Jets vs. Titans: Breece Hall and Geno Smith Crash Robert Saleh's Revenge Game in Week 1

Robert Saleh waited nearly two years for this one. The Jets fired him five games into 2024, Tennessee hired him in January, and the schedule handed him his old team in Week 1 like a gift-wrapped revenge plot. Then the Jets rewrote the ending. New York 23, Tennessee 10, and the final score was being polite to the home team.

The Jets never trailed Sunday at Nissan Stadium. They held the ball for 38:46, piled up 367 yards to Tennessee's 195 and rode Breece Hall's 102 rushing yards and a touchdown to a 1-0 start. For a franchise that usually supplies the punchlines, this was a rare Sunday where the Jets got to be the bully.

Death by a Thousand Handoffs

This wasn't a fireworks show. It was a boa constrictor.

Tennessee opened with a self-inflicted wound when Joey Slye pushed the opening kickoff out of bounds. The Jets started at their own 40, and eight plays later rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq punched in a 3-yard touchdown run. Saleh also had to burn an early timeout to dodge a 12-men-on-the-field flag. Not the new-era montage Nashville had in mind.

The Titans answered with a 42-yard Slye field goal, then didn't score again until the final three minutes.

The drive that broke the game's spirit started at the New York 12 with 1:51 left in the first quarter. Nineteen plays, 74 yards, 11 minutes and 48 seconds. That's not a possession. That's a feature film with a director's cut. It ended with a 33-yard Jason Sanders field goal and a Titans defense that looked like it had just done leg day twice.

The chaos kept coming. Chimere Dike, Tennessee's All-Pro returner, had already been checked for a concussion after a teammate got shoved backward into him on a punt. Once cleared, he coughed up the ensuing kickoff. Sanders yanked a 54-yard try short and left, so it was 10-3 at halftime, a margin that felt much wider.

After the break, New York went 80 yards in five plays and Hall bounced in from 4 yards out for a 17-3 cushion. Sanders added kicks of 51 and 52 yards. Cam Ward's 11-yard touchdown pass to Elic Ayomanor with 2:42 left was pure garnish.

Breece Hall Brought the Hammer, Geno Smith Brought the Calm

Hall was the engine: 22 carries, 102 yards, a touchdown and two catches for 16 more. His longest run went just 13 yards, which is the point: he cashed the same small check over and over until the defense stopped arguing. The Jets ran it 39 times. Tennessee ran it 14.

Geno Smith, back with the franchise that drafted him in 2013 after being acquired from Las Vegas in March, ran Frank Reich's offense like a veteran allergic to drama. He went 19 of 24 for 215 yards, threw no interceptions, wasn't sacked once and posted a 104.0 passer rating. Garrett Wilson caught six of seven targets for 79 yards.

"We started fast, and obviously we kept our foot on the gas and just tried to stay even-keeled throughout," Smith said.

The defense, with Aaron Glenn calling it himself this season, had its own breakout cast. Free-agent addition Demario Davis led the team with eight tackles. Rookie edge rusher David Bailey, the No. 2 overall pick, got home for a sack in his debut, and fellow newcomer Kingsley Enagbare added another as the Jets dropped Ward three times.

And don't sleep on Sanders, elevated from the practice squad after Glenn deactivated Blake Grupe. Three field goals, 11 points, zero panic. For once, the Jets got the happy kicker plot twist.

The 12-Minute Drive That Broke Tennessee

You could argue for Hall's touchdown or the Dike fumble, but the real dagger was that 19-play monster. It turned a 7-3 game into an endurance test Tennessee never trained for. The Jets ran 63 plays to Tennessee's 49 and owned the ball for nearly 39 minutes. When a defense lives on the field that long, the fourth quarter stops being a quarter and starts being a sentence.

Saleh, who called Tennessee's defensive plays on Sunday after not handling that job as the Jets' head coach, kept his review short.

"They got after us," Saleh said.

Numbers That Tell the Story

• 38:46 to 21:14: New York's time-of-possession edge.
• 367 to 195: Total yards, a 172-yard gap.
• 0 and 3: Sacks allowed by the Jets and sacks made by the Jets.
• 2 for 2: The Jets on fourth down, which matters when you go 2 for 12 on third down and still win by 13.
• 3.6: Tennessee's net yards per pass attempt.

Glenn Gets a Breather, Saleh Gets a Reality Check

Nobody should be printing playoff tickets, and Glenn would be the first to tell you.

"We’re happy to get a win. It’s only one game," Glenn said.

He has earned that caution. His first Jets team opened last season with seven straight losses and finished on a five-game skid. Both franchises went 3-14 a year ago, and the Jets still own the longest playoff drought in the four major North American men's sports leagues.

But the shape of this win matters. It was the Jets' first season-opening victory since 2023, and it looked like a plan instead of an accident: run the ball, protect the quarterback, own the clock, hunt the passer. The bill: safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (groin) and rookie receiver Omar Cooper Jr. (ankle) got hurt in the first quarter and never returned, though Glenn said he wasn't too worried.

For Tennessee, this one stings. The Titans were the league's biggest spenders in free agency in March and hired Saleh to end a run of four straight losing seasons. Week 1 delivered 68 rushing yards, three sacks allowed and a kickoff fumble.

"I’m very disappointed," Ward said. "We’re better than what we showed."

They'll need to prove it fast, with Philadelphia visiting on Sept. 20, the same day the Jets host Green Bay in their home opener.

Checks Written, Checks Cashed

Hall supplied the trash-talk epilogue.

"A little birdie told us that they wrote some checks they couldn’t cash today," Hall said.

For years, the Jets have been the team on the wrong end of that sentence. On Sunday in Nashville, they were holding the receipts. Saleh got his reunion. The Jets got the win. And for one week, a fan base that has earned a little joy got to feel like the main character.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press.