detroit in 1995 -- Collins, the well-traveled Tennessee quarterback, knows the odds aren't kind. Playing with the sort of urgency befitting a desperate QB, Collins began firing dagger spirals on a field he knows well. He gave the Titans a 17-14 lead 3:26 into the second half when he hit Nate Washington on a pretty fade route for a 9-yard touchdown. "He made some throws that I couldn't believe. I sat back and said, 'Man, when did they get Johnny Unitas?'" Ryan said of Collins.

The Jets, brilliantly proficient in the first quarter, suddenly were an offense of three-and-outs. The fans, ludicrously loud all of last Sunday when the hated Patriots were in town, suddenly remembered who they were. Some began to boo. "I was booing myself," Jets coach Rex Ryan would say later. Soon, the Jets were punting again, and the rookie Mouton told himself to forget what happened two quarters earlier.

Steve Weatherford's booming punt traveled 58 yards, ending with the ball floating right through a retreating Mouton's arms. As he frantically tried to retrieve it, Brad Smith smothered Mouton. The ball bounced around until linebacker Larry Izzo recovered it for the Jets. Four plays later, as Mouton sat on a bench, the loneliest man in the stadium, Sanchez again torched the Titans' porous defense. He found Cotchery on a 6-yard slant in the front of the end zone, putting the Jets up 21-17. Jay Feely's 30-yard field goal made it 24-17 with 11:36 remaining.

The Titans keep finding creative ways to lose. That's not the mark of a playoff-hungry team, no matter how many happy faces Fisher tries to make. Mouton and the special teams dirtied the Titans' hopes, but it was the Jets' defense, rumored to be a bunch of gimmicks and loud mouths, that buried Tennessee for good. And what do you know, there was Scott, the linebacker who always seems to have much to say, growling, "For anybody out there who thinks that this is a gimmick defense and can't play smashmouth, how dare you?"

Dialing up the pressure and blitzing from all corners, the Jets defense put Collins through a fourth-quarter ringer. David Harris had an interception and a huge sack on Tennessee's final two drives, as Collins misfired on 13 straight passes. "By no means can we start pointing fingers and start pushing panic buttons," Collins said afterward. "We've just got to stay together and keep believing in what we are doing and we'll get it turned around."

History suggests it might be too late, even while the season is so young. But if the Detroit Lions can rebound from 0-3 ignominy and make the playoffs -- heck, if the current Lions can finally win a single game -- shouldn't hope spring eternal? Sunday's goat had the obvious answer.

"All I can do is keep working hard and do my best," said Mouton, whose two muffed returns led to 14 New York points. He headed up the ramp leading out of Giants Stadium, a lonely man eager to say good riddance to a miserable day.