Three sets of statistical trends, records, marks and highlights by the Jets in their opening-day 34-32 home loss to Pittsburgh:

Running into a Green Wall
The Jets defense had its ups and downs in the opener against the Steelers, but one area that realized some of the preseason expectations placed on it was the run defense.

Quinnen Williams summed up the Jets' roller-coaster D-line showing against Pittsburgh: "We've got Jermaine Johnson — he's a phenomenal player, he's back healthy. We've got Will McDonald IV, who I feel is an All-Pro-caliber player. Harrison Phillips is another phenomenal player. And then myself. We definitely did some good things, but we've got a lot of details that we have to clean up."

Q was right about himself as he shot out of the starting gate. He notched the 40th sack of his career on the game's first defensive snap and had 3 QB hits in all — and that was just in the passing game. Williams also contributed one solo and two assisted tackles on runs and catches for loss/no gain, and he forced a fumble at the Jets 24 that would have stopped the Steelers' TD drive right before the half had the Jets recovered. (They didn't.)

Quinnen's presence and presents presented themselves throughout the day, perhaps more against the run as he and recent veteran arrivals Phillips and Jowon Briggs plugged up the inside rush lanes. Pittsburgh managed 53 rushing yards, 8th-fewest by a Jets opponent on opening day all-time, and averaged 2.65 yards/carry, 10th-least by a Jets OD opponent. And Pitt's 2 rushing first downs were the fewest by an opponent in any game since Oakland also had 2 in 2019.

Fields Off and Running
Justin Fields compiled a suite of stats in his debut as the Jets QB, at least as impressive on the ground as through the air.

Fields ran the ball 12 times (only 2 were scrambles) against the Steelers — the most carries by a Jets QB in the last 65 seasons and 1,020 games, or since Al Dorow ran it 18 times for the Titans at Buffalo in 1960. Fields also tied for the most rushing TDs by a QB in a game in franchise history, with his 2 scores matching the twin keepers of Dorow, Joe Namath, Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez and Josh McCown.

Fields, McCown (vs. Kansas City in 2017) and Mark Sanchez (also vs. KC in 2011) are the only QBs in franchise history to record at least 1 passing touchdown and 2 rushing TDs in a game.

And if we go to a multi-stat factoid, how many NFL QBs had at least 1 passing TD, 2 rushing TDs and 5 rushing first downs in a game? It's been done 27 times by 14 different QBs since 1994, with Fields one of only 5 to do it twice. His first time? In 2022 for the Bears against the Lions, whose DC at the time was, of course, Jets HC Aaron Glenn.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
The bad thing about being in multi-lead-change games is that if you give up the last LC, you get the L. But the good thing, Glenn said, is that "because of the way we play and the way we want to operate, there's a chance we're going to be in a lot of those games. Plus, we know this league comes down to that anyway."

It's hard to prepare for games with that many lead changes, since Jets-Steelers was only the second game in franchise history and the first Jets game in 65 years to have 7-plus LCs. The only other game with as many was the finale of the New York Titans' first season, their 50-43 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers in which the lead was batted back and forth like a shuttlecock 8 times. (And that doesn't include 1 tie!)

The Jets have played 5 games in their history with 6 LCs, including 2 last season , the losses at New England and Miami. Maybe all the lead changes are toughening them up for the AG operation still to come.