CINCINNATI — Who exactly saw this coming?
On a day when the Jets lost one of the best players — and people — to ever grace their franchise in Nick Mangold, their stunning 39-38 comeback victory over the Bengals Sunday at Paycor Stadium seemed trivial.
The joy in this being the team’s first victory of the season after opening with seven consecutive losses and that it was a first NFL win as a head coach for Jets leader Aaron Glenn was muted.
The team announced about an hour before kickoff that Mangold, their star center from 2006-16, had suddenly succumbed to a rare genetic kidney disorder at age 41.
The Jets and their depleted roster on this day looked like they would be no match for the Bengals.
Considering they were without their best cornerback, Sauce Gardner, and both of their starting receivers, Garrett Wilson and Josh Reynolds, the day for the Jets had a what-could-go-wrong? vibe.
They were playing a Cincinnati team led at the moment by ageless 40-year-old quarterback (and former Jet) Joe Flacco.
Flacco was slinging the ball around to arguably the top receiving tandem in the league in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
Chase, who entered the game as the NFL’s leader in receptions (58), was coming off a 16-catch, 161-yard, one-TD performance last week against the Steelers.
There seemed to be so much going against the Jets on this day, with Chase and Higgins being covered by rookie corner Azareye’h Thomas, who was making his first NFL start, and Brandon Stephens.
Offensively, the Jets entered the game having failed to score a single touchdown in their previous two games.
Yet on Sunday, they broke out with their best offensive performance of the season. They amassed 503 yards of offense.
Their quarterback, Justin Fields, who was publicly ripped by team owner Woody Johnson earlier in the week, played one of his best games, passing 21-of-32 for 244 yards and a TD.
Their running game exploded with Breece Hall rushing for 133 yards and two TDs and throwing the game-winner on a halfback option to rookie tight end Mason Taylor with 1:54 remaining.
The Jets ended their dubious TD-less streak when Fields connected with Tyler Johnson for a 15-yard scoring pass on fourth-and-2 with 5:18 remaining in the first half. That cut the Cincinnati lead at the time to 17-10.
Typical of the Jets, though, on a day when their offense finally showed some life, their defense let them down, allowing 24 points in the first half, which ended with Cincinnati leading 24-13.
The Jets closed the deficit to 24-16 on Nick Folk’s fourth field goal, this one from 24 yards with 6:12 remaining in the third quarter. That score was made possible by a 50-yard run by running back Isaiah Davis.
The Jets defense then answered that score by allowing the Bengals to march another 65 yards — essentially uncontested — and take a 31-16 lead on a 32-yard scoring run by Samaje Perine, his second TD of the day.
The Jets cut that lead to 31-24 on a 5-yard TD run by Hall followed by a successful 2-point conversion with 14:17 remaining in the game. It was Hall’s first TD of the season.
Again, the defense failed spectacularly, as the Bengals took the next possession and cruised effortlessly down the field to take a 38-24 lead on a Chase Brown TD with 10:21 remaining.
The Jets offense, relentless on this day, cut it to 38-31 on a 27-yard Hall scoring run and a successful 2-point conversion with 7:52 remaining.
