NASHVILLE – The Jets notched their first victory of the season Sunday, a hard-fought 24-17 street win over the Titans. The Jets at the moment are 1-1 and taking part in their first divisional recreation Thursday in opposition to the Patriots. Listed here are some ideas and observations from Sunday’s recreation.
1. Effectively, if Haason Reddick has been hoping to realize some leverage with the Jets, he simply acquired it. It seems Jermaine Johnson will probably be misplaced for the season with an Achilles tear. That leaves the Jets woefully skinny at edge rusher, a place that makes this protection go. Proper now, they’ve Micheal Clemons and Will McDonald as starters and Takk McKinley and rookie Braiden McGregor backing them up.
The protection that Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich deploy is all based mostly on pressuring the quarterback with the entrance 4. They aren’t a heavy blitz workforce. If they will’t get to the quarterback with their entrance, it is going to disrupt their protection.
Meaning basic supervisor Joe Douglas ought to be on the telephone Monday with Tory Dandy, Reddick’s agent, looking for an answer to get him in. The Jets are usually not going to present Reddick a long-term, big-money extension, however may they discover a Band-Assist contract to make him completely happy? Can they offer him a two-year deal and up his wage from the $14.25 million he’s presupposed to make into the $20 million vary? Will Reddick relent on his calls for, realizing that lacking video games is just not serving to him earn extra money? This holdout has price Reddick round $7 million already. Each week he misses a recreation, it prices him about $800,000 extra.
It feels just like the Johnson damage may spur motion. It’s time for the 2 sides to compromise and work out a method to get Reddick in uniform. The Jets season may depend upon it.
2. This was not the prettiest win. The Jets appeared sluggish within the first half on each side of the ball. However that is nonetheless a really, superb win for the Jets. For one, Aaron Rodgers confirmed the worth he can deliver within the fourth quarter. Rodgers didn’t put up wonderful stats on this recreation (18 completions, 176 yards) however he delivered within the clutch with a game-winning drive.
Past simply pulling it out, what stood out to me was the sensation that Rodgers would get it achieved. As soon as the Jets scored to open the third quarter, it felt just like the Jets would win the sport. You possibly can inform the gamers and coaches felt that and I’m going to guess followers felt it too. That’s so uncommon for this franchise. During the last a number of years, it all the time felt such as you had been ready for the quarterback to make an enormous mistake. However Rodgers doesn’t make killer errors. On Sunday, it was Will Levis, the Jets’ opponent who made the large errors.
Watching Rodgers make these throws to Garrett Wilson and Mike Williams on the game-winning drive felt like an assurance that the Jets lastly have a quarterback. Rodgers could not play to an MVP stage this season (he appeared skittish early) however the Jets don’t want Rodgers to do this. If he protects the ball and may make performs within the fourth quarter, that will probably be sufficient for this Jets workforce.
3. Right here is the opposite side of this win that feels big: we’re not speaking about Robert Saleh’s job proper now. If the Jets had misplaced this recreation and gone to 0-2, Saleh’s job efficiency and safety would have been some extent of debate for the subsequent three days till the Patriots recreation. I believe it’s foolish to debate job safety after two video games however I additionally know it might have occurred. Simply look throughout city on the Giants. A loss would have made the stress intense contained in the Jets constructing this week. As a substitute, they will breathe and put together for the Patriots with out everybody speculating on the futures of Saleh and Douglas. The Jets wanted this win for thus many causes, however I believe the largest was simply releasing a few of the stress that was constructing after the loss to the 49ers.
4. The important thing second on this recreation to me was the Levis fumble within the purple zone. The Titans had been driving within the second quarter and about to take a 14-0 or 10-0 lead. That may have most likely modified the best way the Jets needed to play the sport offensively. As a substitute, Levis inexplicably flipped the ball as he was tripping over Will McDonald. Quincy Williams recovered the fumble and the lead stayed at 7-0.
The Jets’ protection ought to ship a thanks notice to Levis as a result of they nonetheless look shaky and Levis bailed them out. The Jets protection was not nice in protection and Sauce Gardner was a part of the issue, which is uncommon to see. Calvin Ridley put stress on the Jets and he is an effective receiver however the Jets are going to face others in his class or higher this season, so they should determine issues out.
They ended up with 4 sacks however they let Levis escape the pocket for lengthy positive factors a number of occasions. In addition they dedicated some horrible penalties within the first half that gave the Titans first downs.
It was a greater defensive efficiency than Week 1 in San Francisco, however there are nonetheless points to wash up. The Jets imagine they’re an elite protection. They haven’t appeared like one within the first two video games.
Revealing stat
The final time the Jets scored three touchdowns in consecutive video games was in 2021 in opposition to the Bengals and Colts.
Shocking snap depend
It appeared like Xavier Gipson could be an enormous a part of the offense in coaching camp, however he was invisible on offense Sunday. Gipson performed simply six snaps (11 p.c) in opposition to the Titans. The Jets appeared to go heavy on tight finish utilization early within the recreation, nevertheless it was nonetheless curious to see Gipson play so little.
Recreation ball
Braelon Allen is the primary Jets rookie working again since Shonn Greene to attain two touchdowns in a recreation. Allen, who’s simply 20, confirmed how highly effective and fast a runner he’s on this recreation. Allen and Breece Corridor may give the Jets a very nice 1-2 punch at working again.
