East Rutherford, N.J. ? The New York Jets made 41-year-old Vinny Testaverde their desperation quarterback because they figured a guy with his experience wouldn’t make a mistake that would cost them a game.

He gave them a bonus Sunday. Not only was he almost mistake-proof, but he made the only play he really had to, a 17-yard completion to Laveranues Coles just north of the two-minute warning that just about put away a 14-12 victory over Tampa Bay.

“He did what a veteran does,” said Mike Heimerdinger, the Jets’ new offensive coordinator, who totally scrapped the new offense he had worked on for eight months to accommodate his new-old QB. “He threw a ball to a place where our guy could catch it and they couldn’t get to it.”

The play came with two minutes, 31 seconds left and the Jets, clinging to that two-point lead, with third-and-four at their 31. The Bucs had two timeouts left and an incomplete pass and a punt would have given them plenty of time to drive for a winning field goal.

Instead, Testaverde drilled the ball between two Bucs, Coles went up and got it, and the Jets had a first down at the 48. The Bucs had to use both their timeouts, and finally got the ball back at their 12 with a minute left.

They tried, but the game had essentially ended on the Testaverde-Coles play.

Testaverde was signed less than two weeks ago after the Jets lost starter Chad Pennington for the season and backup Jay Fiedler for much of it during an overtime loss to Jacksonville.

Brooks Bollinger, the third-stringer who was the losing pitcher in last week’s 13-3 loss in Baltimore, wouldn’t have made the play. He wouldn’t have been asked to make the play because no NFL coach has that kind of confidence in a young guy who had thrown just nine NFL passes in two-plus seasons before his start.

New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde celebrates at the end of a 14-12 victory over Tampa Bay. Testaverde, the Jets' new-old QB, led them to the win Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J.

Which is why they got Testaverde, who, Tampa Bay’s Ronde Barber noted, “had been sitting on his couch eating potato chips” until he got the call.

Vinny has always been a New York favorite. He grew up on Long Island a few minutes away from where the Jets train and finally joined them in 1998 after stints in Tampa, Cleveland and Baltimore. He quarterbacked them to the AFC championship game that year. So when he was introduced before the game, he got a standing ovation – he is, after all, one of New York’s own.

“I felt the chills go down my spine,” Testaverde said. “I knew they’d welcome me back, but …

But did anyone really expect much?

Since 2002, Testaverde was 8-18 as a starter.

He was benched that season, then came back the next year when Pennington was hurt in the exhibition season and started 0-4. He signed with Dallas last season, reuniting with Bill Parcells, his original coach with the Jets, but the Cowboys went 6-10 and Parcells decided Testaverde was not the answer.

So he returned to Long Island, took his kids to school and munched those chips, waiting for the call.

When he saw Pennington and then Fiedler go down, he had a feeling he would be needed. When he was, Testaverde got to the Jets’ training complex right away.

Soon afterward, with the Jets 1-3, Heimerdinger was tearing down his new offense and inserting Vinny’s.

“We sat down and went through plays, and put in about 40,” he said. “Then we added 12 more for the two-minute drill.”

Edwards put it more succinctly: “This is all totally new. Totally new.”

The offense started badly – the Jets had the ball for only six minutes and 15 plays, but trailed only 9-7, thanks mainly to a fortuitous interception by Ty Law that set up a TD.

But Testaverde, whose arm looked nearly as strong as when he was drafted No. 1 overall by Tampa Bay in 1987, got them rolling in the third quarter. In fact, New York would have won more easily if Mike Nugent, the rookie taken in the second round of last April’s draft, had made two field goals.

“It probably helped him that he had only 15 plays in the first half,” Edwards said. “I was worried that he might wear down in the fourth quarter because he’d be tired.”

The fourth quarter, of course, is when Testaverde made his big play.

“I’m fine,” he said when asked if he felt sore or tired. “It’s all adrenaline. And I never even got hit. Three times, maybe. That’s all.”

He made only one concession to age. When he was asked: “Does this get old?”

“No,” he replied. “Just me.”