The Jets get to make a rare replay Sunday at MetLife Stadium when they play host to the Cincinnati Bengals, just one season after they jolted the football world with their 34-31 win over the Bengals at MetLife in Game 7 of the 2021 season.
What does head coach Robert Saleh take away from that win less than a calendar year later.
"We were coming off that beatdown from New England, I remember that," Saleh said. "And I thought our guys had just showed resolve in the way they answered the bell, especially against a hot team. Cincinnati's extremely talented and it was a fun game. The guys fought for 60 minutes and it was a memorable game, but obviously a game that's in the past."
That game is history, true enough, yet the Jets received that lesson, then another one last Sunday when they were two minutes away from 0-2 before the rarest of rallies to their 31-30 win at Cleveland: If your team can put together four full, complete quarters of football, anything is possible.
Even against the Bengals, who are 0-2 but remain dangerous, especially on offense and especially because they don't want to slip to 0-3 for the third time since 2017 (they were also 0-2-1 in 2020) and return to the '21 form that guided them to a 10-7 regular season and the AFC North title and all the way to Super Bowl LVI.
"They're explosive," Saleh said, adding that compared to last season, "They're every bit as good. They've just gotten off to two unlucky starts, but they're every bit the AFC champions that we saw a year ago."
See the players arriving at MetLife Stadium for the Jets-Bengals game.
The Jets can be explosive, too, and if they do erupt again, it will be without QB Zach Wilson, who will be inactive for the third straight game as he gets his right knee back to full health. Saleh will reveal in the coming days whether Wilson will be cleared to return to full practices and then take the ball from Joe Flacco for the Week 4 start at Pittsburgh.
All six of the players who were listed as questionable for this game due to injuries are active and ready to roll, including former Bengals TE C.J. Uzomah, WR Corey Davis, T George Fant, D-linemen Quinnen Williams and John Franklin-Myers, and S Jordan Whitehead.
This is the Jets' five-player inactive list:
- QB Zach Wilson
- WR Denzel Mims
- DL Bryce Huff
- CB Bryce Hall
- TE Lawrence Cager
And this is Cincinnati's six-man inactive list, with Pratt a starter in both the Bengals' base and nickel packages:
- RB Trayveon Williams
- LB Germaine Pratt
- T D'Ante Smith
- G Jackson Carman
- TE Drew Sample
- DT Jay Tufele
