It did not bode well for the Jets when the Bengals beat the Ravens in the early game Sunday and held them to ten points. After all, one of the few positive takeaways from Gang Green’s Monday Night debacle was that Rex Ryan’s defense held Joe Flacco and the newly high-flying Ravens offense in check. If the Bengals, a team that yielded 38 points to the Patriots in Week 1, could stop the Ravens so effectively, clearly the feat is not so impressive. Plus, since the Patriots beat the Bengals, the Bengals beat the Ravens and the Ravens beat the Jets, then by the transitive property…

Luckily, that logic doesn’t hold in the NFL. The Jets, despite a slow start and the loss of Darrelle Revis late in the first half, beat the Patriots, wiped the smug look off Tom Brady’s stupid face, and restored confidence that they might, for once, match the hype.

How’d they do all that? Well, last week’s goat Antonio Cromartie redeemed himself. The defense adapted to and ultimately stifled Brady and the Patriots’ offense. Some of the new, old guys — LaDainian Tomlinson and Jason Taylor — showed why Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum thought they had enough left to bring ’em to Jersey. And our hero Mark Sanchez played the game of his life.

Sanchez got help from pretty solid line play, much more aggressive play calling, and a run game that gave him breathing room to spread the ball around the field. But he made plenty of plays on his own, too, improvising, eluding defenders with his feet, checking down to the open receiver, looking like a calm, cool veteran and not the gun-shy rookie he resembled just six days ago.

The Sanchise threw touchdowns to three different receivers and finished 21-for-30 with 220 yards and no interceptions. Entering the game it was clear the Patriots’ secondary was their weak spot, but Sanchez exploited it with particular aplomb. The performance should be plenty to quiet the maybe-never set that emerged earlier this week ready to write off Sanchez’s career.

Perhaps the future… IS NOW!

Ultimately, I should note, one game means little in the scope of the 16-game schedule, regardless of the quality of the opponent. And depending on the extent of Revis’ injury, this could be something of a Pyrrhic victory for Gang Green.

But it was an awesome and exciting one regardless, and a convenient excuse to post a picture of Mark Sanchez with a mustache and ridiculous 3-D glasses.