Ryan Fitzpatrick ditched the Civil War General look for a more Lumberjack Chic vibe to help reverse the curse, but make no mistake about it: His brain had more to do with why the Jets are now positioned to play meaningful games in December than his suddenly shrunken beard.
The quarterback with the neatly trimmed facial hair sparked a team teetering on disaster in the Jets' 38-20 rout of the Dolphins on Sunday. Fitzpatrick silenced any rumblings of a late-season quarterback controversy with a season-high four touchdowns in a turnover-free performance to keep the 6-5 Jets in the thick of a muddled wild card race.