Cleared for takeoff

SAN DIEGO -- Marty Schottenheimer has the highest winning percentage of any coach in the NFL, NBA, or major league baseball never to have taken a team to a world championship game. Saturday night, the 61-year-old Coach of the Year reminded the world why that is.

Schottenheimer is a master of building also-rans into playoff teams. Unfortunately, he's also the master of forgetting what got those teams that far.

When a playoff game is on the line, Schottenheimer becomes more conservative than Dick Cheney. He makes Rush Limbaugh sound like Al Franken. For some unfathomable reason, he plays not to lose when the most is on the line rather than to win, and that has led him to a 5-12 playoff record, including eight first-round losses in 12 appearances.

"I've been through this before, as we all know," Schottenheimer said after a 20-17 overtime loss to the Jets that sent New York to Pittsburgh next Saturday and guaranteed the Colts will be coming to Razor Blade Field for the third time in 12 months Sunday.

Saturday night was the latest in a career littered with postseason failures, often by teams like the one he'd constructed this year in San Diego. The surprising Chargers rebounded from a 4-12 season a year ago to go 12-4 and entered the wild-card playoff game with nine wins in their last 10 games, while the Jets had lost three of their last four and were playing with a quarterback whose arm was killing him.

Saturday night, however, it killed the Chargers, but not without an assist from Schottenheimer for much of the night. First he was hit with a ridiculous 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct when he ran on the field to argue for a roughing the kicker call that was never made because it never happened. That gave the Jets the ball at the San Diego 37-yard line, and in five plays they'd tied the game, 7-7.

Then, for much of the night he kept the wraps on his quarterback, Drew Brees. For three quarters Brees seldom threw far downfield on a night when the Chargers' running game had been shut down. Finally, Schottenheimer let Brees loose after falling behind by 10 points in the fourth quarter, and he responded by throwing for 147 of his 319 yards from that point on, leading San Diego to 10 fourth-quarter points.

A Brees fourth-down pass had fluttered hopelessly to the ground with 16 seconds to play, seemingly ending the game, but Jets linebacker Eric Barton inexplicably (except that he is a former Oakland Raider) forearmed him in the head after the ball had been released and roughing the passer was called. That gave the Chargers a first down, and on the next play Brees found tight end Antonio Gates wide open in the end zone to tie the game with 11 seconds left.

Although Schottenheimer's playoff record was not good, his record in playoff overtimes was 2-1, so there was reason to hope at that point if you were a Chargers fan. But Schottenheimer could not overcome his nature, and that cost his team dearly. After the Chargers had crisply marched 48 yards on their second OT drive to the Jets' 22, their oft-daunted coach pulled in the reins for no discernible reason. Despite having had little luck running the ball all night, Schottenheimer called three straight running plays that netted zero yards and that left rookie kicker Nate Kaeding with a 40-yard field goal attempt in the rain from the right hashmark to win the biggest game of his life.

He didn't do it. Later, Schottenheimer had a reason for the things he didn't do as well.

"After we got the ball inside the 30-yard line, I was very comfortable with the opportunity to kick it," he said. "I just had every confidence he would make it. Now, 20/20 hindsight, knowing the outcome, would I change it? Sure."

When you've lost 12 of 17 playoff games because of your insistence on playing what has become known as MartyBall, you would think hindsight wouldn't be necessary anymore.

Minutes after Kaeding's miss, the Jets did the opposite. They attacked San Diego's defense time and again, driving the ball downfield until Doug Brien had only to deliver a 28-yard field goal for the win. No problem . . . for him.

"Everyone in this room is going to remember this stuff," Chargers linebacker Randall Godfrey said. "I thought for sure we were going to play in Pittsburgh."

Had their offense kept playing in San Diego, perhaps they would have, but Schottenheimer decided the game already had been decided and was willing to take no more chances. He refused to gamble, and because of it he lost his bet and yet another playoff game.

"Winning this game is going to give us another level of confidence going into next week," Jets running back Curtis Martin said. "I think it makes our goal more of a reality. We have dramatic games, but this one was probably one of the most dramatic games I've been a part of."

Dramatic for the Jets. Familiar for Marty Schottenheimer.