It's a simple equation for Breece Hall. After the Pittsburgh game he told newyorkjets.com's Caroline Hendershot the answer to the Jets' recent skid is "for everybody to look themselves in the mirror. And our playmakers need to make plays when plays need to be made."
Hall is one of the Jets who can help get the offense shift into overdrive. When he's hot, as he was Sunday night at Pittsburgh, the stats come flying off the shelf. For starters, his 6 catches for 103 yards make him the first Jets RB with 100 receiving yards in a game since ... well, since Hall, who went 2-100-0 in the home rout of Miami in 2022. Before that we have to go back to LaDainian Tomlinson, who had 5-116-1 in the loss at Oakland in 2011.
Add Hall's 38 rush yards to the mix and he had 141 scrimmage yards on the night. Not close to his four 190-YFS games from 2022-23, but it was the 11th 100-YFS game of his young career, the most by a Jet since WR Brandon Marshall had 12 in 2015-16, and the most by a Jets back since Chris Ivory had 11 from 2013-15.
Surpassing Freeman
We've noted a few times about Hall's pursuit of Freeman McNeil's distance records. McNeil, the third overall choice of the 1981 NFL Draft, was off to the races many times in his Ring of Honor career. From 1984-91, a span of eight seasons, he recorded 6 offensive touches of 50-plus yards, 4 of them on rushes and 2 on receptions.
Hall didn't waste any time approaching Freeman's franchise mark, tying it and then, vs. the Steelers, breaking it with his 57-yard catch-and-run to set up the Jets' second TD. It was his seventh 50-yarder (his third 50-yard reception to go with four 50s on the ground) in a career that's in its third season and is only 31 games old, not even 2 full seasons of action.
And these numbers don't include Hall's 42-yard dash with an Aaron Rodgers short lateral vs. the Bills on Monday night the week before.
Yakkity YAC
One more aspect of Hall in the passing game has been his ability to make people miss and get loads of yards after the catch. That's what he did against the Steelers, especially on his speeding, weaving 57-yard reception from Rodgers.
Unofficially, 55 of those yards came after the catch, which is the most YAC by a Jets back on one catch-and-run since Hall's 59 YAC yards on his 79-yard reception against the Dolphins in 2022. Before that we have to go back again to Tomlinson's 75 YAC on his 74-yard screen-pass TD vs. the Raiders in 2011.
For the game, again unofficially, Hall had minus-5 yards before the catch and 108 after the catch. That's the most YAC by any Jet regardless of position since perhaps RB Bilal Powell's top Jets receiving game when he went 8-91-1 with minus-21 yards YBC and 112 YAC in the 2015 OT road win over the Giants.
