You would rather start the regular season with a win than a loss. We know that.
If you need to lose, I’m not sure whether it’s better to be completely blown out or drop a coin flip game where any number of things could have changed the outcome.
The Jets experienced the latter of the latter in their 34-32 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. A game like this isn’t simple to break down.
In many ways, the Jets resembled the disjointed mess we saw take the field week after week in 2024. We knew Aaron Glenn
wasn’t going to be able to fix everything wrong with this franchise in a single offseason.
Still, should we have seen coverage breakdown after coverage breakdown? How about untimely missed tackles? Then there were couple of dropped interceptions. Add in 7 penalties for 74 yards. How much can we get on the coaching staff for this? I would guess the answer is, “some,” even if we acknowledge how essential patience will be.
There was some frustrating stuff on this day. One of the team’s prized free agent acquisitions, Brandon Stephens, had a miserable game. He was one of the primary culprits in the frequent coverage busts. He was flagged for an important penalty, and he had one of the dropped interceptions.
Some penalties are unavoidable. Quincy Williams’ personal foul in the third quarter was very avoidable, and it changed the game. The Jets had all of the momentum. They led by 9 and seemed on the verge of landing a knockout blow. Williams proceeded to commit a blatant late hit that was flagged for 15 yards. It came on a first down play the Jets stopped for negative two yards. As they did all game, the Steelers took advantage of the Jets’ error and drove for a touchdown.
Xavier Gipson proceeded to fumble the ensuing kickoff, which turned into another touchdown. It was difficult to understand how Gipson made the team past cutdown day this year. It will be even more difficult to understand if he remains on the roster this time next week.
Mistake after mistake doomed the Jets in this game, and the coaching staff cannot avoid blame.
Of course, luck played a role as well. The Steelers’ game winning drive included a catch that was deflected multiple times off multiple players and ended in a 60 yard field goal.
This game also had a significant positive, and it’s a positive that could have a big impact for the Jets going forward. The offense played really well.
It goes deeper than that. The offense played really well in the way the Jets envisioned as they built their roster. This was a dominant running performance, netting 182 yards on the ground. Breece Hall looked more decisive hitting his hole than he has since his rookie season, running 19 times for 107 yards. Justin Fields chipped in 12 carries for 48 yards.
Fields also had an effective day throwing the ball, completing 16 of 22 for 218 yards. His play was so good that we might mercifully avoid a week’s worth of “The Jets should have kept Aaron Rodgers” takes even after the future Hall of Famer’s stellar 4 touchdown game against the Jets in his Steelers debut.
We have seen the entire Jets team play miserably a lot through the years. We have seen plenty of losses where the defense was a silver lining. Rare is the day where the offense has been a silver lining in a loss.
I’m not here suggesting this is any sort of “moral” victory. The Jets have to own this loss and be frustrated. But I think there’s a difference between declaring a moral victory and saying the Jets showed legitimate signs that they might be better than the experts think.
I would put the play of the offensive line at the top of this list. Fields is obviously important, but we know he is capable of high level play when he is feeling it. The question is whether he can sustain that high level play. We won’t have that answer for weeks.
The Jets offensive line meanwhile was a question mark entering the season. It certainly had a high ceiling with two recent first round picks playing tackle. But it was unproven. The Steelers have one of the more talented defensive fronts the Jets will face all year long, and the guys up front more than held their own, particularly run blocking. That is a very positive and encouraging development for a team that needs to run the ball to have success.
The offense wasn’t perfect. The unit had a chance to end the game with an effective drive late in the fourth quarter. Instead they gave the Steelers one more chance, which Pittsburgh took. The offense also wasted two timeouts on a fourth quarter touchdown drive that loomed large late in the game. Still it’s tough to complain about a unit that put up 32 points and only punted twice.
For the Jets to be successful going forward, they need to lose their 2024 tendencies. So far, so good on the offense.
Everything else needs work.
