Oct. 31, 1964 - The New York Jets, putting on their most explosive offense of the AFL season, routed the Boston Patriots, 35-14, tonight to bounce back into Eastern Division title contention.
A crowd of 45,033 sat in 50-degree weather at Shea Stadium and watched Dick Wood and his teammates shred Boston's vaunted defenses for 464 yards.
Wood, enjoying the finest game of his third professional season, threw three touchdown passes and completed 22 of 36 for 325 yards.
While New York's offense was riddling Boston, the Jet defensive unit turned in a sparkling effort. It was led by Billy Baird, who broke up Patriot marches three times with interceptions. Baird's thefts of Babe Parilli's aerials gave him seven for the season and put the safetyman second in the league behind Pete Jaquess of Houston, who has eight.
The Patriots, battling to overhaul Buffalo's undefeated division leaders, attempted to upset the Jets' aerial game with their customary blitz.
But Wood, mixing his passes long and short, kept the Patriots off balance just often enough by utilizing the league’s leading rusher, Matt Snell.
The rookie fullback wound up with 46 yards on 11 carries while Bill Mathis dented the Boston line for 52 yards on 10 carries.
Behind the combined rushing-passing game, the Jets never let the Patriots get set long enough to present any serious threat. The Jets scored in every period, but it was their 14‐point second quarter that sent them off the field at half‐time with a 21‐0 edge.
The Jets, scoring their fourth victory of the season against two losses and a tie, maintained their unbeaten home record. Next Sunday's test against Buffalo and the Nov. 29 game against Kansas City will close out the home campaign.
Boston still holds second place by half a game, but the Jets are even in the loss column at the moment. The triumph gave the Jets a split in two regular season games with Boston. New York won both exhibition contests.
“He’ll never be graceful,” Jets’ coach Weeb Ewbank said of Wood after watching his quarterback complete 22 of 36 passes for 325 yards. “But it’s unfortunate that people don’t think of him as a good quarterback. All I ever read about is how immobile he’s supposed to be.”
Tonight was Wood’s greatest night of the season and probably in his three-year pro career, even though he led the AFL in touchdown passes with 18 until he was injured late last season. Ewbank knew it was coming. “Gee, he’s been improving with every game,” the coach said. “It was just a matter of when he would start clicking, that’s all.”
Wood is a quiet, hardworking man who takes home game films and studies them on his own projector almost every night. He claims that the criticism doesn’t bother him. “I don’t pay any attention,” he said. “I just do the best I can. If people don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
He did something about it tonight. In the lively Jet locker room afterward, split end Bake Turner, who caught 11 of Wood’s tosses for 143 yards and two touchdowns, enthused, “He was as good as I’ve ever seen him.”
The victory was the Jets’ revenge for a 26-10 loss at Boston in the second game of the season. In that one, Wood had five passes intercepted, while Turner was ineffective and criticized for running the wrong patterns. “I was conscious of it going into tonight,” Turner said, “and I’m sure Dick was, too. Well, we finally got together.”
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