Not many folks knew what to expect from quarterback Justin Fields in his first game under center for the New York Jets
A bit of a rocky career path has left a lot to be desired, so Fields' first start as a Jet on Sunday was a very important one for himself as well as the organization.
Despite a 34-32 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Fields shined and was given an excellent review from ESPNs Ben Solak after his performance.
"The excellence of Fields' first game with the Jets is not in what was there but rather in what wasn't there: negative plays," Solak wrote.
Solak acknowledged that Fields time in Chicago and Pittsburgh did not go well due to the offense not being set to succeed with Fields strengths. In New York, though, that is not the case whatsoever.
"This offense in New York? This was built for Fields," he wrote. "On Sunday against his former Steelers team, he had nine designed runs, more than all but one game from his Pittsburgh tenure. He was given intermediate and downfield routes from the pocket instead of exclusively seeing them on play-action boots and rollouts. That allowed him to throw from balanced bases and use his premier velocity to hit closing windows."
Fields had just six incompletions on Sunday, his fewest in a game since Week 1 last season. His 12 rushing attempts were also his most since Week 1 last season when he ran the ball 14 times. Overall, it was outstanding performance from Fields and his defense let him down and halted his first win as the Jets quarterback.
Fields will have to step up and perform well again in Week 2 when the Jets take on the Buffalo Bills. That will be a tough game for the Jets to win, but another stellar performance from Fields like he had in Week 1 will certainly give Gang Green a chance to hang around and potentially shock Buffalo.
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