SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Jets lost their season opener to the 49ers, 32-19, on Monday night. The team is now 0-1 for the fifth time in six years. Here are some thoughts and observations from the game.
1. From what I saw after the game and early Tuesday morning, I don't think anyone is overreacting to this loss. Jets fans understand what kind of team the 49ers are and that the Jets lost to a very good team. There was no reason in this game to think the Jets can't win 10 games this season.
What's unfortunate is that this was a chance for the Jets to show that they really are one of the best teams in the NFL, and yet after everyone has been praising this team for months and some even predicting this team will make the Super Bowl, they just didn't look like they were at that level on Monday night.
Even if this game had been closer, I would have felt the Jets had reached the top tier of the NFL. But the question remains: not if they can still be a good team, but how good. There's a difference between predicting them to slip into the playoffs and predicting them to go to or win the Super Bowl. In my eyes, the Jets still have a long way to go before they're on the same level as the 49ers, Chiefs, and Ravens.
The Jets schedule has been reworked. It's expected to be three straight games without any challenges, not tough games. The Jets defense was bad Monday night. It should improve quickly against these three opponents. The Titans scored 17 points against the Bears in Week 1, and quarterback Will Revis looked bad. The Patriots pulled off an upset in Cincinnati, but only scored 16 points. The Broncos, with rookie Bo Nix at quarterback, scored 20 points against the Seahawks.
Now is the time for the Jets to beat lesser opponents, and if they don't, there will be bigger questions about where they fit in the NFL hierarchy.
2. The knee-jerk reaction to Monday's loss is that the Jets really need Haason Reddick, who is still holding out. I didn't think so. Reddick is a one-trick pony. He's very good at that one trick, but he's just a pass rusher. The Jets' problem Monday night wasn't pass rushers. It was holes in their run defense. They couldn't set the edge and they didn't tackle well.
The player the Jets were missing on Monday wasn't Redick. It was John Franklin-Myers, who had quietly set the tone for this defensive line. The Jets traded Myers to the Broncos after acquiring Redick, feeling they couldn't keep either of the big-payroll players on the team.
Here's where the Redick trade really hurt them: I'd argue that Franklin Myers would have helped them against the 49ers more than Redick.
I think the Jets defense will be much better when they're not facing the likes of Kyle Shanahan, Brock Purdy and Deebo Samuel, but the run defense will be one to watch.
3. My assessment of Aaron Rodgers' 2024 debut: Pretty good. It wasn't a spectacular play, and he certainly missed a few passes, including one that was intercepted, but overall Rodgers showed glimpses of his old self. His touchdown pass was classic Rodgers, baiting the defense offsides before throwing a deep pass to Allen Lazard.
At no point during the game did he look like he couldn't move, but he didn't really need to. The Jets' offense only ran 49 plays, so it was hard to really evaluate everything. I didn't come away from this game with a good or bad feeling about Rodgers. I expect magic from him, and that wasn't there on Monday night. But maybe that's too much to ask in his first full game in 20 months.
4. Coaches always stress that possession just before and after halftime is key to games, and that was certainly the case Monday night. The 49ers held the ball for 12 minutes and 30 seconds on two drives, one after the other, that essentially put the Jets out of the game, scoring 10 points on those drives. The Jets' offense was helpless on the sidelines, waiting, just waiting, to get the ball back.
The 49ers had four drives of 11 or more plays. It's hard to win when you let the other team have the ball that long. The Jets defense couldn't get off the field and the Jets offense didn't have many chances. This is the opposite of complementary football.
Again, as I stated above, I think this will be fixed once the Jets enter the JV portion of the schedule. The Jets may not face a better team all season than the team they saw on Monday night.
Statistical data disclosure
The Jets held the ball for a total of 6 minutes, 21 seconds out of the 30 minutes in the second and third quarters combined.
An astonishing number of snaps
We knew WR Mike Williams would have a limited role in his first game back from an ACL injury, but was it this limited? He only played nine snaps in this game.
Game ball
Not much good came out of this game for the Jets, but WR Allen Lazard had 6 catches for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns. There was a drop on third down on the first series, but it was still a great rebound game for Lazard coming off a tough first season with the Jets.
