Folk hero, Part Deux.
Somewhere, Rex Ryan is smiling.
Years after Jets kicker Nick Folk was nicknamed that by Ryan when he was the Jets head coach and Folk was in his first stint with the team, Folk rammed a low, driving 56-yard game-winning field goal on the last play of the game to deliver the Jets a stirring 27-24 victory at MetLife Stadium.
The Falcons had taken a 24-17 lead on a 9-yard scoring pass from Kirk Cousins to former Giants receiver David Sills V with 8:46 remaining in the game.
On the play, Jets cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor was completely deked by Sills, who’d caught the ball in the right flat.
For Sills, who spent 2021-22 with the Giants, he scored his first NFL touchdown last week and Sunday was his second.
The Jets tied the game at 24-24 with 1:53 remaining in the fourth on a 10-yard scramble by quarterback Tyrod Taylor.
It was Taylor’s first rushing TD dating back to 2021 when he was playing with the Texans, and it capped a drive that went 15 plays, 65 yards in 6:53.
The Jets (3-9) took final possession of the ball with 35 seconds remaining and drove it to the Atlanta 38-yard line with five seconds remaining.
Folk, who’d hit his career-long from 58 yards earlier this season, was faced with a 56-yarder going in the same direction where he’d missed a 55-yarder earlier in the second half.
His miss was wide right.
His winner snuck through the lower left corner.
The Jets overcame a day when their defense was shredded by the Falcons’ running game, led by Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier.
Robinson torched the Jets for 142 rushing yards and a TD on 23 carries. He also caught five passes for 51 yards. Allgeier rushed for 20 yards and a TD.
The Jets took a 7-0 lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by running back Breece Hall just 1:02 into the second quarter.
The play was made possible by a muffed punt by Atlanta punt returner Jamal Agnew, with Jets cornerback Quan’tez Stiggers recovering the ball at the Falcons 2-yard line.
One play and two seconds later, Hall scored on the ensuing play.
Weirdly, this was the 11th consecutive time the Jets scored first in a game and lost.
That was about it for the Jets’ anemic offense in the first half, during which they managed only five first downs to Atlanta’s 13 and 71 yards of offense to Atlanta’s 172.
The Falcons tied the game at 7-7 on a 1-yard scoring run by running back Tyler Allgeier with nine seconds remaining in the first half.
Atlanta took a 14-7 lead on its first offensive possession of the second half when Robinson scored on a 5-yard run with 9:36 remaining in the third quarter.
The play capped a 95-yard drive that was highlighted by a 42-yard Kirk Cousins pass to Robinson that had 15 more yards tacked onto the gain thanks to a roughing the passer call on Jets linebacker Marcelino McCrary-Ball.
On the Robinson TD, both Jets edge rusher Will McDonald IV and cornerback Ja’sir Taylor whiffed on tackles as they failed to set the edge on the left side.
The Jets answered quickly, tying the game at 14-14 on a Taylor 55-yard scoring pass to receiver AD Mitchell 38 seconds after the Falcons’ TD.
For Mitchell, who was acquired at the trade deadline in the Sauce Gardner deal with the Colts, it was his first NFL TD.
It was helped when Falcons cornerback Mike Hughes, who Mitchell had beat, fell down.
The Falcons missed out on a chase to make it 17-14 when their kicker Zane Gonzalez missed a 50-yard field goal attempt wide right on the ensuing series.
For Gonzalez, the third kicker the Falcons have played this season, it was his first miss with the team after making all six of his attempts.
The Jets returned the favor on the next possession when their kicker Nick Folk was wide right on a 55-yard field goal attempt.
It was his first miss of any kind this season, after having made all 20 of his field goal attempts and all 17 extra points.
After Atlanta took a 17-14 lead on a successful Gonzalez 52-yard field goal on the last play of the third quarter, Folk would also get a second chance on the Jets’ next possession.
Folk tied the game at 17-17 with 13:23 remaining in the fourth quarter with a 32-yard field goal.
That was made possible by an electric 83-yard kickoff return by Jets receiver Isaiah Williams.
The Jets shouldn’t have been reduced to kicking the field goal, but receiver John Metchie III on a third-and-4 play from the Atlanta 9-yard line.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
