10/12 — Cincinnati gets the ball to start the second half and open with two third-and-10s. Ryan Fitzpatrick picks up the first with a completion to Chad Johnson (OK, Chad Ocho Cinco, although he continues to wear C.JOHNSON on his jersey) against a Jets three-man rush. But the Jets win the second third-and-10, also with a three-man, when Calvin Pace shakes his man and takes the Bengals backup down for the sack.

The Jets move on two long Brett Favre completions, to Laveranues Coles for 29, then to Jerricho Cotchery for 18 to the C-24. But on second down Favre gives the ball back on an interception, but S Marvin White's pickoff of the long ball intended for TE Bubba Franks starts the visitors out at their 3.

Leon Washington is having a sharp return day and he takes the Bengals' next punt from their end zone from the C-47 to the 25, a 22-yard return. The Jets seem confused by the Tiger Stripes' stout defense today with Favre, on third-and-3 out of an empty set, getting sacked by DE Frostee Rucker. But Jay Feely comes on for his second FG toward the East end zone, a 43-yarder that makes it Jets 20, Bengals 14 with 5:36 left in the third.

The Jets take the next punt and try to move but again are stymied. Favre drops back on third-and-12 from the Cinci 31 and tries to get the ball to Jerricho Cotchery singled up against CB Johnathan Joseph down the right sideline. But Joseph has the position, Cotchery fights for the ball and it's batted in the air — and S Corey Lynch comes away with it.

The bad news is that the Jets are now minus-2 in turnover differential, but at least this is no worse than a great punt as Lynch is taken down at the Bengals 8. Fitzpatrick, plucky as Carson Palmer's fill-in today, converts a third-and-8 on a completion to T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

But then the Jets D, which has played well all day except for the drive at the end of the first half, rises up. A David Harris/Bryan Thomas combo sack followed by a Calvin Pace run-the-QB-out-of-bounds, forces another punt, and Leon gets another PR into CB territory.

Then Thomas Jones gets it cranked up one more time.

Favre moves the Jets 41 yards in 10 plays. He gets five carries for a mere 12 yards, but one converts a third-and-2 and his last, out of that "heavy" package (three TEs and a FB) that produced his TD reception, is a 1-yard TD run to make it 26-14 with 2:22 to go.

It is the first three-TD game of Jones' nine-year career, and his first two-TD rushing game since the '06 playoffs, when he did it twice with the Bears.

The Jets go for two, since the Bengals will need two TDs no matter what and if they get lucky with two in the game's final 2:22, they may only get a tie. But even though the deuce fails, the Bengals will not get their first win of the season. They will fall to 0-6.

And the Jets will rise to 3-2 and get ready to go to Oakland for next weekend's chance to go two over .500 for the first time since late in the '06 season.

We'll have a feature on Thomas Jones by Tim Carlson, my final blog of the day from the Jets locker room, and Eric Allen's game story in the coming hours.