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Jets' QB Flip Flop Continues


Glenn Foley's poor outing in St. Louis last weekend has, for now, cost him his job as New York Jets quarterback.

Vinny Testaverde, 2-0 in foley's injury-related absence earlier this season, will start Monday's critical game at New England. Foley, 0-3 as a starter -- he missed the team's two victories with a rib injury -- will be on the bench.

"I don't feel like Glenn is back to the way he was before," coach Bill Parcells said Wednesday. "I told him he will get an opportunity to try and sharpen himself up."

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  • Foley began the season with a 415-yard, three-touchdown effort in a 36-30 overtime loss at San Francisco. But he struggled in the second half of Game 2, a loss to Baltimore, and was awful -- 5-for-15 for 76 yards, with two interceptions and a fumble -- at St. Louis before Testaverde came on late in the third period.

    Parcells deliberately held Foley out of the previous week's game with Miami, even though Foley claimed he was fully recovered from the rib problem. He then reinstated Foley as the starter for the Rams game.

    Now, it's Testaverde's job, at least for this week.

    "I just look at the situation as Glenn just isn't quite what he was early in the season right now and I can't pinpoint why," Parcells said. "We're at a point in there seaon where we have some tough games, and if we don't do something pretty soon, we will not be a factor."

    Testaverde is looking at the current QB order as temporary. The 12-year veteran, a starter for most of his career in Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Baltimore, isn't looking beyond Foxboro Stadium.

    Vinny Testaverde
    With Glenn Foley struggling, the Jets will start Vinny Testaverde Monday night against New England. (AP)

    "I look at it as one game," said the quarterback who signed as a free agent with the Jets in the off-season. "I haven't been around Coach Parcells enough to know what he's going to do. That doesn't concern me. Playing good football is what concerns me."

    "I don't expect all of this to be on my shoulders. We have a very capable offense. I am more concerned about what the Patriots are doing. If we do our jobs, we can win the game."

    Foley, in his fifth pro season, has had a rough career. He was a third-stringer for the first three years, barely getting any action. He's also been injury-prone, and those injuries not only have cost him playing time, but twice have contributed to losing the starter's job.

    He spoke mysteriously on Wednesday about "other factors" that contributed to his demotion. He might have referred to a perception that Parcells' assistant coaches on offense, Dan Henning and Charlie Weis, don't have as much confidence in him as they do in Testaverde.

    "You do what you're told and go about it that way," Foley said. "If you don't do well, you don't win. You look at the circumstances and everything going on around you. I am one guy trying to win."

    But he also admitted that after his poor showing in St. Louis, he deserved to be set down.

    "I was terrible and I cost the team big in that game," he said. "I really deserved to get benched. When you don't play well, you don't play and I'm not playing this week. That's just the way it works."

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