New York Jets was defeated Ryan to both sides of the head of the Dallas Cowboys. And to make matters worse, his sin is taken to the woodshed by Rob Ryan's defense, which limited to 48 yards on the final stage of the first half.
It got so bad that a bunch of fans started pouring out of MetLife Stadium when Mark Sanchez, who started the night by rushing onto the field carrying an American flag, fired an interception that left his team down two touchdowns with 14:50 remaining.
Few suspected at that point that the Jets were on their way to an improbable 27-24 victory.
The Cowboys self-destructed with crucial turnovers and penalties.
After playing splendidly most of the night, quarterback Tony Romo, in his first regular-season game back following shoulder surgery, was ruined by a fumble deep in the red zone, then a careless interception that set the stage for ex-Cowboy Nick Folk's 50-yard game-winning field goal with 27 seconds left.
"We were in a dogfight," Rex Ryan said. "It shows you the resolve of our football team. It might have been the best team effort that I've ever been a part of. We kept hanging in there and believed that we could get it done."
And the Jets? After looking feeble and disinterested at both ends of the field most of the way, Rex got the last laugh on big brother, while Papa Buddy Ryan -- battling cancer -- watched from a luxury suite.
Things began to change for the Jets once Sanchez, who'd been held in check to that point, mounted an 87-yard scoring drive before halftime to narrow Dallas' lead to 10-7.
From there the Jets, fueled by the energy of the crowd were a different team.
"This was for our community," Rex Ryan said.
"We told our team before the game that whoever plays the hardest the longest will win," Rex Ryan said after the game. "You've always heard me talk about it — they're not in there until they're in there, and we saw that today. It looked bleak, there's no question about it — that's an explosive team, both on offense and defense. That stat about them being 241-0-1 when they have a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter … I mean, it just shows you the resolve of our football team. It was a team effort, there's no doubt about that. From the blocked punt, to Nick Folk nailing a 50-yard field goal, out offense just needed a little more time to throw the football — Mark did a great job and Plax was huge for us. You saw those captains — you saw how Sione gets the fumble around the goal line, and how Revis gets the pick.
"We lean on our captains, and they did a great job for us."Revis agreed. "We showed a lot of heart, We were down, 24-10 at one point, and we just kept telling guys on the sideline to push it and push it so that we could get back up and get into the game and win it.
"It's the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, and we did it for New York City."
