Vincent Frank
It was just a couple short weeks ago that the New York Jets’ season appeared to be on the brink. They played well in a narrow loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
While being competitive is a good thing, New York opened this season with Super Bowl expectations of its own. Once Aaron Rodgers went down four snaps into his Jets career, things seemingly spiraled. That included ugly losses to the Dallas Cowboys and hapless New England Patriots.
At 1-3 heading into last week’s road date with the Denver Broncos, the Jets were facing a must win. They did just that, coming out on top by the score of 31-21.
Even then, there was very little reason to believe that the Jets could compete at home against the undefeated defending NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles. In fact, New York was a near touchdown dog in this one.
In what might have been the most impressive performance we’ve seen from the Jets in more than a decade, they shocked the football world by coming out with a 20-14 win over Philadelphia.
The Jets found themselves down 14-3 in the second quarter after Jalen Hurts hit D’Andre Swift on a nine-yard touchdown with 5:32 to go before the half.
From that point on, it was complete domination from New York’s defense. It ended up picking off Hurts three times during the game, including a pick from Tony Adams with the Jets down 14-12 and under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Breece Hall would score on the very next play, giving New York a 20-14 lead. Its defense then forced a turnover on downs, coming away with a 20-14 win by scoring the final 17 points of the game.
“Through these first six weeks, we’ve played a gauntlet of quarterbacks; I know we haven’t gotten all wins, but we’ve embarrassed all of them,” New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh following Sunday’s huge win.
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New York Jets defense keeps season alive
Zach Wilson was decent for the Jets, completing 19-of-33 passes for 186 yards without a touchdown or a giveaway. Not turning the ball over proved to be key for Wilson and the Jets’ offense.
Obviously, they didn’t have much of a margin for error taking on an undefeated Eagles team. Making plays when it counted while avoiding game-changing mistakes were two big factors in Sunday’s win.
But it was all about New York’s defense. This unit was playing without stud cornerback Sauce Gardner as well as fellow starting corner D.J. Reed in this one.
The aforementioned Adams joined Quinnen Williams and Bryce Hall in picking off Hurts. Meanwhile, New York’s defensive front got to the quarterback for 10 hits and five sacks. Bryce Huff (two QB hits, 1.5 sacks) was in Philadelphia’s backfield throughout the game, tallying nine QB pressures in the process.
The Jets are not going to win pretty with Rodgers sidelined to injury. That much is known. But being able to rely on a dominant defense while playing mistake-free ball has proven to be key over the past two weeks.
They’ve faced the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Dak Prescott thus far on the season. By and large, New York’s defense came out smelling like roses.
At 3-3 on the season, New York is right in the thick of the AFC Playoff race. They’ve faced four teams who earned a playoff spot a season ago heading into their Week 7 bye.
Coming out of said bye, New York will take on the New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders before a huge two-game stretch against the division-rival Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins.
We’re not anywhere near ready to conclude that the Jets are a playoff team. But Saleh has this squad playing stellar football right now.
With Rodgers potentially set to return late in the season, what seemed to be a disaster class of a campaign has taken a turn. Sunday’s huge win over the Eagles adds another layer to that.
