Halloween can provide some magical moments for a ghoulish football team, after all.
The New York Jets upset the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-31 on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium behind the heroics of Mike White — making his first-career start in relief of the injured Zach Wilson.
He led five-consecutive Jets scoring drives against one of the best defenses in the league to overturn a 17-7 first-half deficit, topping it off with a 13-yard touchdown reception to tight end Tyler Kroft with 3:45 left in regulation for what would be the game-winning touchdown moments after Carl Lawson tipped and intercepted Joe Burrow’s screen pass after a New York touchdown cut its deficit to five.
White was brilliant in his relief effort, completing 37-of-45 passes for 405 yards — the most passing yards thrown by a Jets quarterback in a single game since Vinny Testaverde in 2000 — with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
First-year head coach Robert Saleh picked up his second win of the season as the Jets improved to 2-5 while the Bengals fall to 5-3.
It was immediately apparent that the football world was facing a Twilight Zone scenario when White did what Wilson could not do all season — get points in the first quarter.
He went 7-for-7 for 65 yards on the first drive of the afternoon as the 10-play march was capped off by an eight-yard touchdown by Michael Carter to give the Jets an unlikely early lead.
The running back accounted for 32 total yards of that drive on two rushes and three receptions.
White extended his hot streak to 11-straight completions to start the game — a 2021 best for the Jets — but his first incompletion of the day clanked off the hands of Jamison Crowder and into the arms of Bengals safety Jesse Bates III near midfield, who returned it down to the 1-yard-line.
But the Jets defense — which allowed touchdowns in each of their opponents’ nine trips to the red zone — denied the Bengals on not three, but four tries to get in the end zone from the doorstep, resulting in a massive turnover on downs with two minutes left in the first quarter after Quinnen Williams sacked Burrow on fourth down.
Another bad bounce, however, gave the Bengals possession in threatening territory moments later when a quick screen bounced off Carter’s helmet and into the hands of Germaine Pratt.
Cincinnati wouldn’t be denied again, as Joe Mixon punched home a one-yard rush to tie things up with three seconds left in the quarter.
The Bengals took the lead with 3:21 left in the first half when Burrow finally hooked up with Ja’Marr Chase — just the standout rookie’s second catch of the day — for a two-yard score at the front-left pylon to go up a touchdown.
But the Jets would find a response via the two-minute drill when White led an eight-play, 67-yard drive that finished with an eight-yard touchdown reception to Braxton Berrios with 19 seconds to go to cut New York’s deficit to three at the break.
They managed to tie it with 5:20 remaining in the third quarter when Matt Ammendola hit a 24-yard field goal, but the Bengals provided an immediate answer.
Sparked by a 54-yard reception to Tee Higgins down the left sideline, the Bengals took the lead just two minutes after the Jets tied things up after Burrow hit Mixon for an eight-yard score.
Another field goal brought the Jets back to within four, but the Bengals’ offense kept coming. Burrow picked up his third passing touchdown of the day with 7:29 to go when he connected with Tyler Boyd from 10 yards out to put the Bengals back up 11.
Under normal circumstances, that normally would have spelled doom for the Jets. But with mischief afoot, the Jets inexplicably turned it around.
Running back Ty Johnson’s bruising tip-toe act down the left sideline finished off a 19-yard touchdown reception with 4:35 to go. But a failed two-point conversion attempt only shrunk their deficit to five, though it wouldn’t matter.
Just two plays after Lawson’s interception, the Jets were ahead when White hit Kroft for the game-winning score. They pulled ahead by three after offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur dipped into his bag of tricks, calling for Crowder to hit White for the converting pass in the front corner of the end zone.
After forcing the Bengals to punt thanks to a third-down Sheldon Rankins sack of Burrow, the Jets were tasked in running out the clock to preserve the win — creating one last chance to see such a surprising afternoon end on a familiar note.
However, it was the Bengals assuming the role of the Jets, gifting the hosts a first down on a helmet-to-helmet hit from Mike Hilton on Johnson on a 3rd-&-11 directly following the two-minute warning. Had that flag not been called, the Bengals would have gotten the ball back with all three of their timeouts.
Instead, the Bengals never saw the ball again.
