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Heading into last night’s Monday Night Football matchup between the previously 8-3 Jacksonville Jaguars and 5-6 Cincinnati Bengals, the former were favored over the latter by nine points in the home matchup.
As we now know, not only did the Bengals cover, but they beat Jacksonville in their own backyard by a score of 34-31 in overtime, giving Cincy a much-needed win as they look to stay alive in the AFC playoff race.
The reason that the spread between the Jaguars and Bengals was so large was because Bengals backup QB Jake Browning was set to start in just his second NFL game in place of the injured Joe Burrow.
However, not only did Browning play well enough for the Bengals to remain competitive, but the 27-year-old signal caller was arguably the reason they won, completed 32 of 37 (86%) of his passes for 354 yards, one touchdown, and no turnovers. He also added another rushing touchdown.
During and after the game, the performance that Browning put forth against the Jags led to football world to focus on another AFC team, and that was the New York Jets, who clearly could’ve used a QB like him this year.
“The Jets go 13-4 with Jake Browning,” said fantasy football analyst JJ Zachariason.
“Jets should have traded for Jake Browning,” tweeted NFL Network’s Andrew Siciliano.
“Jake Browning was impressive tonight. How many teams — see Jets — wished they had a guy like that?” observed CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco.
Jets fans were predictably aware of Browing’s success last night, as one tweeted “Jets currently don’t have a healthy starter that’s better than Jake Browning — I want to cry,” while another put the failures on the coaching staff, saying “Jake Browning outperforming Zach Wilson is 100% a coaching/ personnel issue.”
For comparison, former #2 overall pick Zach Wilson has started in 31 NFL games and has passed for more than 300 yards just twice. Browning did it in his second start against one of the elite teams in the NFL.
As a forlorn Jets fan myself, it only took about two-and-a-half quarters of watching Jake Browning play football to realize he’s already better than any quarterback to complete a pass for the Jets this season.