Braelon Allen, he admitted afterward, was a little surprised. He didn’t expect the Jets to run it on third-and-9 — as they trailed by two and were at the Cleveland 22-yard line — late in the fourth quarter.
But then Frank Reich called for that. Then, Allen shook off one tackle and tore toward the end zone. And he capped his career rushing day with the game-winning touchdown in the Jets’ 17-12 victory over the Browns at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
Allen, who missed most of last season, has waited for this, for the chance to show that he can handle the workload as a lead back. And with Breece Hall still injured, Allen offered a glimpse of his individual ceiling with a career-high 116 yards on 24 carries — marking the most by a Jets running back in a game since Hall’s 133 in Week 8 of last year.
“Honestly, I was just really hype,” Allen said of his touchdown run. “During the play, once I broke past first level, I knew it was over.”
His window of opportunity is fleeting with Hall week to week, but Allen flashed what the Jets’ two-pronged rushing attack could resemble with both Allen and Hall healthy. He pulled three Browns defenders for a first down on the Jets’ first drive, which ended in a touchdown. He ripped off consecutive runs of 8 yards and 17 yards to close the opening quarter, too.
Allen had surpassed his previous career high of 59 rushing yards — set last week against the Bears — long before his touchdown on the final possession, but that secured the first 100-yard game of his career. It also marked the Jets’ longest rushing touchdown on a third down since Bilal Powell in 2017, according to Stats Perform.
“All of a sudden, defenders start taking creative angles,” Garrett Wilson said. “They start running next to him. They acting like they’re trying to catch him. They don’t want to touch him.”
The Jets, Garrett Wilson said, see this from Allen in practice, but when it happens “on Sunday, it holds a little more weight.” Allen flashed his potential during his rookie campaign in 2024, but just four games in 2025, he sustained a season-ending MCL injury. He needed to build himself back to the type of running back he knew he could resemble.
And that, finally, was on display Sunday. He lost a fumble that the Jets recovered and had a brutal drop near the sideline, but there were also moments like his third-and-4 in the third quarter — when he ran into a wall of Browns defenders, bounced outside and turned a play that could’ve ended with a fourth down into an 18-yard gain with his physicality.
“It was good, man,” Allen said. “It was fun. [Sunday] was the perfect day to go out there, run the football, so it’s a lot of fun when you can do it well — especially knowing that everybody knows you’re gonna do it.”
