The Nightmare Miracle at the Meadowlands

by Ryan Mercier

Games like Monday Night Football at “Jetlife” Stadium are what the NFL delivers like no other. Sure, have your shootouts where defenses offer no resistance with the final score in the 40-somethings. I’ll take this every time.

Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets were THE story of the offseason. They were the subject of Hard Knocks. They could not come in with more hype. Rodgers even followed in the footsteps of another Packers legend, Brett Favre, who ended up on the Jets once upon a time.

Then, just a few plays in to the start of their season, Rodgers went down with an apparent season-ending injury.

That is so Jets. To lose a star quarterback, borrowed from another franchise to wipe away years of pain, just minutes into a new year.

Winning the game against the big, bad Buffalo Bills in overtime on a walk-off punt return, though? That is NOT SO Jets!

The drama swings in this game were absolutely outrageous. Bananas!

Incredibly hopeful Jets fans were left to wonder, for a bit, if somehow Rodgers could return in this game. Watching Zach Wilson misfire all over the field only harkened back to past seasons. Aaron Rodgers would not return, but all of these things did happen:

• Bills QB Josh Allen threw three bad interceptions, all to the SAME PERSON, Jets safety Jordan Whitehead
• Star-in-the-making RB Breece Hall of the Jets, coming off of his own season-ending injury, had an 83-yard run
• Jets WR Garrett Wilson somehow tipped the ball to himself on a TD catch, seemingly willing New York to overcome the bad play of Zach Wilson all on his own
• Bills kicker Tyler Bass had a fortunate DOINK go through the uprights to force OT on his made field goal
• WR Xavier Gipson, one of the heartwarming Hard Knocks stories of an undrafted player making the team, wins the game for the Jets on a 65-yard punt return in overtime

It was a miracle in the place they used to refer to as the Meadowlands. For the Jets, it was another memorable miracle on a Monday night. This one, however, simultaneously served as a nightmare.