The New York Jets had an absolutely dominating 24-3 victory over the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football in what turned out to be Aaron Rodgers' second official home debut in East Rutherford.
After an offseason full of hope was extinguished just four snaps into the 2023 season, seeing Rodgers go out and carve up the Jets most hated rival en route to what was an embarrassing beatdown for the Patriots had to feel good for New York fans.
A New England team that had bullied the Jets around for over 20 years came into MetLife Stadium and suddenly, the Jets became the bully. The Patriots were the ones who looked completely hopeless and inept as the New York offense did whatever it wanted for the entire night. Of course, it must be acknowledged that this is not your father's New England Patriots, it's a team that has fallen off their pedestal and become one of the worst in football.
But the New England defense is far from the bottom of the league, and if their Week 1 performance where they completely shut down Joe Burrow and the Bengals in Cincinnati was any indication, this was one of the best defenses in the league heading into the night. That didn't matter for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets offense.
They moved the ball effortlessly up and down the field the entire night en route to a 400 yard explosion where Rodgers seemed to turn the clock back five years and look like his MVP self of old. Perhaps most impressive was the fact that Rodgers led the offense to a ridiculous 10 of 15 conversion rate on 3rd down. It seemed every time the Patriots needed a big stop and to get their defense off the field, Rodgers didn't let them, stepping on the throat of a team that did the same to New York for what seemed like an eternity.
All of this begs the question, what is this team really capable of this season? If you told Jets fans before the season that Rodgers would return healthily, look like his old self, and the team was going to end the 13-year playoff drought, it's probably fair to say most would have been okay with that and even thrilled.
Now, things have changed. This is a team with a window, albeit not an extremely wide one, so they must capitalize now. The defense had already been Super Bowl caliber for the last several seasons. The offense certainly looked the part as well on Thursday night.
Of course, there's a team in Kansas City that is going to have something to say about it, but it's not an overreaction to say that New York has entered the upper echelon of AFC contenders and unquestionably, they have the pieces it takes to get to the Super Bowl.
A lot has to go right from now until then for that to happen, but rejoice at long last Jets fans: you have a team in New York that is Super Bowl caliber.
