Pivotal Play: Jets vs. Dolphins
The football gods do not shine on East Rutherford
by: Gregory Gethard
Electricity crackled through the Meadowlands crowd with the intensity of Nikola Tesla's lab. Just seconds earlier, Laveranues Coles had sprinted into the corner of the end zone, keeping the Jets' slim playoff hopes barely alive.
But the Jets still had to kick the extra point. The long snapper tossed the ball back to Reggie Hodges, the team's placeholder. The ball, however, slipped from Hodges' fingertips and landed on the ground. Panic set in the hearts and minds of Jets fans and players alike.
Hodges quickly snatched the ball up, but what could he possibly do? He tried to run, hoping for a miracle. But all he ended up doing was fleeing for his life as he was encircled by virtually the entire Dolphins special teams unit.
The play was indicative of the final half of the Jets' catastrophic season. They failed to execute the simplest play in all of football, just as they had failed to execute against the league's worst teams.
Only five weeks ago, it looked like Gang Green was a football juggernaut. But it was all for naught. They were now simply a team that botched an extra-point play, a team destined to live in infamy.
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