Jets quarterback Chad Pennington missed practice Wednesday with the flu/stomach problems and spent the day getting IV treatments. Moreover, backup Quincy Carter returned home to Decatur, Ga., to be with his ill mother.
That left the Jets with third-teamer Brooks Bollinger, who was inactive in a 20-17 overtime victory over San Diego last Saturday, running the show. The second-year QB has thrown only nine passes this season.
As for Pennington, who was nearly flawless in throwing for 279 yards and two TDs against the Chargers, he does not have much time to get back to full strength for Saturday's AFC divisional playoff game against the Steelers.
The Jets will go through a light workout today, then travel to Pittsburgh on Friday.
"He'll be ready to play," coach Herman Edwards said of Pennington, who threw three interceptions and had a passer rating of 33.6 when the Jets lost to the Steelers, 17-6, on Dec. 12 at Heinz Field. "He should be ready for practice (today), I assume."
Asked if there was any chance Pennington could miss Saturday's game, Edwards was quick with an answer.
"None," he said. "Generally, when guys get sick, they have good games. I thought one time Michael Jordan got sick, and he had, what, 100 points or something like that?"
Carter is day-to-day and was dropped to third string behind Bollinger. Edwards said practice went well without the top two QBs.
"We have four of them, so we're okay," Edwards said. "Ricky Ray out of Canada, it was his kind of weather today. He served a couple (interceptions), and I told him he was working at the Waffle House."
Edwards, who said Pennington would have been incapable of playing yesterday, was not concerned about Pennington missing a key day of practice.
"You're talking about a guy that's pretty cerebral, smart guy. If anything, it rests his arm another day. There's always a positive in everything in life if you look at it that way. Now, you can spin it the other way and say, this glass is empty, but I've still got some water in it, so it's really not empty. That's how I look at it."
