E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

It appeared to be a meaningless drive, but it might have saved Chad Pennington’s job.

And it wasn't as memorable as The Drive by the Broncos, seen here, but, like Elway's masterpiece, it did occur in the state of Ohio.

The game was over, most fans in New York had already changed the channel, and the crowd in Cincinnati was filing out of the stadium. Johnathan Joseph had just returned a Pennington interception to make the score an insurmountable 38-23 with 46 seconds left. There were 37 seconds left when the Jets got the ball back with no time outs remaining at the Cincinnati 39.

“It was weird, everyone still had the mindset that we were still in the game even though we weren’t,” said receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who caught the eventual 32-yard touchdown pass off the chest of Brad Smith as time expired. “A lot of teams would have just gone through the motions on that drive. Chad came in and was like ‘Let’s finish this game.’ Everyone already had that mindset that we were going to continue to fight, but Chad came in and got his point across and we took care of it from there.”

It wasn’t a particularly pretty drive. It started with a 7-yard pass to Cotchery on the sideline, then a pair of long incompletions. Finally, on fourth-and-3 with three seconds remaining, Pennington wound up and heaved the ball into the end zone for the touchdown. The Jets (perhaps optimistically thinking that a playoff tie-breaker would come down to points scored) went for two points and Pennington hit Leon Washington for the conversion to make the final score 38-31.

“There’s not a lot of guys that would do that,” Pennington said of the players on the drive. “That means a lot to me as a quarterback.”

It likely meant a lot to him remaining a quarterback as well. As Eric Mangini sifted through the film from the game, it was likely impressive to have that drive as the final image in his head and not the interception. When Mangini announced that Pennington would start this weekend, he cited that drive as “Classic Chad.”

Asked if he thought the drive was crucial in helping save anyone’s job, Laveranues Coles said “If it was, I don’t think anybody has it in their mind at the time.” Cotchery said yesterday that he wasn’t sure what decision Mangini would have reached without that drive, but he was sure of one thing. “Chad’s the leader, and that drive right there definitely showed his leadership.”

The drive not only solidified Pennington’s status, but made an impact on some others and could prove to be a turning point toward respectability in the coming weeks.

“Just to be a part of that is a good feeling because you know that those guys will go down fighting,” Coles said. “That was truly one of the better moments of my career. Even though we were on the losing end, that drive was a special moment in my career.”