DENVER — The Jets did almost everything wrong in the first half on Sunday afternoon at Empower Field, culminating with a mind-bending sequence in which they let the clock expire at halftime without getting any points — despite driving inside the Broncos 10-yard line.
And yet they somehow got out of Denver with a 31-21 win. Running back Breece Hall will get a lot of the credit for that, and rightfully so. He erased that sequence with a 72-yard touchdown run on the Jets’ first play of the second half. It would be easy to look at this game as a sign that the Jets can ride Hall to a win because he was good enough to overcome their other mistakes on this day with his impressive performance — 22 carries for 177 yards and a touchdown.
But that wasn’t what happened on this day, when Hall had a predictably strong performance against the worst defense (by far) in the league.
After all the promise the Jets’ offense showed against the Chiefs a week ago, they were frustratingly inconsistent against a Broncos unit that has been allowing points at an alarming rate. This wasn’t the statement the Jets wanted to make for offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett against his former team.
The real star of this game for the Jets was kicker Greg Zuerlein, who made all five of his field-goal attempts after the Jets failed to convert a single one of their five red zone opportunities into touchdowns.
This was the Jets’ defense no-showing once again early in the game, waking up to hold the Broncos in check for nearly 30 consecutive minutes, only to allow a touchdown-and-two-point conversion in the final minutes of the game that gave the Broncos a real chance to win this thing.
And then for linebacker Quincy Williams to make a phenomenal play — with a strip-sack of Russell Wilson that cornerback Bryce Hall returned for a game-sealing touchdown — that saved the Jets from that embarrassing reality.
Give the Jets credit for winning. They needed to win badly to save their season….
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