— We figured that Devin McCourty owed some of his teammates dinner. A nice cut of prime rib for Mr. Prime Time Tom Brady maybe, for impeccable efficiency in answering his critics on that last-minute drive in regulation. A big Maine lobster, surely, for Steve Gostkowski for nailing a 43-yard field goal to send the game into overtime and then a 48-yarder to win it.
And absolutely a big kiss and anything he wants off the menu for Rob Ninkovich after Ninko sacked Mark Sanchez and crawled on his belly like an overcaffeinated reptile to recover the fumble Sunday and secure the Patriots' 29-26 overtime victory over the Jets.
We underestimated McCourty's debt of gratitude.
After fumbling away a kickoff with 2:01 remaining and putting Rex Ryan on the cusp of euphoria, McCourty felt like he owed his guys a whole lot more.
"My teammates saved my life today," McCourty said.
After each and every NFL game, there always is snap analysis and widespread proclamations … Neither team deserved to win this game … For the Patriots, this was the definition of winning ugly … The AFC East? We haven't seen this many Pretenders since Chrissie Hynde first sang "Brass in Pocket" in 1979 … The Patriots might have won, but that defense blew yet another fourth-quarter lead … Sanchez may have been terrific in the second half, 16-for-20, but he still can't finish the job …
There's some truth in all that stuff, but the NFL is also a week-to-week league, and sometimes you've just got to focus in tight on a few plays and the range of human emotion. From that standpoint, it was a helluva (albeit flawed) regular-season show.
Nobody embodied that more than McCourty. He started the day realizing he'd be moved from cornerback to safety after both Steve Gregory and Patrick Chung were deactivated because of injuries. After Sanchez led the Jets on an opening 11-play, 76-yard touchdown drive, McCourty answered with the second-longest kickoff return in Patriots history.
The last time he returned a kick for a touchdown?
"In college," McCourty said.
Connecticut fans may remember. It was UConn's first home game after Jasper Howard's murder in 2009, one that ended with Howard's good friend, Tim Brown, scoring the winning touchdown for Rutgers, but beginning with McCourty's 98-yard return.
This one went 104 yards, the longest since Ellis Hobbs' 108-yard return against the Jets in 2007.
"Nobody touched me," McCourty said. "It was the kickoff a special teams coach would love to see. I just ran one way and Wendy [Ryan Wendell] and Daniel [Fells] did a great job blocking. I just made one cut. Everybody got blocked except the kicker. Once you get to the kicker it's your responsibility."
And while Nick Folk did a terrific job kicking field goals, Folk wasn't a hero tackling. McCourty blew him away.
"I just made a move and used my speed to get into the end zone," McCourty said.
"We just overpursued," the Jets' Antonio Allen said. "Special teams breakdown."
McCourty's glory and the Patriots' 23-13 lead didn't last. After Folk kicked his third of four field goals, McCourty fielded his kickoff at the goal line and got to the 15 when former Patriot Lex Hilliard knocked the ball loose. Allen fell on it at the 18.
"A bad mistake," McCourty said. "My goal is to play mistake free in the fourth quarter and that was a big one."
"You still have to finish," said Hilliard, waived by the Patriots in September and signed by the Jets Oct. 2. "They aren't going to just lay over on their back and let you win the game."
"I knew in my heart we had seven, right there," Jets linebacker Calvin Pace said. "But it just didn't happen for us."
