Jets secure first win of season with miraculous comeback over Bengals

The New York Jets’ Sunday began with a horrible loss, as legendary center Nick Mangold passed away after a long battle with kidney disease. 

But his old squad honored him in the biggest way with a miraculous comeback victory for their first win of the season in a 39-38 thriller over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Justin Fields and the Jets’ offense scored 23 fourth-quarter points to stun Joe Flacco and the Bengals, as they moved to 1-7 on the season. Meanwhile, Cincinnati’s momentum was stalled after a big win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are now 3-5 on the season. 

The fourth quarter began with a Bengals’ 31-16 lead, as Flacco picked up where he left off from that Steelers game and continued to get the Bengals in position to score touchdowns. But Fields, who came into this game with tons of scrutiny for his play this season, kept moving the ball and staying in the game. 

So, the quarter saw running back Breece Hall, who had 133 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns, burst out for 35 yards to set up in the red zone. A few plays later he got into the end zone, and instead of going for the extra point, the Jets went for two points with Fields breaking the plain. 

With the game at 31-24 in favor of Cincinnati, the Bengals’ run game responded with Chase Brown and Samaje Perine leading the way on the ensuing drive that ended with the former scoring his second touchdown of the game. 

JETS LEGEND NICK MANGOLD DEAD AT 41 AFTER COMPLICATIONS WITH KIDNEY DISEASE

But, once again, the Jets came right back, as Hall’s second touchdown of the quarter was a 27-yard run where he avoided multiple tacklers, stayed in bounds and found the colored paint. The Jets went for two for the second straight drive, and this was the crucial one as Isaiah Davis caught the pass and just broke the goal line upon review to make it 36-32. 

Still, the Jets’ defense needed to come up with a stop because Flacco continued to dissect them to that point. Mission accomplished, as Will McDonald IV secured the Jets’ first sack of the game on third-and-10, forcing a punt. 

The Jets took advantage, going nine plays where Hall threw a touchdown to tight end Mason Taylor to take the lead following the extra point. 

While the Jets celebrated, they knew the Bengals had all three of their timeouts and enough time on the clock to get into field goal range for Evan McPherson to attempt a potential game-winner. But Flacco was unable to find Andre Iosivas twice on third- and fourth-and-9 to turn the ball over on downs and give the Jets their first victory formation of the year. 

Looking at the box score, Fields went 21-of-32 for 244 yards with one touchdown pass and 31 rushing yards. His touchdown pass was to Tyler Johnson, who had three catches for 64 yards, near the end of the first half. 

For Flacco, he went 21-for-34 for 223 yards with two touchdowns with Ja’Marr Chase once again shining with 12 receptions for 91 yards. Tee Higgins had just one catch for Cincinnati, but it was a 41-yard touchdown for the Bengals.  

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