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Jets hand Titans first loss

Nov 24, 2008 - 12:01 AM By Chip Cirillo PA SportsTicker Corresponding Writer

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Brett Favre isn't ready to issue any bold statements about the New York Jets, but it must be tempting.

One week after knocking off the defending AFC champion, the Jets handed the Tennessee Titans their first defeat, 34-13, with a dominating performance on Sunday.

Tennessee (10-1), off to the best start in the 49-year history of the franchise, was the NFL's last undefeated team.

"I'm not going to sit here and say that we've established ourselves as the best team in football," Favre said. "All it says is that I think we beat the best team in football today. Definitely if you go by record and the way that they've played, they have been the best team in football."

Favre, 39, called it another big road win, just like last week's overtime victory over New England in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The 18-year veteran completed 25-of-32 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns to lead New York (8-3) to its fifth consecutive win.

"I've got the luxury of playing with somebody that's almost my dad's age," Jets nose tackle Kris Jenkins kidded. "I was watching him when I started growing my adult teeth and then when my mom started helping me walk he was on the field. But he's playing great - you've got to understand that."

Favre set the tempo on New York's first possession when he marched the Jets 76 yards in nine plays by completing 6-of-6 passes, including a 10-yard TD strike to Thomas Jones for a 7-0 lead.

"They've been difficult to move the ball on, especially on the first drive of the game," Jets coach Eric Mangini said. "That's an area we've significantly improved. Over the last five weeks we've been able to score points and touchdowns on that first drive."

New York dominated time of possession by a two-to-one margin as the Jets had the ball for over 40 minutes; Titans had it less than 20.

"Any time you allow Brett Favre to stay under center for 40 minutes, it's going to be a long day defensively and that is basically the bottom line as far as this game is concerned," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "Today was a case where we made too many mistakes and they made too many plays for us to win the ballgame."

The Titans had allowed the fewest points in the NFL, but they gave up a season high to the Jets, who piled up 409 yards in total offense.

New York shut down Tennessee's running game, as the Titans were held to 45 rushing yards while the Jets rambled for 192.

Thomas Jones rushed for 96 yards on 27 carries and Leon Washington added 82 yards and two TDs on eight carries for the Jets.

"It was pretty hard early on and a lot of yards were hard to come by with three- and four-yard gains, but we kind of wore them down in the third and fourth quarters," Washington said. "Early on we had a few turnovers, but our defense did a really good job of playing really good off the momentum change."

Tennessee missed a good scoring opportunity when Cortland Finnegan intercepted a Favre pass at the New York 42-yard line early in the second quarter, but four plays later the Jets forced the Titans to punt.

"A lot of times this year we have been able to capitalize on opportunities that our defense had given us," Titans quarterback Kerry Collins said. "We didn't do that today. I thought that was a big factor in the game. That's on us. The offense is going to take responsibility for this one. The defense certainly gave us a chance and we didn't do it."

Collins completed 21-of-39 passes for 243 yards and one touchdown as the Titans were forced to play catch-up in the second half.

New York took a 10-3 lead into halftime and started to pull away in the third quarter. Jay Feely kicked a 30-yard field goal to increase the Jets' lead to 13-3 midway through the third quarter.

Five minutes later, Laveranues Coles caught a 2-yard TD pass from Favre to make it 20-3. Rob Bironas' 49-yard field goal cut the deficit to 20-6 early in the fourth quarter, but Washington gave New York some breathing room with a 61-yard TD run with 11:07 left.

Tennessee's Ahmad Hall caught a 6-yard TD pass from Kerry Collins, narrowing the gap to 27-13 with 9:43 left.

The Titans' defense couldn't hold and Washington finished the scoring with a 4-yard run with 2:09 remaining.

"We got embarrassed at home," Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said. "We got handled at home. (New York's offense) was very effective with the short passes, getting the ball out of Brett's hands real quick and not allowing our pass rush to get up the field. We didn't play good first-down defense. They were able to get second-and-shorts and I felt as if our defense was on the field for a long time."