For New York football fans waking up on Monday morning, there are two — and only two — ways you could be feeling today.
One is being incredibly jacked up after watching the Giants snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The other is feeling disappointed, mad, or deflated (or all of the above) after watching what the Jets did at MetLife Stadium against the Ravens.
And no, there’s no in-between here, folks.
With an ugly 24-9 Week 1 loss in the books for the Jets, it’s time to focus forward on their Week 2 matchup in Cleveland against the Browns. But as that happens, it’ll be important to look back at the good and the bad from Sunday.
What was the worst? Probably the offense and its inability to finish drives, which includes consistently coming up short on third down. New York will have to wait until Week 4 to hopefully see Zach Wilson get back under center, but there are some wanting to see Mike White get a chance instead of continuing to roll with Joe Flacco.
You know what part of the roster looked OK for a little while, though? That’d be the defense. While it all happened through the rain drops, the Jets’ improved defense did a good job of containing Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, especially in the first half. The unit eventually gave out after halftime, but they weren’t getting a ton of help from their counterparts on offense, either.
For Jets fans looking to cling to any kind of positive vibes after a disastrous showing, this would be it:
The #Jets starting cornerbacks yesterday were Sauce Gardner, D.J. Reed and Michael Carter (nickel).
Lamar Jackson threw at them 14 times. He completed four passes for 38 yards.
That's a silver lining.
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) September 12, 2022
I mean, that has to count for something, right? Even when Jackson found Devin Duvernay for a touchdown in the first half, it’s not like the pitch-and-catch was an easy one:
Can't say Hall didn't have tight coverage:
Lamar Jackson's 25-yard Pass TD to Devin Duvernay had 0.11 yards of separation. That's the lowest on any Pass TD over the last 4 seasons in the NFL, per @NextGenStats #Jets
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) September 11, 2022
Regardless of the above tweets and any silver lining we can find from Week 1, there are more questions than answers at this point for the Jets. The Browns will bring a solid roster to their Week 2 matchup with New York, but with Deshaun Watson suspended, the Jets have an opportunity as Jacoby Brissett is to be the starting quarterback.
With a solid group of Jets cornerbacks, it’ll force Cleveland to find creative ways to move the ball downfield outside of just handing the ball off to Nick Chubb. The season-opening week didn’t go how New York planned, but they’re likely hoping this silver lining can help put them in the win column once Week 2 is complete.
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• Jordan Whitehead says Jets ‘have the pieces’ to be great
• Next steps for Jets great Joe Klecko’s Hall of Fame bid
• Former NFL QB says media is shilling for Jets’ Zach Wilson
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.