I stated before this game that Brian Schottenheimer would need to add a wrinkle to this offense to keep Cincinnati off balance and Keller was his guy.  After an early drop, he responded with 3 catches for 99 yards and a touchdown.

With Brad Smith stealing the show last week, the Bengals’ defense was clearly prepared to stop him but they had no answer for Keller. His catch and run on a 43-yard dump off in the 4th quarter was a thing of beauty and set the Jets up for a 20-yard Jay Feely field goal and extended the Jets’ lead to 10-points.

It was also a great job of play calling by Brian Schottenheimer who is doing a nice job lately of recognizing Sanchez’ strengths, one which is roll outs off play action. This play got Keller out in space and allowed him to use his athleticism in the open field.

Keller also had a huge catch and run in the 2nd quarter, this one on another bootleg by Sanchez. Keller got behind the linebackers after Sanchez made a nice fake to Thomas Jones.

Keller came in motion to the left as the Jets appeared to be running that way but Sanchez pulled it back, rolled to his right and found a wide open Keller 25 yards down the field.
Keller caught the ball at the Bengals’ 20 and carried safety Chinedum Nduke the rest of the way.

Keller showed both great athleticism and toughness on the play, first tight roping the sideline with Nduke draped all over him then bulling his way into the end zone.  What a big time performance by Keller!

I have been critical of Schottenheimer’s game plans all season but he did an excellent job against the Bengals.

After running almost exclusively to the right last game, Schottenheimer changed it up and ran to the left with a lot of success. D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Alan Faneca and Nick Mangold (all Pro Bowlers) did a tremendous job opening holes for Shonn Greene.

Schottenheimer attacked the Bengals’ right side, which had two players, Robert Geathers and Domato Peko returning from injuries. Schottenheimer must have read my pre-game scouting report which suggested the Jets attack Peko who, despite being their best run stopper, was returning from a five game layoff and was clearly rusty.

They also attacked Jonathan Fanene and Frosty Rucker when they were in there. Both guys are better pass rushers than run stoppers. Good job preparation by Schottenheimer by attacking their  weaknesses.

By incorporating Keller back into the offense, Schottenheimer not only utilized another weapon, he showed renewed trust in his rookie quarterback.He had scaled back Sanchez’ opportunities recently with safer throws to the outside because the rookie had been careless in the middle of the field.

But to beat Cincinnati, he knew he had to bring a different look and that required that he trust his young signal caller. He knew the Bengals would not be ready for throws down the middle of the field because those types of plays have not been part of the game plan in recent weeks.

He had to allow Sanchez to throw down the middle in order to create an opportunity for the offense. Sanchez has grown considerably in the last month after really taking to heart all the criticism he was receiving in the media.

Sanchez maintained his confidence despite some poor play and kept working. His preparation in the film room has been solid as evidenced by the great job he did of reading the Bengals’ coverage.

Sanchez has shown tremendous poise in two consecutive games. In tough weather conditions with the season on the line, he made solid throws and played mistake-free football.

In his two games against Cincinnati, Sanchez has completed 20-31 passes for 245 yards and 1 TD and most importantly, no turnovers.

Helping him out was fellow rookie Shonn Greene who once again brought a physical element to the Jets’ rushing attack. It might be premature to make this assessment but with another top-notch performance, Greene may have essentially unseated Jones as the feature back.

No one can top Jones’ leadership and toughness but Greene has run with more authority and the numbers bear that out. In the last two games Greene has rushed 34 times for 197 yards and 5.8 average.

Jones, on the other hand, has run for 112 yards on 42 carries for a 2.7 average. This is probably what led Rex Ryan to switch out Jones after the Jets’ first series for the fresher Greene.

Jones had 331 carries this season, which is a ton of work for a 31-year old back. Conversely, Greene only had 108, which is why he may be shouldering a bigger share of the carries in the postseason.

There is no doubt Ryan will continue to use both backs but how their carries are split will be an interesting development that will bear watching into the off-season.

Greene once again barreled over would-be tacklers and really punished the Bengals’ defense. There was little running room in the first half but as the Jets have done all season, they kept pounding away and broke off more big plays.

In the second half Greene had runs of 9, 9, 8, 15 and 14 yards to wear down the Bengals' secondary. But Greene’s biggest play came early on another great call by Schottenheimer.

Sanchez made a counter step to his right and Tony Richardson went the same way to sell a run to that side but Sanchez pivoted and pitched to Greene running left.

Keller made a nice seal block on Leon Hall and Greene was off to the races.  He rumbled 39-yards, showing tremendous burst and provided a big play early.  His TD tied the score at 7-7 and shifted the momentum back to the Jets.

The Jets’ win was largely due to the offense but the defense made just enough plays to keep the Bengals in check.

On Carson Palmer’s first play from scrimmage he was hammered to the ground by Calvin Pace. It would be that kind of day for Palmer. The Jets’ pass rush harassed him just enough to get an edge.

Palmer threw high early and never got in to a rhythm and was clearly showing the effects of losing his top receiver. For the second week in a row, Darrelle Revis shut down Chad Ochocinco and the Bengals’ offense never clicked as a result.

Revis made a great play on a first half interception. Palmer put the ball on Ochocinco’s back shoulder but it was Revis who did the better job of reading the ball in the air.

Revis’ physical style really disrupted #85. His typical solid preparation allowed him to look as though he knew exactly what the Bengals were trying to do to him. 

The Jets’ defense was opportunistic and made plays at just the right times. They got their first break on the Bengal’s opening drive when Bryan Thomas stripped the ball from Laveranues Coles. who had just earned a first down.

This was a huge momentum changer. The Jets were in trouble early after surrendering a big return to Bernard Scott for 56-yards. The Bengals drive started at the Jets’ 36 and looked destined to come away with points.

Good play by Bryan Thomas who led all Jets’ defenders with 7 tackles. Thomas added a sack, a hit on the quarterback and a tackle for loss.

The one rough spot for the Jets was their run defense. They were clearly hindered by David Harris’ injury. Harris lacked his usual explosiveness and struggled to get off blocks.

Sione Pouha and Marques Douglas also struggled to shed and the Jets’ front allowed 169-yards on the ground to Cedric Benson on just 21 carries. That is 8-yards per carry which is the highest average this defense has surrendered all year.

There were a number of plays where the Jets had Benson pinned in but he kept breaking things to the outside. The Jets did what they were supposed to – they made Benson run east-west then couldn’t clean him up at the end.

The Jets were especially vulnerable on the edges. Despite his impressive stats, Thomas had some trouble getting off blocks as did Calvin Pace. Both were sealed off on a few plays that allowed Benson to get around them.

The Jets’ defensive front was manhandled at times by Cincinnati’s run blocking but the Jets’ pass rush had the edge on passing downs. Both Pace and Thomas did a nice job against Cincinnati’s tackles and were able to get around the corner on them.

Both guys forced Palmer to step up in the pocket and rushed a number of his throws. This, more than anything, accounted for Palmer’s accuracy problems.

Pace made some nice plays to tackle Benson from behind but he also missed two tackles where he had Benson dead to rights but could not bring him down.

The Jets had Benson stopped a number of times but did not do a good job on the backside. Benson kept hitting cutback lanes and the Jets either missed tackles or overcommitted to the run side.

Mike DeVito had Benson stopped for a loss but could not wrap him up and Benson scooted outside for a big gain of 27 yards.

The Jets’ pass rush did not sack Palmer much but it rushed him just enough to force some bad throws. They had three sacks on the evening but two of them came in the final minute. They had four hits on him and that was enough to disrupt his rhythm.

One of the keys for the defense was their physical play against Cincinnati’s receivers. Both Coles and Caldwell had to the leave the game due to injury although they would both return.

The Jets’ pass defense was excellent and held Palmer to 18-36 for 146 yards.

Jim Leonhard put a great hit on Andre Caldwell who helicoptered to the ground and dropped the ball when he landed. The Bengals would score 2 plays later but the hit seemed to affect him.

For the second consecutive week, Leonhard forced a fumble on a blitz. This time his play was made possible by a nice blitz from Bart Scott. Scott gave himself up by attacking the running back that had to come up to meet him.

Leonhard timed his blitzed well, following right behind Scott and getting to the quarterback. The Bengals would recover the fumble but the play forced a Cincinnati punt.

The entire Jets’ secondary played well. Lito Sheppard played aggressively at the line and held down nearly every receiver he faced.

Dwight Lowery, Drew Coleman and James Ihedigbo also played well in nickel situations and gave up little ground to the Bengals’ receivers.

The Jets are playing with a lot of purpose right now. They are a confident and resilient bunch. They withstood some adversity early against the Bengals and did not get down despite some bad calls from the refs.

They are hungry and have been extremely well prepared the last two weeks. Major kudos must go out to Rex Ryan and his staff for getting these guys ready to play and for generating a superior efforts against a tough Bengals team.

Since the start of the season Ryan’s support for his players has never wavered even during a tough losing streak. The entire team has bought in to his program and is playing as a cohesive unit.

All the pieces are there for the Jets. They have the talent to compete with any team in the league. They lost two of their best players in Leon Washington and Kris Jenkins but Ryan’s confidence and belief in his players has held this team together.

The Jets have been waiting for Mark Sanchez to come around and he appears to be on the verge of a break out. The Jets should continue to limit his throws but he has proven that he is no longer the liability he had been earlier in the year.

Sanchez is determined to be part of the solution for this team and if he can keep it up there is no telling how far this team can go .

Coming in to this rematch against Cincinnati I felt the Jets had a solid chance to win but I did not think they stacked up particularly well against either San Diego or Indianapolis but after Sanchez’ performance, I think the Jets’ chances are improving.

Stay tuned, this could get very interesting.