08/05 — The White Team used two touchdown passes from Kellen Clemens to Justin McCareins to open an 11-point lead and then hold on for a 24-21 victory over the Green Team in the Jets' "Green & White Game" that was held at Fordham University in New York today.

The White outfit appeared to put it away when Clemens spotted McCareins behind Andre Dyson and hit him for a 39-yard score on third down, giving the Whites a 24-13 lead with 9:21 to play in the "game," that was conducted with no fans in attendance but with all the other accoutrements of an NFL game.

But Chad Pennington, who had been quiet during his earlier possessions, struck quickly to get the Green Team back to within 24-21 with 4:49 to play.

Pennington hit Chris Baker downfield for a 30-yarder to the White 25 despite the tight coverage of Victor Hobson and Justin Miller. Two plays later, Pennington hit Jerricho Cotchery going to the corner over Erik Coleman for a 20-yard score.

Then came the two-point conversion try, a Thomas Jones run into the line that appeared to be stopped short and was first ruled no good.

But "after further review" (there is no evidence of replay equipment or TV monitors in our location) the decision was reversed, Jones' run was good, and the Whites were within three points.

The game, which lasted exactly three hours in the warm but pleasantly breezy north Bronx, came down to the Greens trying to move into position for a tying Mike Nugent field goal. But Pennington could get the offense no closer than the White 47, setting up Nugent's 65-yard field goal try for the tie with 5 seconds to play. And if Nugent, who was good on 26-, 53- and 48-yarders and boomed many of his kickoffs deep into the end zone, had hit the monster kick of NFL-record proportions, the game would have gone to overtime.

But "Nooge" came up 5 yards short of the game-tying kick. The White Team wins. The White Team wins.

Clemens had the best passing line, completing 14 of 18 for 205 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. For the Greens, Pennington was 19-for-30 for 186 yards, a TD pass to Jerricho Cotchery and no INTs while Marques Tuiasosopo had a crisp second quarter and finished 11-for-18 for 103, one TD and no INTs. McCareins finished with three catches for 119 yards and two TDs.

There were a bundle of sacks in the game — nine by the first defense on the White Team, two by Dewayne Robertson, and five by the Green defense, two by DT Sione Pouha. The high number was due to strictly enforcing the college halo rule to protect the QBs. The pass-heavy game plans resulted in a White yardage advantage of 275 to 238.

I'll have some of head coach Eric Mangini's remarks after the game shortly.