Thanks, but no tanks.
That was the message from the Jets on Sunday, when they pulled off an amazing 23-20 upset on the Los Angeles Rams for their first win of the season.
The win affects the Jets’ chances of landing election no. 1 and Clemson’s defender Trevor Lawrence. Now they are tied 1-13 with the Jaguars, but the Jaguars own the tiebreaker because they have a weaker program strength. There were two weeks left, but the surest way to Lawrence for the Jets was to lose every game.
Instead, the Jets found a way to win their first game, defeating a Rams team, which fell to 9-5, along the way.
The Jets had a 17-point lead in the third quarter, and the Rams withdrew, but the Jets held back. Jets coach Adam Gase ruined Christmas for Jets fans hoping for Lawrence, finding a way to win.
Defender Sam Darnold played an efficient game, completing 22 of 31 passes for 207 meters and a touchdown. Rams quarterback Jared Goff walked 22 of 34 for 209 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
The Jets defense set the tone early. They forced three outings on the Rams’ first two possessions. Quinnen Williams was a force in front, and Frankie Luvu blitzing disruptively. Goff didn’t sync, and the Rams running game couldn’t start.
In their first possession, the Jets turned four-thirds down, three passes to Ty Johnson. The last of those conversions was an 18-yard touchdown pass from Darnold to Johnson, which gave the Jets a 7-0 lead with 6:25 left in the first quarter.
The Jets played a great special team early in the second quarter, when JT Hassel blocked a Johnny Hekker point and was recovered by Lamar Jackson in the Rams’ 27th. But the Jets failed to get into the final zone after the big play. Two runs Frank Gore set up a third and a fourth. Darnold rolled to the right and threw beautifully in the front corner of the final area, but Braxton Berrios could not shoot the ball. This led to the Jets settling for a 39-meter field goal by Sam Ficken and a 10-0 score. lead.
Rams’ next possession was extended by a neutral penalty offense by John Franklin-Myers on the fourth and 1. But Franklin-Myers was saved in the next play, when debutant Bryce Hall took his first interception in his career, choosing a Goff pass to Robert Woods.
The choice gave the Jets the ball to the Rams ’22 and another opportunity to reach the final zone. But once they got to Rams’ 3, they started going back. Aaron Donald blew up Gore in the second and goal for a loss of 4 meters. Darnold’s third down pass was incomplete, and the Jets had to hit the goal again. This time, Ficken managed to go from 25 meters to 13-0. This advantage was the biggest that the Jets had all season.
It looked like the Jets could reach the break with a stop, which would have been the first time the Rams had gone unscored in the first half under coach Sean McVay. But Gase beat the Jets’ last inning of the half. The jets took their own 10, with 1:48 left in the half. Johnson ran for 6 yards in the first downhill, but instead of letting the clock run to limit the time the Rams could have before the break to score, the Jets threw the second down and Leonard Floyd deflected. step for an incomplete to stop the timer. Johnson came up with a short yard on the third down and the Rams used a timeout to recover the ball.
Goff designed a course of eight games, 34 yards, to set a 45-yard field goal, Matt Gay, after the time expired. That sent the Jets to the locker room with a 13-3 lead.
The Jets opened the second half with an impressive lead. They walked 72 meters on 11 tracks. Gore scored from 1 when Gase left for the fourth and goal, giving the chips an amazing 20-3 advantage.
Rams responded, however, to their first possession in the second half, finally showing some signs of life. Goff found Tyler Higbee for a 44-meter finish in their first play. That moved the ball to 31 Jets. Four games later, Goff tied with Robert Woods, who beat Bless Austin for a 15-meter touchdown to reduce the Jets’ lead to 20-10 with 6:09 remaining in the third quarter. .
Darnold put in a good effort on the right, but Jets managed to get hold of the rebound. They walked 72 meters in 10 games, but this time they did not enter the final area. They had the first and the goal at 6, but they didn’t manage to enter. Ficken hit the third goal of the day, this one from 21 meters to push the lead to 23-10 with 1:39 remaining in the third quarter. .
But a Jets defense that was strong in the first half seemed outdated in the second half. Woods took the finish about 40 yards to put the Rams at the Jets ’21 in the last play of the third quarter. Austin was called in to move the ball to the Jets’ 6. It was Austin’s third penalty on Sunday. Goff hit Higbee with a 3-meter pass for a touchdown that made it 23-17 with 13:47 left in the game.
The Jets defense came with a stop on Rams’ next possession. The Rams reached the 24 Jets, but Franklin-Myers fired Goff at the second and the Rams could not convert a third and a 15th. Gay scored a 42-yard goal to reduce the Jets’ lead to 23-20 with 6:35 left.
The Jets offense went into a shell after a touchdown in the third quarter. After three and three, they gave the Rams the ball back with 5:33 left. Rams reached the Jets ’37 and had a fourth and 4. Marcus Maye passed a pass to Gerald Everett to turn the Rams and give the ball back to offense.
The Jets took the lead with 3:54 left to play. The jets managed to run the clock. The biggest piece was a third and 6th pass from Darnold to Gore, who got a first down at the two-minute warning.
From there, the Jets could kneel and shut things down.