On Halloween night, it was fitting that the Jets’ matchup with the Texans would be a horror show.
Penalties, injuries and poor tackling were a constant theme as the Jets once again found themselves in a battle that went down to the wire in the fourth quarter.
However, the Jets were ultimately able to come out on top, giving interim coach Jeff Ulbrich his first win as Aaron Rodgers threw three second-half touchdowns to bounce back from a first half where the Jets registered just 69 net yards on offense.
The game was scoreless for much of the first half, but only after the Jets gave the Texans a gift when rookie receiver Malachi Corley ran for an apparent touchdown on an end around only to be ruled to have inexplicably dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line. Houston capitalized on Joe Mixon’s short touchdown run to lead 7-0 at halftime.
The Jets took control on a pair of spectacular second-half touchdown passes from Rodgers to Garrett Wilson to lead 14-10 and then, after a missed field goal by the Texans, Rodgers connected with Davante Adams on a 37-yard touchdown pass with 2:56 remaining to clinch the win.
The Jets will set their sights on getting back to 5-6 by the Week 12 bye, with two tough but winnable games against the Cardinals and Colts coming up, but there is still plenty to clean up after an extremely uneven performance.
Here are the takeaways…
– The Jets had to scramble to fill spots on the offensive line when both starting guards — John Simpson and Jake Hanson — were injured. Max Mitchell and first-round rookie Olu Fashanu, who are both tackles by trade, were forced to fill in.
– The Jets’ tackling on defense was disappointing, as Mixon had a huge game running the ball with 106 yards. Sauce Gardner’s tackling came under criticism from Ulbrich during the week, but Gardner was far from the only culprit. Gardner, who had two defensive penalties but also made a key pass breakup, was injured in the last minute and limped off.
– Quinnen Williams had a monster game inside, with 1.5 sacks, four quarterback hits and two tackles for loss. He seems to have taken his game to another level since Haason Reddick’s arrival. The pair combined for a last-minute sack as the Jets ended up with eight sacks.
– When the Jets needed someone to elevate them, Wilson stepped up with two incredible one-handed catches for his two touchdowns. On the second one in particular, Rodgers essentially threw a jump ball on third-and-19 that Wilson had no right to come down with. That catch rivals Odell Beckham’s famous one-hander for the Giants against the Cowboys as one of the best in MetLife Stadium history if not NFL history.
– The Jets haven’t really used Corley all season but when they dialed up an end around for him it worked perfectly. It was an unbelievable mistake to drop the ball before crossing the goal line and somehow emblematic of the Jets’ woes this season.
– Defensive end Eric Watts was also guilty of a rookie mistake when his personal foul on a field goal attempt gave Houston a fresh set of downs in the red zone with the Jets only leading by four in the fourth quarter. This worked out in the Jets’ favor, though, because they managed to get the stop and then the Texans were forced to attempt another field goal, which was missed.
– It didn’t count, but Rodgers showed some surprising mobility and fire on a third-down scramble in the red zone. He obviously wasn’t lying when he said that he’d been feeling better physically during the week. The conversion was called back due to a hold but then he hit Wilson for the go-ahead touchdown on the next play.
– Nothing is routine for the Jets and that was summed up when substitute kicker Riley Patterson lined up for his first kick — an extra point after New York’s first touchdown. This banged off the upright but, in a rare moment of fortune for the 2024 Jets, went through to tie the game.
– Adams ended up with a team-high 91 yards on seven catches and made the clinching play on third down and an earlier big fourth-down catch, finally showing what the Jets had been hoping for when they made the trade to acquire him earlier this month. This success eventually came after it some early miscommunications between him and Rodgers and a dropped pass. Adams also recovered an onside kick to ice the win.
Highlights
What’s next
The Jets look to make it two straight wins when they travel to Arizona for next Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. game at the Cardinals in Week 10.
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