All the good vibes, all the thrilling plays, all the impressive statistical performances were not enough to assure a season-opening victory for the Jets.
"There are not any moral victories in this league," QB Justin Fields said.
Fields and the Jets offense did all they could to bring first-year HC Aaron Glenn his first victory as the man in charge. In the end, it all came down to Pittsburgh's late fourth-quarter drive that culminated in Chris Boswell's career-best 60-yard field goal with 1:08 to play in the Steelers' 34-32 win at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
"This was a game that, man, it was back and forth, a lot of fighting," Glenn said. "I thought offensively, we did a lot of good things that we can build on."
The offense came out running, literally, on all cylinders and in the end finished with nearly 400 total yards (394), using a smart gameplan authored by OC Tanner Engstrand. Breece Hall carried 17 times for 107 yards (5.6 per carry) while Fields ran 12 times for 48 yards and 2 TDs. Fields played a steady game throwing the ball, completing 16-of-22 passes for 218 yards (a 119.1 rating), which included a 33-yard TD pass to Garrett Wilson, his college teammate at Ohio State. Overall, Wilson grabbed 7 passes for 95 yards (13.6 a catch).
It was a seesaw affair throughout that featured 10 lead changes.
"But within a game, all the lead changes you got to expect," Fields said. "It's like ... I'm kind of expecting them to score, so it's like, yo, if they score or not, I'm ready to go. And, you know, that's the mindset that I pretty much had all game, it's football, you know you're going to take punches, you're going to punch. And that's just how this game is, especially when two good teams go at it. So you can't let any of that faze you, just got to keep going out there and driving the ball down field."
The Jets and Fields got off to a fast start taking the opening kickoff and using 10 plays, mostly on the ground, to march 48 yards while using 5:45 of the clock, leading to Nick Folk's 35-yard field goal. On the drive, the Jets ran on 5 of their first 6 plays with Fields completing his first pass -- for 8 yards -- to Wilson to the Steelers 25-yard line.
After the Steelers took a 7-3 lead, Fields and the Jets went back to business. A quickly executed 6-play drive covered 55 yards in 3:13 and ended again with the Buckeye connection when Fields found Wilson, this time for 33 those yards and a touchdown along the near sideline. On the drive, Fields completed a pair of passes -- for one for 8 yards to Wilson and the second to Breece Hall for 5 yards. Fields also ran once for 2 yards.
"It's Garrett," Fields said of the TD. "We always talk about it, it's just, it's nothing, not complicated, simple. He had a man on that play, and he won, just like Garrett does, and the O-line [which allowed a single sack in the game] did a great job holding up and I just threw it to him. So, as I said, it's simple."
In the first half, Fields was 9-of-11 passing for 134 yards, 1 TD and a 147.7 QB rating. He also rushed 6 times for 30 yards, second to Hall's 9 carries for 49 yards. Wilson led the Jets with 5 receptions for 68 yards and the TD, including a 33-yard TD grab from Fields on the Jets' first TD drive.
It was the first time since 1997 that the Jets scored on their first 4 drives of a season and the 19 points were their most in a first half against Pittsburgh in 28 meetings between the teams since 1970.
The Jets' fortunes turned early in the fourth quarter after Pittsburgh cut the Jets' lead to 26-24. On the ensuing kickoff, Xavier Gipson was stripped of the ball, and the Steelers recovered. Two plays later QB Aaron Rodgers found Calvin Austin with an 18-yard TD pass for a 31-26 lead.
"The one thing that had to turn this game is, we can't have turnovers," Glenn said. "There were some penalties that happened in that game that were true discipline issues."
But Fields was not done.
With 7:06 left in the game, the Jets began a 12-play, 67-yard drive that ended with Fields scampering in on an bootleg run on a fourth-and-1 play from the Steelers 1-yard line. But the 2-point conversion failed, leaving the Green & White with a precarious 32-31 lead that soon evaporated.
"That one turnover, they scored," Fields said. "We came back. A lot of fight from our team. I don't think a lot of people expected us to come out like that. No moral victories. We lost. We got to get better, and that's what we're going to do this week."
