The New York Jets were zapped by the Chargers on Monday night
With Darrelle Revis honored at MetLife Stadium on Monday night, the New York Jets and Los Angeles Chargers paid homage to the legendary green defender with admirable defensive efforts on both sides.
The visiting Chargers, however, remembered to do just enough in the other two aspects of the game, earning two rushing scores and a six-point punt return in what became a 27-6 victory. In failing to make up any ground in an AFC East where every other team dropped its Sunday contest, the Jets (4-4) could only muster a pair of Greg Zuerlein field goals.
Both teams welcomed in the defensive struggle with dueling punts, but Los Angeles made the most out of Thomas Morstead‘s boot: Derius Davis went the 87-yard distance to open the scoring, creating the first touchdown the Jets’ punt unit has allowed this season.
DERIUS DAVIS TAKES THE PUNT 87 YARDS TO THE HOUSE‼️ pic.twitter.com/UO3w87Ao5w
— ESPN (@espn) November 7, 2023
Morstead didn’t return to the field at the end of the next two green drives, but that was only because of lost fumbles from the unrelated Wilsons: Garrett Wilson lost one on a first-down catch before Zach Wilson dropped his as the victim of a Joey Bosa sack.
Chargers recover Garrett Wilson’s fumble! pic.twitter.com/lz0RDXuSue
— JM Football (@JomboyMediaFB) November 7, 2023
#Jets fumble again!
Zach Wilson fumbles it pic.twitter.com/97812Jl40Lhttps://t.co/hW4MBsVa9n
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 7, 2023
The Jets’ defense was able to mitigate the damage the first time around by forcing a punt but Los Angeles capitalized on the latter, going 49 yards on seven plays before Austin Ekeler earned on the last to account for the Chargers’ lone offensive end zone visit of the game.
With the scoring from there on out almost exclusively limited to triples from Zuerlein and Cameron Dicker, the Jets earned dwindling silver linings from their defense, particularly from a pass rush that sacked Justin Herbert five times.
But Los Angeles’ effort proved equally formidable, as they got to Zach Wilson on six occasions. Those who forced the aforementioned Wilson fumbles, Bosa and Alohi Gilman, united for 4.5 of the takedowns. while Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu also had two each.
.@ii_jermaine gets the sack on Herbert 💪
📺: #LACvsNYJ on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/wPNNRv5rzw pic.twitter.com/K51airTK6G— NFL (@NFL) November 7, 2023
HAVE A NIGHT JOEY BOSA
pic.twitter.com/E7DpbgmYaM— PFF (@PFF) November 7, 2023
Los Angeles (4-4) did visit the end zone one more time thanks to one more fumble from the arms of Zach Wilson, this one forced by Mack. Gilman returned it to the cusp of the goal line before Ekeler punched in one more.
Khalil Mack forces the fumble and it’s @chargers ball #BoltUp
📺: #LACvsNYJ on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/wPNNRv5rzw pic.twitter.com/XWXer15z9t— NFL (@NFL) November 7, 2023
Los Angeles also enjoyed some history of its own on Monday night, as an acrobatic catch allowed Keenan Allen to become the second 10,000-yard receiver in Chargers history alongside Antonio Gates.
Keenan Allen is just ridiculouspic.twitter.com/sCWLIq04Er
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 7, 2023
The Jets return to national airwaves next week as they travel to Sin City to face the Las Vegas Raiders in Sunday’s nightcap (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
