TAMPA – Keyshawn Johnson probably woke up this morning whining to whomever would listen, “How come Chrebet got the damn ball and not me?” Johnson, in a game that he chatted up into a lather of hype this week with
three scheduled press conferences and numerous other interviews, walked off the field at Raymond James Stadium after yesterday’s wild 21-17 Jets’ comeback victory over his Bucs with green egg on his face.
First, he produced a grand total of one catch for one yard in the game – and it came on a shovel pass. He could have gotten a shovel pass from Bubby Brister.
And, when asked if the fact that the object of his insecurity, Wayne Chrebet, catching the game-winning pass bothered him, Johnson offered this fib: “Not at all. It only helps the people in New York and the tabloids. We’ll be back. We’ll go play Washington.”
One catch for one yard. Against your former team with your hated rival receiver catching the game-winner in your back yard. How does that happen?
“I can’t explain it,” Johnson said. “How can you explain it? Those are the plays we called. We ran the ball. We didn’t throw the ball too well.”
Johnson was covered for most of the game – and covered well – by 6-2 Jets’ CB Marcus Coleman.
“I thought I played well,” Coleman said. “I’m pretty sure he wanted to catch his share of balls in the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him.”
Then the mouth that roars and roars and roars got real small with some pathetic excuses, including the weather.
“The rain took us out of our passing game,” Johnson said. “I didn’t feel good about it from the start. The rain got us out of sync. It was raining and we never got into a good rhythm.”
Wonder if Chrebet’s hands were wet when he caught the game-winner? Or if Curtis Martin’s right hand was muddy when he threw the gamer to Chrebet?
“I did my part as much as I could,” Johnson said. “I tried to block efficiently and get open when I could.”
The Bucs needed more than a $56 million blocker to win yesterday’s game.
“They’re a good football team,” Johnson said of the Jets. “They’ve won four games like that. We let them hang around and didn’t put them away and it came back to bite us.”
Johnson’s reaction to the game-winner: “I just thought, ‘Wow. Damn. They left someone open.’ I didn’t even know he caught it until the end. They ran the toss fake and [Chrebet] was open. Nothing you can say about it.”