09/28 — There's an argument to be made that in the final 15 minutes of Sunday's 24-17 win over Tennessee, the Jets played one of the best quarters of pass defense in the NFL in the past, oh, two decades.

This argument is based on the fact that Titans QB Kerry Collins threw 10 passes in the fourth quarter and completed none of them, with one of the attempts being intercepted by David Harris and another dropback resulting in a sack, also by Harris.

Actually, Collins was 0-for-his-last-13 throws, and that in itself is indicative of, among many factors, the blitz pressure being dialed up by head coach Rex Ryan and coordinator Mike Pettine and led by Bart Scott, Jim Leonhard and others, and the pass defense being played by Darrelle Revis, Eric Smith, Drew Coleman and others.

That streak is hard to research as far as its standing among the longest completion-less streaks in franchise and league history, but the quarter performance is researchable through Stats Inc.'s fine database. And with some crunching today it can be stated that since quarter breakdowns began in 1991, Collins' 0-for-10 is one of only three such quarter slumps in the NFL and the only 0-for-10 fourth quarter in the last 19 seasons of games.

"We just made a couple of adjustments," Revis explained in front of his locker this afternoon. "Some of their receivers dropped some balls but I think that's just because of the pressure we put on him late in the game. He was moving around a little bit and he wasn't comfortable. He threw the ball out of bounds a couple of times, and on some of them we put pressure and he tried to throw the ball on a couple of comebacks and they were incomplete.

"I just think we adjusted things and made Kerry do stuff he didn't want to do."

And that's not the easiest thing to do with Collins, who after all has completed 3,218 passes for 38,023 yards, both third-most among active quarterbacks.

Here are the QBs who had the most passes with no completions in a quarter in all regular- and postseason games since 1991:

Breaking down the Jets' pass defense further, if we go yardage, we can say that the last time the Jets gave up less net passing yardage in any quarter since the Titans' minus-8 yards in the fourth quarter was minus-9 by Indianapolis in the fourth quarter of the 2001 opener, and the last time in a victory since the minus-9 by Tampa Bay in the fourth quarter of the 2000 game, a.k.a. "The Flashlight Game."

If we go by game accuracy, Collins and Tennessee's 15-for-37 (40.5 percent) is the lowest by an opponent since then-Carolina rookie Chris Weinke went 12-for-34 in Game 7 in 2001 — "the Shrek Game."

And let's examine the pass defense's performance against the Titans and Patriots, who combined to complete only 45.2 percent of their passes (38-for-84). When was the last time the Jets had a better completion percentage in back-to-back games? That would also be in 2001 at Carolina and at New Orleans for the Jets' rousing 16-9 Sunday night win.

That was the last time the Green & White visited the Big Easy — until next Sunday. And Revis, a biased observer, said he thinks Jets vs. Saints pits the two best teams in the NFL.

"I never played against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints," he said, "but I've seen him play and carry those guys, and that's a high-fire offense. They've got a lot of weapons — Reggie Bush, Jeremy Shockey, [Marques] Colston, [Devery] Henderson. He spreads the ball around a lot. It's kind of crazy to have just one ball with all that talent that they have."

And the Jets pass defense's plan is to make it as hard on Brees to function as they have on Collins, the Patriots' Tom Brady and the Texans' Matt Schaub already this season.

One for the Trophy Case

Ben Hartsock said some friends of his family had bought him a glass ball holder for his trophy case a few years ago.

"They said put your first one in there," said the tight end, "so it's been sitting empty for a while."

Now Hartsock has his first one for the case — the first football he caught for a pro touchdown. It came on that 2-yard toss from Mark Sanchez off the fake handoff and leap by Thomas Jones against the Titans.

"It was me or nothing," he said about the options on that play. "We worked on it during the week. We knew with their aggressive defense, they were going to come up and stop the run. I knew I was going to have the opportunity when the play was called, but I really knew it was going to work at the snap of the ball and I saw them come up and rush the line.

"I said, 'Just catch it and you're going to get one here.' "

Hartsock has been patiently waiting for the moment that presented itself Sunday. He's in his sixth season and had played in 61 games with 31 receptions before getting that TD (not to mention his first catch as a Jet). But the Ohioan with the little bit of a southern twang from spending 2006-07 with Tennessee and last season with Atlanta has a humble perspective on being known as more blocker than receiver.

"My career has been full of so many milestones — to make it to Ohio State, to win a national championship, to get drafted in the NFL, and now to be one of the select few to catch a touchdown in the NFL," he said. "There's not too many chapters in that book. It took me a little while to get it. I'm thankful to have the opportunity, and it's something they'll keep in the record books forever."

Now the quest is on for TD catch No. 2. But this one may not come as easily. As Hartsock said, " Now the cat's out of the bag."

Jets-Titans "Encore"

The Jets' win over the Titans will be "encored" in the 90-minute format of NFL Network's "NFL Replay" on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The 24-17 triumph is the first game of the NFL Replay doubleheader. Game 2 is the Brett Favre-led Vikings' last second comeback over the 49ers.