EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Cornerback Sauce Gardner was so convinced that the New York Jets had lost that he started removing the tape from his banged-up hand in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.
And he wasn't the only one. «Sitting on that sideline at the end of that game, feeling like we were going to lose, it was a pretty s---ty feeling,» Jets tight end Tyler Conklin said later at his locker.
Only 24 seconds away from one of their worst defeats in years, the Jets staged an improbable rally to beat the New York Giants 13-10 for their third straight win, tying it on Greg Zuerlein's 35-yard field as regulation expired and winning it on Zuerlein's 33-yarder in overtime.
Just like that, the Jets went from potential laughingstock to local royalty after a historically bad offensive game on Sunday at Metlife Stadium. «Over the last 10 years or so, it hasn't been all peaches and cream around here, but to say you're King of New York for at least one more year is pretty cool,» coach Robert Saleh said of owner Woody Johnson, who has won three straight in the New York-New York battle.