Despite the scoreboard, Week 1 for the New York Jets should absolutely still be viewed as a big picture win amid emerging identity
The Jets won in plenty of ways in Week 1 — just not on the scoreboard.
The New York Jets woke up this morning as an 0-1 football team. That’s the bad news. But the good news for the Jets is that Sunday’s Week 1 effort against the Pittsburgh Steelers was inspired in a lot of ways. New York fell 34-32 but saw a number of their expected identifying variables come to life — which is more than some teams can say for themselves in Week 1 of the 2025 season.
Life in the NFL isn’t about moral victories. But it is about building successful days on top of one another. For Aaron Glenn’s squad, there’s plenty to build off of in this contest.
Despite loss, Jets should feel energized by Week 1 debut under Aaron Glenn
The scoreboard and the stat sheet don’t exactly tell similar stories in this game. New York averaged nearly a yard and a half more per play, was better of third and fourth downs (50% for the day), rushed for nearly four times as much yardage, and won the time of possession battle by 10 minutes. The Jets, even amid a tough injury blow this past week, appeared physical and were impactful at the line of scrimmage on offense. All of this against a team in Pittsburgh with Super Bowl aspirations. The debut of rookie tackle Armand Membou in isolation appears to be one worth celebrating.
Yes, the Jets allowed 17 fourth-quarter points. And that will need to be better — as will the special teams gaffe from Xavier Gipson that set the stage for Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ second touchdown pass of the first minute of the fourth quarter, a fumble that gifted Pittsburgh the ball at New York’s 22-yard-line.
But falling victim to a go-ahead 60-yard field goal by Chris Boswell is just one of those things. It happens on Sundays. The little things, like a special teams fumble and a career-long boot by Boswell, cost New York a win in the win column. But it is the big things that should be the focus of Glenn and his operation throughout the early chapters of the week this week.
New York will, eventually, need to make another leap. But for now, these competencies and peeks of foundational elements that all good teams are made up of should be fuel to the fire the Jets are trying to light.
New York Jets News
Jets’ offense showed plenty of promise in Week 1 despite loss thanks to the effort from our Player of the Game
New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields is our Week 1 Player of the Game.
