Bilal Powell and Elijah McGuire brought back the ground-and-pound in the New York Jets 23-20 overtime victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
- New York Jets 23 (2-2)
- Jacksonville Jaguars 20 (2-2)
- NFL, Week 4, Final, OT, Box Score
- MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Everything was beautiful at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. The hapless, all-out tanking New York Jets were thoroughly dominating the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars.
With a lead of 20-10, Josh McCown connected with speedster Robby Anderson on a go-route which put the Jets in the red zone. Classic ground-and-pound football was back in the Meadowlands as Bilal Powell and Elijah McGuire were gashing the Jags rush defense.
All told, the team rushed for 256 yards on 32 carries for an average of 8.0. The club rushed for more yards than their first three games combined.
Powell’s 75-yarder wasn’t the longest in Jets history (Bruce Harper). The CBS broadcast was quickly corrected. It turned out to be the second-longest in history, bumping Chris Ivory‘s scamper from a few years ago down to third.
Then disaster struck.
On a designed swing-screen to Powell to the right, Jags linebacker Myles Jack scooped up the ball and took it to the house.
20-17. The crowd was stunned.
After the teams played a series each, disaster struck again and yet again in the form of Powell.
This time he simply fell down on an angle route on a big 3rd-down. It led to an A.J. Bouye interception.
The Jags took the ball and took the lead on a Fournette screen pattern. At least that’s what we thought initially. The play was called back on a hold and Jacksonville was forced to settle for the game-winning field goal.
The final regulation drive saw McCown stripped. As the entire stadium gasped — as the Jags would have had a shot at a game-winner — McCown fell on top of it. We headed to overtime.
The craziness from regulation carried over to overtime as it wasn’t until the final minute that we saw Chandler Catanzaro finish it off with a 41-yard field goal.
Overall, while undisciplined play and crazy events took hold of the game, nobody can complain about the effort and execution of these Jets, especially in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
Powell finished with a career-high 163 yards and a TD on 21 attempts. McGuire went for 93 and a score on 10 carries. This Jets O-line was dominant all game. They pushed the Jags defense around like a JV squad and offensive coordinator John Morton took full advantage.
Through the air, McCown finished 21-of-31 for 224 yards and an interception. Robby Anderson led the way with 51 yards through the air. Austin Seferian-Jenkins snagged four balls.
Robby Anderson led the way with 59 yards through the air. Austin Seferian-Jenkins snagged four balls.
Defensively, Leonard Fournette did find room early on including an early touchdown reception that saw Darron Lee get beat to the flat:
Fournette finished with 86 yards and that lone score. New York’s front seven was excellent after the first quarter.
Blake Bortles started hot but then faded. New York pressured him in solid fashion and he struggled to move through his progressions all day long. Bortles could only muster 140 yards through the air.
Jamal Adams, while he won’t show up big in the box score (two solo tackles), was fantastic again. David Bass picked up the Jets lone sack while Kony Ealy was huge at the line of scrimmage. He batted down a ridiculous four pass attempts.
The suddenly emerging 2-2 Jets will look to improve to 3-2 next week in Cleveland when they take on the Browns.