East Rutherford, NJ - The week started out for the New York Jets with head coach Rex Ryan making another obnoxious, demeaning remark. This time about San Diego head coach Norv Turner. Ryan could not backpedal from the statement fast enough. He might still be apologizing. Then, on Friday, Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis hangs up on a blowhard sports radio host, while trying to defend his 100-yard interception touchdown return against the Miami Dolphins Monday night. With a bye week staring them in the face, followed by two straight division games against Buffalo (on the road) and New England (at home) the Jets could not afford to lose to the Chargers. Ironically, the guy who just might have saved their season is the same guy who had been M-I-A for most of the first six games of the year.

Plaxico Burress came into the game with 14 catches for 218 yards and 2 touchdowns. Not really the offensive production the Jets were hoping for when they signed the enigmatic receiver after spending nearly two years in jail on a gun charge. By games end, Burress would haul in 3 touchdown passes in the 27-21 victory over the Chargers.

Ryan attributed a big part of the victory to the exuberance of the fans. "I want to tip my hat to the fans," he started. It had to be super hard for the Chargers to communicate. You talk about home field advantage. It was probably the difference in the game."

The fans didn't have much to cheer about in the beginning as the offense, once again, came out sluggish. Mark Sanchez (who was pretty subdued after the game) saw his first pass of the game to tight end Dustin Keller get taken away by linebacker Donald Butler as he was falling to the ground. 37 yards later, Butler gives his team a 7-0 lead. You could not help but think the Jets were mumbling to themselves, "oh no, not again." Their second possession ended a string of 4 consecutive three and out over the last 2 games when they marched down the field, resulting in a 35 yard Nick Folk field goal.

The defense continued to struggle going into the second quarter as Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers extends the lead to 14-3 after a 14 play, 76-yard drive finding tight end Antonio Gates for a 2-yard touchdown catch. Not to be outdone, Sanchez (18-33, 173 yards, 3 TD's, 1 Int.) finds Burress for the first of his 3 touchdowns bringing New York within 4 (14-10). San Diego takes an 11 point (21-10) lead on the very next possession as Mike Tolbert caps an 11 play, 87-yard drive, finishing with a 1-yard touchdown run. The Jets are cascaded with a chorus of boos from the more than 79,000 fans as the half comes to the end.

"There was no panic, there was no chewing anybody out," said Ryan of his halftime message to the defense. They must have gotten the message as they didn't give up a single point in the second half. The Jets closed the gap to 4 points (21-17) when Burress' second touchdown catch of the day was highlighted by a 15-yard run by Shonn Greene. He finished his day with 112 yards on 20 carries. His second straight 100+ yard game. "The offensive line did a great job," Greene started. "When everyone does their job, we move as a unit."
With the defense showing Rivers a different look every time he took the field, San Diego struggled the way the Jets did at the start. First, with the Chargers threatening on the Jets 25, looking to extend the lead, Rivers pass to Vince Jackson gets tipped and falls into the hands of that man, Revis. He returns it 64 yards to the San Diego 19 yard line. At one point, it looked like he would take it to the house. "What I should have did is what I did last week and cut it back," said Revis.

Five plays later, the Jets would take their first lead of the day (24-21) when Burress hauls in his third touchdown catch of the afternoon. This time, with San Diego playing him one on one, he steps inside towards the goal post for the 3-yard catch. In all of the excitement with the media suffocating him at his locker, Plax had a hard time remembering how the play developed. "I didn't think the guy (cornerback Antoine Cason was the victim on all 3 of his touchdown catches) would play me with outside leverage," he began.

"He just gave me the release and I just worked it. I didn't have time to finish the rout I beat him so bad at the line of scrimmage."

The Jets defense did not let up their second-half dominance after going up 27-21 on another Folk field goal (30 yards) after Rivers gets picked off, this time by cornerback Kyle Wilson. With 1:29 left and a chance for the Chargers to stage a come from behind win, Rivers comes up short missing his last pass to attempt to Jackson.

Like the team they share MetLife Stadium with, the New York Jets now have a chance to get healthy as they don't play again until November 6th when they visit Buffalo. Hopefully, there won't be any off the field issues like there was leading up to their game against San Diego.

"We played well," said ex-Charger LaDainian Tomlinson, who battled the flu.

He did start but came out after only gaining 14 yards on 5 attempts.

"This was our best performance of the year. We had great focus this week in practice and guys understood the magnitude of going into the bye week with a win," Tomlinson continued.