With a mere 3 yards and a cloud of rubber pellets against the Patriots on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, Jets RB Breece Hall will eclipse 3,000 rush yards over his 49-game, 4-year NFL career.
Against New England, which has ridden a 7-game winning streak to the top of the AFC East standings, the Jets (2-7) will be looking for the same late-game magic Hall has conjured and spread it over all four quarters. The Patriots (8-2) are sure to have other ideas with a defense that ranks first in fewest rush yards (79.2 per game) and TDs allowed (3) and have not allowed a running back to surpass 50 yards over 10 games.
"He's our workhorse," Jets HC Aaron Glenn after Hall's pivotal 42-yard, catch-and-run TD early in the fourth quarter of Sunday's win over Cleveland. "That's something that we've talked about quite a bit. When we needed him, he came through and that's something that's not new for us. I trust him with everything. I trust the ball in his hands and when times are tough, he will get the ball. So, this is a win in a by any means necessary type of league, and at that point, our way of winning this game was making sure we fed him in a number of ways. Obviously, he got the screen for the touchdown, but we've got to give him the ball as much as possible because he can make plays for us."
On that 8-play, 58-yard scoring drive, QB Justin Fields got the ball to Hall on 7-of-8 plays (6 runs and the screen pass that went for a TD to make the score, 24-17).
"I think that shows it right there," said center Josh Myers, who was downfield blocking on the TD play as Hall breezed past him and into the end zone. "You know, he's just a heck of a football player, and like every time I watch film, I think I'm just more and more impressed with him. Same goes with this week, when I turned on the tape last night. I just love the way he runs the ball. And, man, he's fun to block for."
With his 2,997 rush yards, Hall is No. 12 on the Jets' franchise list of running backs, more than 400 yards behind Shonn Greene in 11th place and should find himself in the Top 10 by season's end.
Against the Browns, Hall was responsible for 74% of the Jets' total yards (125 of 169). And with big gainers of 22 and 30 yards, for the third time in his pro career he had 3 scrimmage plays of 20-plus yards. Not to be overlooked were a couple of heady plays late in the game when he broke into the open, but instead of going out of bounds and stopping the clock, he slid to the MetLife Stadium turf to either keep the clock running or force the Browns to burn a timeout.
Teammate RB/KR Kene Nwangwu, who was at Iowa State when Hall arrived, said he's marveled at how Hall has matured over the years.
"Just a lot of maturity," Nwangwu said. "You know, he'll probably even say that, too. But I remember when he came in [at Ames], he graduated high school early, still trying to figure it out. There was a spring game, and like everyone knew [about] Breece. But just to see where he is today, a whole lot of maturity, very humble. He's a very special person, and it's just really cool to see where he is today.
"He's been himself, you know, just making plays, being electric, finding ways to be an asset for his team. And he thrives on that, just being depended upon like, that's what you saw yesterday [Sunday].
As much as Hall's late play against Cleveland was special, his fourth-quarter outburst at Cincinnati in Week 8 "was Breece being Superman," in the words of Glenn, as words sum up the RB's play over the past two games. Against the Bengals, he ran for a pair of Q4 TDs, and then lofted a TD pass to rookie TE Mason Taylor that momentarily tied the game, 38-38, before Nick Folk added the game-winning PAT.
Asked if he sees himself as a late-game destroyer of the opposition, Hall said: "I wouldn't even say that, it was just every game I feel like you come out with intentions of what you want to do and you've got to adjust to what's needed to win the game, so today [Sunday] we needed a lot of the run game and a lot of it just happened to be on me, so it was just falling into what the team needed for us to win."
