Justin Fields got his shot at a revenge game against the Jets, and it went off the rails immediately.
In New York’s Week 9 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jets saw an old face under center, but Fields’ chance to make his former team regret moving on turned into a disaster on the first snap he handled. Kansas City faced third-and-one, and with the Chiefs drawing heat in recent weeks for not leaning on quarterback sneaks with Patrick Mahomes, Fields was the one who got the call.
It did not go well. Fields failed to pick up the first down and lost the ball in the process, with Demario Davis recovering in Chiefs territory. The Jets were already ahead 3-0 after a long opening drive, and they turned the takeaway into a second field goal to stretch the lead to 6-0 at Arrowhead Stadium.
For Fields, it was another ugly chapter in a Jets stint that never really worked. He went 2-7 in nine starts with New York, throwing seven touchdowns and one interception, but the numbers only tell part of the story. At times, he held the ball too long in the name of protecting it, and that led to missed big plays and drive-killing sacks.
There was even a game in which Fields and the Jets finished with -10 passing yards when sack yardage was included, and they still lost by just two to the Denver Broncos. Even with that kind of production, New York managed to get a sixth-round pick back for him.
Fields has also seen limited action in Kansas City this season after beating out rookie Garrett Nussmeier for the starting job. With Patrick Mahomes seemingly rushed back from injury, the Chiefs still haven’t trusted Fields to run much of the offense, and one of the few chances he got ended with the Jets benefiting from the mistake.
Kansas City later reclaimed the lead, as a team with Mahomes and Andy Reid would be expected to do against the lowly Jets, but Fields’ latest miscue wiped away any momentum he might have built. For the Jets, at least, it was a more watchable version of a bad team than the one they had with Fields.
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