This is what happens when you force a flock of famished football fans to wait 54 weeks to let themselves breathe. This was the second half of the roar that had started 374 days earlier, when Aaron Rodgers sprinted onto the field at MetLife Stadium, an American flag in his hands.
There were 83,345 people there that night, and they were whipped into a frenzy. MetLife Stadium had never felt that electric. Maybe it was louder on the Christmas Eve afternoon when Eli Manning found Victor Cruz for 99 yards, but that was cause-and-effect. Sept. 11, 2023, had been all about build-up. All about crescendo.
Then, all about silence.
Four snaps into the season, someone kicked a plug out of the wall. It took until last night to turn the power back on. There were 80,812 of them this time. Finally, they got a chance to roar. Finally they got a chance to snarl. And the Jets gave them 60 solid minutes to do just that. It ended 24-3, and it was every bit as sound a beating as the score indicates.
“I love the hollering, I love the yelling,” said defensive end Will McDonald IV, two more sacks on the night, one tackle for a loss, part of an ensemble of defensive ferocity that Pats quarterback Jacoby Brissett will see in his sleep all weekend. “I love hearing it. We do it for them.”
The Jets scored three more touchdowns Thursday night, third game in a row they’d scored that many, and they hadn’t done that since … (checks watch) … 1989. They hadn’t beaten the Patriots this soundly since … (checks watch again) … 1998, which was two years before the Pats hired the Jets’ defensive coordinator for that 31-10 win, a fellow named Bill Belichick.
So if this is starting to feel like something other, like something different, it’s because it is. Opening night in San Francisco suddenly seems like a long time ago — even if it was only 11 days. The Week 2 escape in Nashville suddenly feels almost quaint. The Jets didn’t play a perfect game, but it sure felt perfect, felt like a long time coming.
“That was a really special night,” Rodgers said, after a night in which he completed 27 of 35 passes for 281 yards and two TDs, a night in which he made about a half-dozen throws that maybe a half-dozen quarterbacks who’ve ever lived could have completed.
And on a few of those throws that were a little high or a smidge low or a tad wide his receiving corps stepped up and snared most of them, too.
(Funny how a quarterback of Rodgers’ pedigree inspires stickier fingers like that; somewhere in Denver, Zach Wilson probably shook his head ruefully, thinking “Could’ve used a little of THAT last year” …)
“A very meaningful week,” Rodgers said.
For the Jets, too. They held a two-to-one time of possession advantage. They limited the Patriots to 139 yards, almost a third of that on the 46-yard drive in garbage time that closed out the game. They were active, and they were aggressive, and they kept chasing the Pats off the field.
“I thought they were really good,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said of his defense. “We talk about a style of play and a standard play of play with relentless effort.” He got all of that on Thursday.
And sure: Maybe you can qualify this by saying it’s “just the Patriots,” who were supposed to be dreadful by all accounts coming into the season. But then the Pats went into Cincinnati and beat Joe Burrow and the Bengals two weeks ago. Last week they had the Seahawks beat in Foxborough, Mass., let them back in late, and lost in OT.
They were that close to being 2-0, and the Jets made them look like a sandlot team all night long.
“It’s only three weeks. buddy,” Saleh said with a laugh.
But they’ve improved in each of those weeks. They are trending north. The depleted 49ers humiliated them in Week 1, and while the Titans threatened them in week two, they held on by their fingertips. The defense Thursday was the equal of its reputation. And so, for that matter, was the quarterback.
“He may not be what he used to be,” Saleh said. “But he still has plenty.”
Said tight end Tyler Conklin (five catches, 93 yards): “We all know how great Aaron is. It’s so cool every week seeing his progress. When we get to the middle of the season I can only imagine what it’ll look like. He’s a Hall of Famer for a reason.”
There were expectations around this whole team for a reason, too. Thursday we got a tantalizing peek at what that could actually mean.