Jets’ statement win over Eagles renews hope for what’s still possible this season
New York TimesEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Two hours before kickoff, Aaron Rodgers was on the field at MetLife Stadium, walking on his own, no boot, no crutches, throwing passes around like he wasn’t barely a month removed from Achilles surgery. Well … Sunday, the Jets played the 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles, last year’s NFC champions with a loaded roster, and they did it without Rodgers, without their best offensive lineman and without their two best cornerbacks. BALL GAME.#PHIvsNYJ on FOX pic.twitter.com/LHNfoaAamh — New York Jets October 15, 2023 Before last week, Bryce Hall hadn’t played more than five snaps in a game since the 2021 season. “We hear rat poison in our ears and for these guys to just go out there, tune it out, work their butts off in practice, training, meetings, everything — after all the negative things we hear, and all the negative things that happen to us, for us to go out there and do what we did is no surprise to me.” The Jets had five sacks, 10 QB hits and held running back D’Andre Swift to 18 rushing yards on 10 carries — one of them a fumble in the second quarter, recovered by Quincy Williams. “These first six weeks we’ve played a gauntlet of quarterbacks and I know we haven’t gotten all wins,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said after the game, “but we embarrassed all of them.” Now imagine what the Jets might look like if the offense would stop stalling out in the red zone.