Days after Jets owner Woody Johnson issued some harsh comments about the team’s quarterback play from Justin Fields this year, Fields responded by leading the Jets to their first victory of the season on Sunday.
Johnson said earlier in the week, “It looks like [Glenn] is turning around parts of [the team]. It’s hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that we got. He has the ability but something is just, it’s not jiving. But you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that you’re going to see similar results across the league. You have to play consistently at that position and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Against the Bengals this week, Fields completed 21 of 32 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown as the Jets earned a 39-38 victory, their most points in a game this season. In his two games prior to this matchup, Fields had completed less than 53% of his passes, averaged under four yards per attempt and was sacked a combined 12 times. He completed fewer than 10 pass attempts and threw for fewer than 50 yards in each game.
Fields was benched last week during their loss to the Panthers, and was competing with Tyrod Taylor to start this week. With Taylor not feeling go enough to play, Fields got the start again, and finally capitalized.
“Justin was Justin,” Glenn said of his quarterback postgame. “It just so happened that things were really clicking for him. He had a great week of practice. … Proud of him.”
“Who he is as a person, his faith, and the way he goes about his business—he was primed to be able to handle situations like this,” Glenn said. “It’s so unfair to him, it really is, that he gets criticized so much. On the other hand, I told him, being a high pick, being a quarterback—especially in the New York area—criticism, responsibility, expectation, all those things follow you. Some of it’s unwarranted, but we understand, a lot of has to go with us [being] 0-7. He’s a perfect person to be able to handle everything that’s been thrown at him. He’s a special person, a special person.”
Fields’s game was aided by a strong rushing attack, which ran for a whopping 254 yards and two touchdowns on the afternoon. It is also notable that this took place against the Bengals, who have one of the NFL’s worst defenses.
Still, after receiving such strong criticism from his team’s owner and much of the media alike, it’s a feel-good moment for Fields to play better and get this win.
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