08/05 — Kellen Clemens found Justin McCareins all alone down the sideline for a 66-yard touchdown pass for the only score of the first quarter, giving the White Team a 7-0 lead after the first quarter of today's Green & White game

CB Andre Dyson and S Rashad Washington were the DBs in the area, but neither was close enough to challenge McCareins' dash for the goal line.

But Marques Tuiasosopo, who took over the Greens' reins from Chad Pennington in the second quarter, had a strong drive to a tying 9-yard touchdown pass to RB Alvin Banks with six minutes to play in the first half.

Tuiasosopo provided the most consistent offense of the first half by completing five of six passes for 62 yards, including three third-down conversions — 19 yards on third-and-17 to Juan Wong plus a completion to Frisman Jackson and the TD pass to Banks.

Then after Brett Ratliff couldn't move the White offense, Green PR Jerricho Cotchery returned a rare short Ben Graham punt to the White 31, "Tui" came knocking again with another third-down completion to Alvin Banks, leading to Mike Nugent's 26-yard field goal and a 10-7 Greens lead.

But in the final 1:10 of the first half, Brad Smith completed a 10-yard pass to Jesse Pellot-Rosa to position Nugent — having pulled his white jersey on over his green one — for a 53-yard try. And "Nooge" nailed it with room to spare, sending the teams into their locker rooms with a 1-10 tie.

Other than the Clemens TD pass play, the opening period of this game-simulation practice was a defensive battle. Pennington was sacked three times, including once by Jonathan Vilma, who got past Thomas Jones. Pennington aired one ball out 44 yards in the air intended for Laveranues Coles, but S Erik Coleman was in great position to bat the pass away.

CB David Barrett had one beautiful sideline interception wiped out by one of the Pennington sacks and lost another possible pick when Erik Coleman collided with him.

DT Sione Pouha also had a sack of Clemens, who had to control a couple of errant shotgun snaps by Wade Smith.

Graham generally punted strongly — and frequently — in the half, with his first punt his prettiest, a full-leg drive to the White 3 that bounced straight up and had to be fielded by Justin Miller, who was downed inside the 5.

Nugent also showed that his strong-legged kickoffs of minicamp were no fluke. He seemed to get stronger as the half went on, putting kicks at the 2, 5 yards into the end zone, then 8 yards deep.

Adding to the atmosphere of the day at our still unidentified stadium, the P.A. system blared "Charge" fanfares and "J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!" chants, the announcer read spots for the Jets-Falcons game on WCBS-TV on Friday and Jets MasterCard, and Yankees standard "Cotton Eye Joe" and Patriots standard "Crazy Train" were sampled.

Reports on the second half and postgame are ahead.