Geno Smith ended his first game back with the Jets in a clean jersey.
“I don’t think I got touched at all,” Smith said. “That’s always a great sign.”
He can thank the big guys up front.
The Jets offensive line dominated in the 23-10 season-opening win over the Titans on Sunday in Tennessee. For what is largely considered the team’s biggest strength, it was an extremely promising sign going forward.
“Tough, violent, gritty, just ‘you’re not going to stop what we’re trying to do’ [with our] mentality,” coach Aaron Glenn said. “And when you have an O-line of that magnitude that thinks that way, it’s hard [for the opponent]. It allows you to apply pressure to a team, so give those guys all the credit, man. The big guys really don’t get as much credit as they need to.”
The Titans are supposed to have a strong defensive line, with star Jeffery Simmons and ex-Jets Jermaine Johnson II and John Franklin-Myers. But the Jets overwhelmingly imposed themselves — “we dominated physically” is how Smith put it.
The stats were impressive.
Smith had an average time to throw of 3.04 seconds, per Next Gen Stats — eighth highest among all quarterbacks in Week 1. He consistently had clean pockets to operate in, which allowed him to complete 19 of his 24 passes.
He was not sacked, and the Titans managed just one measly QB hit.
“Outstanding,” Smith said of the unit. “I thought the guys did a tremendous job of giving me lanes to throw through. … I thought we ran the ball well, which slowed them down. Then when we needed to pass the ball, I thought the protection was outstanding.”
On the ground, there was plenty of space for Breece Hall and Braelon Allen. They averaged 4.6 and 4.0 yards per carry, respectively, and gave the Jets a significant time-of-possession advantage — 38:46 to 21:14 — with a run-first approach.
“It was cool for the coaches to rely heavily on them in the run game,” Hall said. “They made my job easy, Braelon’s job easy. We were very successful, for sure.”
At the end of the first quarter into the beginning of the second quarter, the Jets put together a methodical 19-play, 74-yard drive that resulted in a field goal to extend their lead to 10-3. Fifteen of those 19 plays were runs, as the Jets used their advantage up front to repeatedly punish the Titans.
Both center Josh Myers and right guard Joe Tippmann believe it was the longest drive of their careers.
“It’s a good feeling to get out there and be able to do that,” Tippmann said.
Added Myers: “Felt good to get those conversions and slowly move the ball down that field. Feel like we were wearing them out, so that was good.”
The manner in which the Jets wore out the Titans was palpable — so much so that Titans coach Robert Saleh said he was “surprised” by how flat his team looked.
Perhaps the most encouraging part is that it feels sustainable. The Jets returned four of five starters on the offensive line in Myers, Tippmann, left tackle Olu Fashanu and right tackle Armand Membou. The lone newcomer is left guard Dylan Parham.
It’s a stable unit that had significant capital invested in it.
“I think we just played together and stuck with our game plan and communicated well,” Myers said. “There’s still plenty of room for improvement. I think anyone in our room would tell you that, but I think we were just consistent and played well together.”
They certainly did.
