Pressure on Jets’ defense to make Week 1 disaster an anomaly
NY Post
In case you hadn’t heard over the past couple of years, the Jets have a tendency to tout their place in the NFL defensive rankings because they’ve been good on that side of the ball.
They haven’t made the playoffs or produced a winning season in that span, but their defense was ranked No. 3 in the league in yards allowed and 12th in points yielded last season. In 2022, they ranked fourth in both of those categories.
So, what took place in Sunday’s season opener at the 49ers was difficult to swallow — particularly the 180 rushing yards and 6.9 yards per carry San Francisco gashed them with in an utter show of dominance.
A backup running back named Jordan Mason, who played in place of injured MVP candidate Christian McCaffrey, rushed for 147 of those yards on 28 carries. This after Mason had rushed for a total of 464 yards in his previous 33 NFL games.
Which leads us to Sunday’s Jets game at the Titans, who are offensively vulnerable — particularly at quarterback with second-year Will Levis coming off a miserable opener in which he turned the ball over three times on two interceptions and a lost fumble.
If the Jets defensive players, who were undoubtedly embarrassed by the way they were pushed around by the 49ers, don’t come out against Levis and the Titans like “a bunch of crazed dogs’’ — to borrow from the great Lawrence Taylor — then we have a problem here.
Stunning new details emerged about Jontay Porter’s betting scandal.
With the Pittsburgh Steelers roller-coaster of a season coming to an end in the wild-card round on Saturday, star running back Najee Harris, 26, may be looking to disembark and find himself a new ride.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield left the field at Raymond James Stadium dejected after Tampa fell to the Commanders 23-20 to end their playoff run as quickly as it started.
Sometimes, the minutes are infrequent for Cameron Payne. A few here and some others there.
Regarding the Rangers, on a two-game heater and 4-1-1 in their six games going into Colorado on Tuesday before closing the road swing in Utah on Thursday:
There were times Sunday afternoon when the Knicks tried their mightiest to counteract the space-time continuum, moments when it seemed they were trying to batter the Bucks so ferociously that somehow they could turn the clock back two days and try to figure out how to reverse the bludgeoning they’d received from the Thunder on Friday.
Brett Favre is one of the only people who could identify with Aaron Rodgers — and he doesn’t see a player who should be considering retirement.
The Patriots hurried a coaching search and hired one of their former Super Bowl-winning linebackers to right the wayward franchise.
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have decided not to build a $1.3 billion downtown arena, a surprising move that comes just weeks after the team received approval for the controversial project from the city council.
Rex Ryan put a cigar in his mouth when he should’ve been eating crow.
The long-standing feud between Draymond Green and Jusuf Nurkic has taken another turn.
Kirk Herbstreit issued a scathing indictment of the Steelers’ effort to start their wild-card round loss to the Ravens on Saturday, as Baltimore jumped out to an early two-touchdown lead and Pittsburgh — again — struggled to generate any sort of offensive rhythm in response.
A lot can change in 12 months.
With MLB’s arbitration-eligible contracts largely settled and a few relief pitchers finally picked up in free agency, perhaps the bullpen market has begun to move.
The Bills cruised through the regular season. Again.
We are halfway through an NHL season marked by pervasive mediocrity in which just 13 of 32 teams have won at least half their games — six in the dreadful East and seven in a more representative West.
The self-proclaimed “worst teammate” in baseball has a new team.
The issue has popped up at times for the Knicks this season. Mikal Bridges sensed it again Friday, too.