Can't Make This Stuff Up: Good old Vinny To Rescue By Bob Glauber Newsday 10/10/05 So you thought it was pretty bizarre seeing the 41-year-old quarterback playing again? Well, so did he. "At some points in the game, I'm thinking, 'Two weeks ago, I'm watching on my couch, and here I am playing in the game,' " Testaverde said yesterday after his improbable return to the NFL. "That's why I enjoyed every snap." Is there any possible way this could have gone any better for Vinny from Elmont? From the moment he jogged onto the field to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd to the time he jogged off the field after a 14-12 win over the previously unbeaten Buccaneers, Testaverde had lived the dream. Out of football for nine months... not knowing if he'd ever play again... calling Herman Edwards a day after Chad Pennington and Jay Fiedler both went down with shoulder injuries... and then rescuing his boyhood team from the depths... against the team that drafted him first overall in 1987, no less. "It couldn't have gone down any better than this," Testaverde said. The Jets suddenly believe there is a season worth playing for, all because they have a quarterback they believe still can play. It wasn't perfect, and there were only two touchdowns against Tampa's top-ranked defense. But for the Jets to even be thinking that there is life after losing their first- and second-string quarterbacks is a tribute to Testaverde's unlikely return. "Vinny's a stallion," Curtis Martin said. "At his age, I couldn't even imagine playing football. He's still out there getting the job done." Or, as Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said: "For a guy that's coming off the street sitting home eating potato chips, I thought he played a pretty good game." Was Barber surprised by Testaverde's performance, in which he was 13-for-19 for 163 yards? "I'm just as surprised as you are," he said. Testaverde was not spectacular; the Jets did not ask him to be. But he did something the Jets had done little of so far this season: Get the ball down the field. Offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger had the almost absurd task of game-planning for a guy he hadn't worked with until last week. "He was comfortable with everything," Heimerdinger said. "There's nothing he hasn't seen, so you can be versatile. The important thing is he was comfortable with the [pass] protections. So we could take some shots down the field. We could go vertical." But it wasn't until the second half that Testaverde got the offense untracked. After running only 15 plays in the first half, Testaverde engineered a 10-play, 59-yard drive at the outset of the third quarter to give the Jets the eventual winning score. A 16-yard seam route to seldom-used tight end Doug Jolley was the key play on the drive. The one pass that really stood out, though, was the one to Laveranues Coles in the final minutes of the game. The Jets were faced with a third-and-4 from their 31 with 2:31 to play. A first down here and they could almost put the game away, forcing Tampa to burn its remaining timeouts. The plan was for Coles to run a route similar to the one on which Testaverde threw his only interception earlier in the quarter. But rather than run a post route, Coles would make a sharper cut to the middle of the field after running down from the left side of the formation. "Laveranues saw the inside coverage, and I was able to see it and he was able to make a great catch," Testaverde said. He threw it in the only spot that Coles could get it - just out of Barber's reach. "Vinny made a great throw and gave me the opportunity to make a play and I was able to come down with the ball," Coles said. The Jets then ran the clock down to 1:12, punted the ball deep into Tampa territory and didn't let the Bucs get near field-goal range before time ran out. Astonishing ending complete. Of course, it's only one game, and there is a lot of season left. Next month, Testaverde will turn 42, and Curtis Martin is playing on a bad leg and backup runner Derrick Blaylock is out for the season with a broken right foot. Oh, and the Jets still play in the same division as the two-time defending champion Patriots. But for one day, anyway, the storyline was one of promise. For one day, Vinny from Elmont gave the Jets some hope.