Pressure on Jets defense to make Week 1 disaster an anomaly

In case you hadn’t heard over the past couple of years, the Jets have a tendency to tout their place in the NFL defensive rankings because they’ve been good on that side of the ball. 

They haven’t made the playoffs or produced a winning season in that span, but their defense was ranked No. 3 in the league in yards allowed and 12th in points yielded last season. In 2022, they ranked fourth in both of those categories. 

So, what took place in Sunday’s season opener at the 49ers was difficult to swallow — particularly the 180 rushing yards and 6.9 yards per carry San Francisco gashed them with in an utter show of dominance. 

A backup running back named Jordan Mason, who played in place of injured MVP candidate Christian McCaffrey, rushed for 147 of those yards on 28 carries. This after Mason had rushed for a total of 464 yards in his previous 33 NFL games. 

Which leads us to Sunday’s Jets game at the Titans, who are offensively vulnerable — particularly at quarterback with second-year Will Levis coming off a miserable opener in which he turned the ball over three times on two interceptions and a lost fumble. 

If the Jets defensive players, who were undoubtedly embarrassed by the way they were pushed around by the 49ers, don’t come out against Levis and the Titans like “a bunch of crazed dogs’’ — to borrow from the great Lawrence Taylor — then we have a problem here. 

If you’re a Jets fan, you have to hope and pray that there was an edge to the defensive players in practice this week, eager to rinse the terrible taste of a week ago from their mouths. 

Neither Jets head coach Robert Saleh nor his defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich employ an in-your-face coaching style with their players. So, the Jets defenders, as they watched the tape of the 49ers debacle, weren’t chewed out for their sins of the previous Sunday. 

Instead, they had their errors pointed out in a level-headed way by Saleh and Ulbrich and were allowed to stew in their own hurt feelings from what went down out West. 

“It’s not the first time we’ve gotten punched in the mouth,’’ Saleh said Friday. “The important thing is you go to the film, you watch it, you tell the truth, you acknowledge things that we did wrong, you celebrate the things we did well, and you try to work through it. 

“But players know they’ve made mistakes. It’s our philosophy [not to chastise]. They don’t need another man in their face telling them that they screwed up. They already know. They want to know how to get fixed. Ulbrich and I are more in the mold to sit down and talk about it, get to the bottom of it and make sure that doesn’t happen again.’’ 

When I asked Saleh how he believes the defense will respond, he said, “Just like we’ve responded in the past, we’ll respond again. These professional athletes are very, very proud and very prideful. They want to get it fixed. They want to do well. And I think we will do well.’’ 

There is a recent history under Saleh and Ulbrich of the Jets defense bouncing back after poor performances. 

Last season, they followed a 30-10 loss to Dallas with a 15-10 loss to the Patriots. Then they followed a 27-6 blowout loss to the Chargers with a 16-12 loss to the Raiders. Later, a 30-0 loss to the Dolphins was followed by a 30-28 win over Washington. And finally, they followed a 37-20 loss to the Browns with a 17-3 win over the Patriots in the season finale. 

So, there is tangible evidence of this defense having a bounce-back gene.

“We still have a great defense,’’ Jets cornerback D.J. Reed said on Friday. 

“I’m extremely confident in the group we have,’’ Ulbrich said. “I anticipate them answering the call this week. I really do.’’ 

Asked what he expects to see out of his defense on Sunday, Ulbrich said, “A response. A response to what happened and our standard being revealed.’’ 

That response should be rapid and come with a rage that stones the Titans rushing attack and swallows Levis alive. If the Jets play to the standard they’ve played on defense for most of the past two seasons, they should handle the Titans and even their record at 1-1. 

The Jets — even without the ghost of Haason Reddick — have too much talent on the defensive side of the ball to lose to Levis and Titans. 

All we heard the past two years was how good the defense is and imagine how good the team would be if it merely had a competent quarterback to complement it. 

Well, the Jets have Aaron Rodgers now, not merely a competent quarterback but a future Hall of Famer. So, now it’s time for the defense to complement the offense.