There was a brief moment, midway through the first half, where if you happen to favor the Jets you were allowed those rarest of all Jets emotions these past 14 years: hope. Optimism. Positivity. The defense had made a stop, then stiffened when Breece Hall fumbled one deep in their own territory.
Then Aaron Rodgers turned the clock back for 7 minutes and 7 seconds.
Bing.
Bang.
Bip.
Boop.
And suddenly Hall was in the end zone, and the Jets were leading 7-3, and all across greater New York Jets fans reached a point a few steps beyond giddy.
“THAT’S what a real quarterback looks like?!?!?”
That was the message in thousands of text threads, in hundreds of saloons and dens and living rooms. Rodgers made it look easy but so did Garrett Wilson. So did Hall. So did the offensive line. It was wonderful. It was remarkable.
It was an aberration. We know that now. We know what followed was a humiliating 32-19 thrashing that was impossible to justify, that ended with Rodgers on the bench, that made the 3,000-mile flight home a little more uncomfortable because the plane had to be filled with a lot more doubts heading east than when it had flown west.
The offense was good for only one more scoring drive, this after the 49ers had already jumped out to a 26-7 lead. The defense — around which so many hosannas have been hung — was an abject disgrace, flambeed by a San Francisco offense missing Christian McCaffrey, the No. 1 pick in a million fantasy football drafts.
There’s no way to cover it with sugar. This is what the defense did after that initial stop:
Field goal.
Field goal.
Touchdown.
Field goal.
Touchdown.
Field goal.
Field goal.
Field goal.
And at last, a knee, as the clock ran out. That was a ransacking. You want to be an elite defense? Nobody expects you to shut out the Niners. Hell — nobody much expected the Jets to beat the Niners, even without McCaffrey. It wasn’t even all that surprising that Rodgers and the offense looked less than sharp much of the night. He’d played a total of four plays in almost two years after all.
But the defense?
Defense is supposed to travel.
And if this wants to be looked at as one of the best in the business, it has to be better than that. Has to be. Get this: After the Jets went up 7-3, the 49ers ran 44 of the game’s next 51 plays. Think about that. Forty-four of 51.
It’s a miracle the final score wasn’t worse.
Nobody was happy about this. Well, almost nobody. It’s likely that Haason Reddick was over the moon about this, and the only one happier than him was his agent. Until Monday it seemed like he had very little leverage in this salary dispute with the Jets. Now it’s hard to believe he won’t be signed by lunch.
So there’s that.
And there’s this: There’s 16 games left on the schedule, and this may well turn out, by season’s end, to be the toughest test the Jets may face. Next week is at Tennessee, and if you saw the Titans on Sunday you have to believe the Jets can get right in Nashville.
Of course, it bears mentioning that Tennessee probably watched this game, too. And has to think much the same thing.
Which means, while next week’s game might not quite qualify as a must-have — it’s hard to tag any game that way this early — it’s as close as you can get. Good. After this disaster, it’ll be good to see what the Jets can do when they’re staring at the abyss. It better be something more impressive than when they were simply staring at Brock Purdy.