Wednesday, September 24, 1997

Next: JETS (2-2)
Jets top '96 win total
The Associated Press

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - The New York Jets found many ways to lose games the last two years. Perhaps it is a measure of their improvement this season that they have already found an unusual way to win one.

Next Jets (2-2) at Bengals (1-2) Sunday, 4 p.m. Line: Cin by 4

Last Sunday, it was the Jets who faked a punt to gain 26 yards and set up a field goal. It was the Jets who blocked a 35-yard field goal try, picked up the ball and ran 72 yards for a game-winning touchdown. It was the Jets who clinched the 23-22 victory over Oakland with a fourth-and-7 gamble at the Raiders 28 that turned into a 14-yard gain on a broken play.

''It just helps when you win a game,'' said coach Bill Parcells, who took over the worst team in the NFL (4-28 under Rich Kotite). ''It is just the mentality. The physical part I have to do with the team - train it and get it in condition to improve. These pro sports are fragile things. You've got to have confidence you can do something and you have to demonstrate it, and when you do, the confidence becomes more and you become more aggressive and better things start happening and you build momentum.

''But you can't say that when it happens one game, that's it. If we do this three or four times more in a row, then we can say, 'Hey this is what they are.' A team teaches itself.''

What did the Jets teach themselves against Oakland? For one thing, they won't be 1-15 again; they're 2-2 heading into Sunday's visit to Cincinnati.

For another, they know that all the hard work and conditioning in the offseason, all the two-a-days and meetings in training camp might be paying off.

''This is what Bill tells us,'' said Corwin Brown, who blocked the field goal that Ray Mickens picked up and ran 72 yards for a TD. ''There are two teams fighting it out tooth and nail, and somebody is going to crack because the pressure gets too high and too heavy and it gets too hard to keep up. With all of the hard work we do in training and in practice, we are making the other team crack, even though it isn't out there at those practices. We are putting that team in a position to crack by the way we work.''

They've also made some risky calls work, most recently the fourth-down play that allowed them to run out the clock on the Raiders and end a 13-game home slide.

''It was a broken play,'' said Adrian Murrell, who converted Neil O'Donnell's short shovel pass into the 14-yard gain. ''I was a couple of yards away from him when Neil began to scramble around. He was locked in downfield and trying to get the first down, so I called out to him.''

''Boy, was I glad to see Adrian there,'' O'Donnell said. ''I didn't think I was going to get the first down, so I pitched the ball to him.''

Murrell had loads of running room and, by the time the Raiders knocked him out of bounds, he was at the 14, and the victory was secured.

''I don't think we would have had a play like that last year,'' Murrell said. ''I think we can get lots of them this year.''

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JETS 23, RAIDERS 22 Sept. 22, 1997

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