Victory Monday: Squished

Edition #239

Good morning!

When you win within your division it’s a good feeling. When you beat your biggest rival it’s even better. When you beat your biggest rival which snaps a 12-game losing streak within your division, well that feels outstanding.

The Jets outscored the Dolphins by 21 points in the 4th quarter, which was the largest margin in a game since the Monday Night Miracle in 2000 (thanks for that one Cimini).

The Jets are now 3-2 on the season, the first time we’ve had a record over .500 through the first 5 games of the season since 2017. Yeah, it feels good to be a Jets fan this morning, and if you’re a Mets fan like me, it offers a good distraction.

The Jets reported two injuries following the game yesterday with Jermaine Johnson leaving with an ankle injury and Braxton Berrios having the wind knocked out of him on his touchdown run. Braxton should obviously be fine but we’ll learn more about Jermaine’s injury later today following some scans.

The five rushing touchdowns scored by the Jets are the most since week 4 of 1993. Thanks to Zack Rosenblatt for that stat. That was a 45-7 victory over the Patriots where Adrian Murrell (1), Johnny Johnson (1), Brad Baxter (2), and Terance Mathis (1) all found the end-zone on the ground.

The plan for the Jets has always been for them to be a run-first team, so when the curtain came down in week three and the Jets led the league in passing attempts with Joe Flacco under center, you knew something was wrong.

Fast-forward to yesterday and we saw the vision of the coaching staff play out on the field. The Jets rushed for 137 yards for an average of 5.3 yards per carry, led by rookie Breece Hall who showcased his full skill set on route to 197 total yards of offense.

Hall was fast and decisive but patient at the same time. He showed his strength carrying multiple defenders down the field, he was only targeted twice out of the backfield but he caught both for 100 yards, including that 79-yarder that was half a yard shy of being taken to the house. He also picked up the blitz on a key conversion to Corey Davis on the outside, in short, he did a little bit of everything.

“He’s a grown-ass man,” unsung right guard Nate Herbig said of Breece Hall. “He runs hard, he makes people miss, he’ll run you over … he’s an unbelievable player, and I’m happy he’s on my team.” 

For the second week in a row, he outpaced stable mate Michael Carter in terms of carries (18 to 10), but it was how well the duo worked in tandem that can offer excitement for the future. Carter only gained 2.1 yards per carry on his 10 rushes but he made them count with two short-yardage scores, when he wasn’t putting the ball in the end zone he was as a decoy (like on Hall’s huge catch and run) or blocking for his QB.

Zach will be asked to do more for the Jets in the future, but he perfectly managed the game yesterday. On numerous occasions he made big-time throws in key situations, he protected the football and handed it off to Breece who carried the weight of the workload. This was a sign the Jets were developing into a true team, having spent most of the season trying to claw their way back into games they led from the front throughout, never surrendering the lead.

On the other side of the ball, the Jets caught a break. On the first defensive play of the game, the Jets dialed up a corner blitz with Sauce coming off the edge like a heat-seeking missile. Teddy was taken down but not before he was called for a safety thanks to intentional grounding, that first play set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

That was the final play of the day for Teddy who was ruled out due to the NFL’s new concussion protocols. He passed all the doctor’s tests but was kept out due to the new ataxia rules. Ataxia "is defined as an abnormality of balance/stability, motor coordination or dysfunctional speech caused by a neurological issue." Considering what’s happened recently with the Dolphins and Tua, it was good to see Teddy taken out of harm’s way.

That injury opened the door for rookie Skylar Thompson to enter the game and if the Jets weren’t already at an advantage with Miami starting their backup in Teddy, they certainly were when Skylar came into the contest. It’s a lot to ask of any rookie, especially one who wasn’t deemed to be an instant starter at this level. It’s even harder to ask them to come in having taken no practice reps with the first team and in a hostile away environment.

If you’re the Jets you have to do the job in front of you and Sauce and Reed did that to perfection. They may have got called for a couple of pass interference penalties along with slot corner Micheal Carter II, but anytime you limit Tyreek Hill to 47 yards and Waddle to 23 yards, you’re doing a great job. Sauce registered his first interception on the season and had his 6th pass break-up as well, for as good as I thought Sauce would be, I’m not sure I thought he’d be this dominant this early.

When you see a scoreline of 40-17, you expect dominance, and while the Jets never seemed in danger of losing this game, it wasn’t until the 4th quarter that they really took over.

Following Jason Sanders missed field goal with 13:18 left on the clock, the Jets went to work. Breece Hall’s 21 yard catch set up Carter for a 1 yard touchdown, then on the next possession, Carl Lawson sacked Thompson and forced a fumble which was recovered by Quinnen Williams, who in turn stiff-armed Tyreek Hill back to Miami. After Hill made some comments in the pre-season you can bet that felt good for the Jets players:

“We just played with a chip on our shoulder after that whole, ‘Jets, who?’ thing,” defensive tackle John Franklin-Myers said after the game. “I think that rubbed everybody the wrong way. We all saw the interviews of him saying, ‘Jets who?’ ’’

“That’s how it works,’’ Mosley told The Post. “As far as me taking [it] personal, if he didn’t want to be with us, that’s fine with me; we don’t want you here. If you wanted to be with us, we gladly would have taken him.

“He went to a divisional opponent. He thought he’d have a better chance to win there, da, da, da, da da. Who cares? We’re worried about what we have in our room, and today, we got the job done.’’

One play later Hall took it in for the score. On the next possession on 4th and 1 with just over 7 and a half minutes to go, Kwon Alexander made an outstanding open field tackle to bring down Moster for a 4-yard loss.

Fast-forward 5 more plays and Braxton is taken the end around to the house for another score, following a 4th down stop by Michael Carter II it was time for the victory formation.

The Jets running game was near unstoppable rushing for 135 yards on the day, and a lot of credit has to go to the offensive line as well as the running backs. For the 5th week in a row the Jets had a different starting five up-front. Duane Brown made his season debut for the Jets at left tackle, which meant Alijah Vera-Tucker had to pack up and move again, this time taking over the right tackle job. Saleh simply said the team was impressed with Herbig last week and they wanted the best five linemen. AVT looked as though he’d been playing right tackle all season and it doesn’t matter where he lines up, he doesn’t miss a beat.

“Alijah Vera-Tucker is a Pro Bowler,” running back Michael Carter said. “It doesn’t get more simple than that. For him to go play [right] guard and then for him to go play left tackle and have a really good game and then for him to come to right tackle next week, you can’t name me another guard who’s doing that, maybe ever. I think if he doesn’t go to the Pro Bowl this year, the NFL is rigged.”

Rarely have we seen the Jets dominate a quarter of football in all areas of the game like we saw on Sunday, and the hope is that will become a regular sight at home and on the road.

Following the game, Sauce spoke about how he knew that blitz was going to work, and Hall spoke about how he knew he was going to be open on that 79-yard pass. That to me is one of the more exciting developments, that cohesion between the coaching staff and the players, that trust and that knowledge of the system. Again, we didn’t see the miscommunication issues that plagued us at the start of the season, instead, we saw a fast and physical defense matched by a fast and physical offense…I believe they call that complementary football.

Was it all perfect? No, it wasn’t. We still only generated 2 sacks, Mostert rushed for 6.3 yards a carry on his way to 113 yards overall and we gave up 105 yards in penalties. But that in itself is exciting. When you can beat a division rival by 23 points and still have areas to work on, it shows your ceiling.

The Jets will get a tougher test next week as they head to Lambeau Field to face the Packers, but having seen the Packers lose to the Giants in London yesterday and see the team in person, I don’t think the Jets have anything to fear. The Jets are 3-2 and some had us going 0-8 to start the season, at every turn we’re starting to prove the doubters wrong.