Call your loved ones, call a friend, call the local pastor, because a miracle in Cincinnati just resulted in the New York Jets doing something they have not done since Jan. 5: Win a football game.
Gang Green scored 23 points in the fourth quarter and overturned a 14-point deficit with 10:31 remaining to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 39-38 and give head coach Aaron Glenn his first win since his hiring back in March.
“Very, very exciting,” Glenn said. “I told these guys at halftime that these are the games that I can really tell the mental and physical toughness of our team and the grit that we’ve been talking about that we have to play with to win these games… I’m proud of these guys. I’m proud of the way they fought.”
With it, the Jets (1-7) avoided just their third-ever 0-8 start in franchise history, which would have tied the 1996 club for their second-worst start. New York started the 2020 campaign 0-13 before finishing 2-14.
Redemption was aplenty on Sunday afternoon in Paycor Stadium. Jets quarterback Justin Fields might not have been starting if Tyrod Taylor (ankle) had been healthy, after he was bashed by owner Woody Johnson for his poor play earlier in the week.
The 26-year-old responded by putting together his best game yet as a Jet, completing 21 of 32 passes for 244 yards and a passing touchdown with 65 additional yards on the ground. He managed to do all of this without each of his top two receivers, Garrett Wilson and Josh Reynolds, who were unavailable due to injury.
“Who he is as a person, his faith, and the way he goes about his business, he was primed to be able to handle situations like this,” Glenn said of Fields. “It’s so unfair that he gets criticized so much. But I told him, being a high pick and being a quarterback in the New York area, criticism, responsibility, and expectations follow you… Some of it is unwarranted, but we understand… He’s the perfect person to be able to handle everything that’s been thrown at him. He’s a special person.”
It was running back Breece Hall, who overcame injury issues of his own this week, who made the difference.
While he posted 133 rushing yards and two scores on 18 carries, he also threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Mason Taylor with 1:54 in regulation. The toss play sent Hall toward the right sideline before pulling up before the line of scrimmage and lofting a pass into the arms of the tight end, who had to make the contested catch over a defender in the back of the end zone.
After Chase Brown’s one-yard touchdown run put the Bengals up 38-24 with 10:21 left, the Jets got to within eight when Hall scampered in from 27 yards out. Fields then connected with Isaiah Davis for the two-point conversion to make it a six-point game with 7:52 to go.
The Jets’ defense, which did not have star cornerback Sauce Gardner and had been burned all day by an old friend in quarterback Joe Flacco, then forced just one of three Bengals punts to set up what was their game-winning drive.
Flacco threw for 223 yards with two touchdowns, while running backs Samaje Perine and Brown combined to rush for 167 yards on just 21 carries.
New York’s 14-point fourth-quarter deficit was just one of four two-touchdown-plus holes that it had to dig out of on Sunday. Cincinnati had leads of 17-3 and 24-10 in the first half, and 31-16 in the third quarter, but the Jets went on a 66-yard drive between the third and fourth quarters, which ended with a five-yard touchdown run from Hall to get within seven just 43 seconds into the final stanza.
“There were a number of things we did today that didn’t put us in a position to lose this game, but put us in a position to win this game,” Glenn said. “…This is a game of players making plays, especially in crucial times.”
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