CLEVELAND — Bedlam had damaged out within the bowels of First Vitality Stadium shortly after 4 p.m. on Sunday — particularly exterior the guests’ locker room, the place Jets homeowners Woody and Chris Johnson stood and greeted each single one in all their gamers as they trotted off the sector and into the room.
The Jets haven’t skilled many (any?) euphoric moments like this for the previous decade, so this was to be cherished with unbridled — and well-deserved — pleasure.
Joe Flacco, 37 years younger and lengthy having transitioned from NFL starter and Tremendous Bowl-winning quarterback to veteran insurance coverage backup, was one of many final gamers to reach from the sector — the place the Jets had shocked the Browns 31-30 with two touchdowns within the closing 1:22 — to the locker room.
As Flacco approached the double doorways to the locker room and met eyes with Woody Johnson and head coach Robert Saleh, he set free a guttural scream that was so loud it might in all probability be heard from Baltimore to Denver to New Jersey.
“HELL YEAH!’’ the normally low-key quarterback who goes by the nickname “Cool Joe’’ from his teammates bellowed.
“Profitable within the NFL is sort of a drug,’’ Flacco instructed The Publish about half-hour after that mad second amid the excitement of elation contained in the locker room. “Not that I've expertise with medicine, however it's addicting. It’s a robust factor. That is my seventh begin for the Jets and my first win. See that ball proper there? I stored it.’’
Flacco pointed to the sport ball that was tucked away in his locker. After his closing kneel right down to bleed the clock to double zeroes and safe essentially the most improbably Jets victory in reminiscence, Flacco wasn’t handing that ball to a referee or anybody else.
“I took that final knee and I used to be going to maintain that ball,’’ he stated. “It means rather a lot. This group’s been by way of rather a lot and I really feel like I’ve been right here for a great quantity of it, and it feels good.’’
Flacco stated he didn’t bear in mind who his final win as a beginning quarterback got here towards, “simply that it was in Denver.’’
For these of you scoring at residence, that was Oct. 13, 2019, a 16-0 win over the Titans in Denver, the place Flacco accomplished a modest 18 of 28 for 177 yards with no TD passes and one interception.
Flacco misplaced his subsequent eight begins after that win, together with all six as a Jet earlier than Sunday. He was 2-12 as a starter courting again to 2019 and 6-17 courting again to 2018, his closing season in Baltimore.
Now Flacco is 1-0 and hoping to be on a distinct type of streak with the Jets, who're 1-1 and out of the blue brimming with hope, largely because of his steadying affect.
Final Monday, the day after the Jets misplaced their season opener to the Ravens with the offense appeared putrid, Saleh left open the chance — albeit briefly — that a quarterback change was not out of the query.
Jets followers have been calling loudly for third-stringer Mike White, final season’s darling for a few weeks after starter Zach Wilson was injured, to take over.
Saleh rapidly quelled that two days later, insisting Flacco was his quarterback till Wilson is sufficiently recovered from his knee harm.
However let’s not be naïve right here. Flacco entered Sunday’s recreation in Cleveland on discover, his leash having been shortened from Week 1 to Week 2.
You’d have by no means recognized that, although, the best way Flacco calmly answered a 90-yard Cleveland scoring drive that ate 8:37 off the clock for a 7-0 first-quarter lead, tying it at 7-7 with a stunning 2-yard fade-route TD move to rookie receiver Garrett Wilson.
You wouldn’t have recognized it when, unflustered by dropping the ball on a Jadeveon Clowney strip-sack on the earlier possession, Flacco tied the sport at 14-14 with 11 seconds remaining within the first half on a 10-yard scoring move to rookie operating again Breece Corridor.
You wouldn’t have recognized it when, within the frenetic closing moments of the sport, Flacco was discovering a wide-open Corey Davis on a Browns busted protection for a 66-yard TD move that reduce the Cleveland result in 30-24 with 1:22 remaining.
“It was a extremely bizarre feeling, due to how quiet it bought in [the stadium],’’ Flacco stated of the Davis landing. “That feeling was one thing I've by no means felt earlier than, how quiet it bought on the market.’’
Lastly, after the Jets recovered an onside kick, there was Flacco — methodically and with zero sense of panic — calmly transferring the offense down the sector towards the game-winning 15-yard scoring strike to Wilson with 22 seconds remaining.
When his day was completed, Flacco quietly exited the locker room by way of those self same doorways the place he’d celebrated with Woody Johnson and Saleh about an hour earlier, the sport ball tucked underneath his arm and able to begin subsequent Sunday’s residence recreation towards the Tremendous Bowl runner-up Bengals with no questions on his job safety lingering.
Till additional discover (learn: every time Zach Wilson is cleared to return), that is Flacco’s group and he’s cherishing each single second of it for so long as it lasts.
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