CANTON, OH — There is nothing better than football being back. Even with the New York Jets sitting the vast majority of their projected starters, and falling in the preseason opener to the Cleveland Browns 21-16, it was hard to not feel a positive outlook on an exciting night of football.
New York took an early lead in the contest thanks to a couple of key forced turnovers and big pass plays. Israel Abanikanda scored the team’s first touchdown of the year in the second quarter to give the Jets a double-digit lead. Once the key backups had left the game though, a ferocious comeback from Dorian Thompson-Robinson gave Cleveland a fourth-quarter lead they would not relinquish.
The Browns ran for 160 yards on the day, the majority coming in the second half, but the Jets had plenty of other important takeaways from Thursday’s preseason opener.
Beware New York’s pass rush
The Jets did not have their usual starters along the defensive line but were still able to get some solid pressure against a good Browns offensive line. Bryce Huff recorded the only sack from the “starting” group on the opening drive, but Jermaine Johnson, and Will McDonald both looked strong as well. According to Next Gen Stats, McDonald’s average get-off on his pass rush tonight was 0.91 seconds, Johnson’s was 0.79 while Huff’s was 0.68.
Cleveland ran a ton of screens on Thursday for a reason – they were petrified of Gang Green’s ferocious group. Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of teams this year looking to employ that strategy as well.
Lights go Dark
The NFL Hall-of-Fame games have always been a bit of a crapshoot of unique things taking place but Thursday might have taken the entire cake. Before the start of the fourth quarter, the lights went out, cascading the field in partial darkness which caused a significant delay to finish the final quarter.
Covid canceled the game in 2020 while playing conditions actually ended the game prematurely as well back in…
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