Sept. 8, 1963 - New York’s franchise in the American Football League changed owners and name, but there are still problems — especially at quarterback, where all too much responsibility for today’s 38-14 rout by the Patriots at Boston College’s Alumni Stadium can be placed. After enjoying a fairly decent first half, when he helped generate a 14-14 standoff, well-traveled Dick Wood began pitching strikes — to Boston defenders. The Jets never had a look-in thereafter as they dropped their first AFL opener in four years. Weeb Ewbanks, the Jets’ new coach who once directed the Colts to two NFL championships, said: “Wood had only three workouts with us, so I guess we can’t blame him if he made some mistakes. But it was mistakes that beat us, like the five interceptions, even though this Boston club is a good one.” Where the tall Wood was very slow to react on red dog situations and just as slow to spot his receivers, Boston’s venerable Babe Parilli (pictured) was tremendous. The Babe, 33 years old, left the field in the closing minutes the hero of a near capacity crowd of 24,120. He passed for only one touchdown, but set up two others. The old guy also scored a TD on a 10-yard run. Was he satisfied? No. “I tried to get fancy in there too often. That was a mistake. My passing was off despite the number of completions. It was actually the receivers who were saving my life with great catches. Overall, I was inconsistent. I let little things throw me off.” The veteran blamed himself for the way the Pats’ offense bogged down in the third period. “I was trying to work those roll-outs and screens rather than sticking to the basic plays and moving the ball right at them,” he said. Parilli also indicated that a quarterback can become inconsisistent for a number of reasons: a subtle one being the slope of an unfamiliar field. “We only worked out at B.C. once, and the field had quite a slope for drainage purposes. So, if a receiver is going toward the sideline, the ball might go over his head when he descends with the slope of the field.”
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