SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Jets fancy themselves as a Super Bowl contender. On Monday night, they saw what one actually looks like.
The 49ers, the defending NFC champs, dismantled the Jets 32-19 in the season opener at Levi’s Stadium — even though they were missing their best player.
“That’s a championship outfit and they introduced us to some championship football,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “We’ll get that [bleep] fixed.”
There is no shame in losing to the 49ers, who have become a perennial contender under coach Kyle Shanahan, but the Jets looked like they were not in their weight class. The Jets defense forced a punt on the 49ers’ first drive of the game and then not another one. The 49ers scored on eight straight possessions.
It was probably enough to drive Jets fans to drink … ayahuasca.
Playing without star running back Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers offense still looked like a machine, churning through the Jets defense, which believes it can be the best in the league.
Backup running back Jordan Mason, making his first NFL start, rushed for 147 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Brock Purdy was not spectacular, but made enough plays to put the 49ers consistently in field goal position. San Francisco rolled up 402 yards of total offense and Jake Moody drilled six field goals.
The return of Aaron Rodgers had some big highlights. He threw his first touchdown as a Jet late in the third quarter, a pretty 36-yard pass to Allen Lazard after he made the 49ers defense jump offsides in vintage Rodgers style.
He also put together a 12-play drive in the first half for the Jets’ first touchdown. But there were long periods when the Jets offense was totally ineffective. The 49ers intercepted Rodgers in the third quarter. Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles picked it off after Deommodore Lenoir broke up the pass to Garrett Wilson.
“I can play better,” Rodgers said. “I felt overall I was getting the ball out pretty good, but we had some opportunities that I would like back.”
Rodgers finished the night 13-for-21 for 167 yards with a touchdown and an interception and was removed late in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach for Tyrod Taylor.
The Jets believe they can be one of the best teams in the NFL, but they did not look like it Monday while the 49ers showed how far the Jets have to go.
“You realize all of a sudden that you’re not there,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to go prepare, get better every week, every day, truly because we’re not there yet. They whooped our ass today and that’s the reality of it. We’ve got to find a way to get better. The great teams will bounce back from this and that’s what we plan to do.”
It felt like the game got away from the Jets on the first drive after halftime.
Despite not playing well in the first half, the Jets went into the half only down 16-7. The 49ers received the second-half kickoff and went right through the Jets defense.
It was an 11-play, 70-yard drive that Mason capped off with a 5-yard touchdown. The big play was a 34-yard pass from Purdy to fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who beat safety Ashtyn Davis.
The loss drops the Jets to 0-1 for the fifth time in six years. Oddly enough, the Jets’ only recent win in their season opener was last year when they beat the Bills in overtime.
That victory was overshadowed, though, by Rodgers’ season-ending injury on the fourth play of the game.
The fourth offensive snap for the Jets was again a bad one.
Rodgers made his first completion as a Jet on a little flip to Breece Hall, but Hall fumbled after getting hit by linebacker Fred Warner. San Francisco recovered at the Jets 32, but only got a field goal off the turnover to take a 3-0 lead.
The Jets bounced back quickly. Their next drive was a 12-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a Hall 3-yard touchdown run that gave the Jets a 7-3 lead.
Rodgers emphatically pumped his fist as Hall crossed the goal line. Rodgers connected with Garrett Wilson on three third-down conversions on the drive.
That was the Jets’ only good drive of the first half. They had three other three-and-outs and the fumble. They had just 14 yards on four drives and 70 on the one touchdown drive.
On defense, the Jets gave up 210 yards in the first half, but limited the 49ers to one touchdown. Deebo Samuel scored on a 2-yard run with seven minutes left in the second quarter to put the 49ers up 13-7. Jake Moody added this third field goal just before halftime to push the lead to 16-7.
Jets star cornerback Sauce Gardner was not on the field for nine of the 12 plays on the last drive of the first half. The Jets said it was not injury related, making it a strange absence for Gardner.
While he was off the field, Purdy went 6-for-6. Gardner returned to the field for the final few plays.
The Jets don’t have much time to regroup. They head to Tennessee on Sunday and then play the Patriots in their home opener on Sept. 19 on Thursday Night Football.
The Jets have plenty to fix after this game, but are confident they can do it.
“They are a championship-level group,” Rodgers said. “I hope we see them there.”
