Rusty Jets show flashes of brilliance in first win of the year
Rusty Jets show flashes of brilliance in first win of the year
Gang Green battles through moments of rust to grit out a 24-17 win over the Titans. Plus, the team loses a key player for the remainder of the season...
What’s Up with the Jets? 🛩️
The Jets (1-1) rallied to defeat the Titans (0-2) for their first win of the season (box)
DE Jermaine Johnson tore his Achilles in the victory and will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season
QB Aaron Rodgers looked as if he was continuing to shake the rust off, going 18/30 (60 percent) for 176 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions
RB Braelon Allen played a much larger role than in Week 1 with the first two touchdowns of his NFL career (one receiving, one rushing) with 56 all-purpose yards
RB Breece Hall started slow but got stronger as the game went on, rushing for 62 yards on 14 attempts (4.4 YPC) and catching seven passes for 52 yards and a touchdown
Allen and Hall are the first two Jets running backs to both have touchdowns in the same game since 1995
DE Will McDonald was a menace on defense in the win, recording his first career three-sack performance
WR Mike Williams did not play much again on Sunday, but did haul in a pivotal 19-yard reception on the game-winning drive – his first catch with the Jets
New York’s defense converted four sacks and forced two turnovers on Sunday, while the offense allowed just two sacks with zero turnovers
LB C.J. Mosley (toe) exited the game with injuries – it’s the second time in two weeks that Mosley was unable to finish the game
Game Balls 🏈
OFFENSE
🏈 Braelon Allen: No disrespect to Breece Hall, who definitely had the more overall dynamic game, but I truly think that the presence of Braelon Allen was a huge key for the Jets offense on Sunday. After barely being used in Week 1, the coaching staff made a clear adjustment by bringing in Allen for a change of pace when Hall needed a blow, as well as even running some two-back sets which made their offense far less predictable.
Congrats on the first two touchdowns of your career, kid!
DEFENSE
🏈 Will McDonald: As the holdout of Haason Reddick continues, and now with the team being without Jermaine Johnson for the rest of the year, it was Will McDonald that came through with the difference-making performance yesterday.
McDonald finally looked like the player Joe Douglas envisioned when selecting him in the first round last year, racking up three sacks on the day. Prior to the Johnson injury, McDonald was also occasionally being used to spy Titans QB Will Levis as well, showing off some extra versatility. With JJ going down, the development of McDonald just became that much more important.
Play of the Week 📺
When you’ve got a game-winning touchdown in the final five minutes of a game, it’s hard to go with anything else as the week’s top play.
Braelon Allen, after already scoring the first touchdown of his career on a first half catch-and-run, lined up out of the backfield late in the fourth quarter with the score tied at 17 a piece. As the Jets drove down the field methodically, getting key conversations from Garrett Wilson and Mike Williams along the way, it was Allen that burst through with a 20-yard touchdown run to give the Jets a lead they would not relinquish.
An honorable mention for play of the game goes to Allen’s first touchdown, though, as Nathaniel Hackett and the Jets actually showed some creativity with a misdirect screen pass with both running backs on the field.
A Look at the Standings 📈
The Bills defeated the Dolphins on Thursday night, while the Jets won and the Patriots lost on Sunday afternoon. Here’s how the AFC East looks after Week 2…
From a cloudy day, hope emerges… ✍️
Sunday was far from a perfect afternoon for the New York Jets. They came out of the gates looking unprepared, committed a lot of silly penalties, looked rusty at times on offense, had some major defensive lapses, and lost star pass rusher Jermaine Johnson for the rest of the season to a torn Achilles.
And yet, with all that said, they won a football game. That isn’t something we take for granted around these parts.
There are certainly a lot of things for this team to work on, and finding a way to replace Johnson’s pass rushing prowess – especially as the Haason Reddick holdout continues to have to end in sight – is going to be difficult, but there are a lot of positives to take from cloudiness that shrouded the team at times in Tennessee yesterday.
First off, the coaching staff did appear to make some legitimate adjustments in this game. Despite a rocky start (and a 2nd & 20 draw call that nearly made me lose my mind), the offense saw a lot more creativity get weaved in than we’ve been used to under Nathaniel Hackett. There was a much bigger infusion of rookie Braelon Allen into the offense after fans clamored for it in Week 1, more pre-snap motion, some two running back sets, and even some trick plays. The wild cat to convert a first down and the fake screen to Breece Hall and shuffle pass to Allen for the touchdown were particularly exciting to see.
Not only were those adjustments in approach exciting, but the execution – at times – gave you hope, as well. Now, this was far from a clean game from the Jets offense. They looked incredibly rusty at times, with the occassional lapse by the offensive line, poorly run routes (Jeremy Ruckert abandoning a route on what would’ve been a touchdown comes to mind), and even some missed throws from Aaron Rodgers. But there were other moments that really got you pumped up that this offense could really be something special to watch when things are clicking on all cylinders.
The tandem of Hall and Allen were fantastic out of the backfield, as the duo combined for 95 rushing yards (on 4.5 yards per carry), nine catches, 75 receiving yards and three total touchdowns. Mike Williams and Garrett Wilson weren’t huge factors in this game, but both made key catches on back shoulder throws by Rodgers on the game-winning drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. And man when Rodgers does get his throws right, they are of the caliber that we’ve rarely ever seen around here.
When Rodgers threw that touchdown pass to Hall as he raced up the field, I legitimately didn’t know what to do with my hands. That throw alone was better than most I’ve ever seen out of a Jets quarterback, and there were several others on that final drive of the game that were just as impressive. It’s safe to assume that Rodgers will only get more comfortable with his new weapons and less rusty overall as he continues to get more reps after missing all of last season due to the injury.
Even with fairly inconsistent, start-and-stop results so far, the Jets have still scored three offensive touchdowns in each of their first two games this season. They only did that twice in 17 games last season. It’s incredible that the floor of this year’s offense would have matched the absolute best they could have done at any point last season. And it’s only going to get better.
Also, while they now have major work ahead of them to make up for Johnson’s production on defense, huge kudos have to go to Will McDonald who came through in a monster way yesterday. With his three-sack performance on Sunday, McDonald showed you the same tantalizing flashes that led to Joe Douglas and the Jets drafting him in the first round just one year ago. While his development would have originally been viewed as a surplus going into this year, it has now becoming essential for the Jets success going forward this year. And, for one game at least, that sure looked to be headed in the right direction.
Things weren’t all sunny for the Jets yesterday, but there sure was a lot of hope gleaming out of the clouds. For a franchise that’s dealt with so much darkness over the years, that’s enough to get me excited moving forward.
Next Week’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Jets (1-1) vs. Patriots (1-1)
Where: MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ
When: Thursday, 8:15 PM EDT
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
Around the NFL 🏁
The Bills blew out the Dolphins on Thursday night, and Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa exited with a serious concussion putting his status in doubt
Saints RB Alvin Kamara turned the clock back with a dominant 180-yard, four touchdown performance as the team dominated the Cowboys, 44-19
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes rallied his team from a 4th quarter deficit as Kansas City defeated the Bengals on a last second field goal, winning 26-25
Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. caught the first two touchdowns of his career as his squad blew-out the Rams, 41-10
Raiders QB Gardner Minshew overcame a 23-13 deficit in the final 12 minutes to defeat the Ravens, 26-23, and send Baltimore to a surprising 0-2 start to the season
Seahawks QB Geno Smith and WR DK Metcalf diced up the Patriots defense and held serve for a 23-20 win in overtime, thanks to a walk-off field goal
Commanders QB Jayden Daniels recorded the first victory of his NFL career thanks to a seven field goal performance by kicker Austin Seibert, who defeated the Giants with one final kick as time expired