For the first time this season, New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields stood at the podium to speak to reporters after a win on Sunday.
The Jets pulled off a miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals, 39-38, to finally secure their first win of the 2025 campaign. They were the only remaining NFL without a win this year.
While Breece Hall’s two touchdown runs played a vital role in the victory, Fields’ efforts to keep the Jets in the game were paramount in getting the win.
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Jets fans and even the team’s owner have criticized Fields all season. In fact, there was no certainty Fields would even be starting on the road at Paycor Stadium on Sunday, as head coach Aaron Glenn kept his decision close to his chest until Saturday came around.
Following his redemption game, Fields revealed that the criticism and pressure to perform truly got to him this week.
"I’m going to get pretty vulnerable right here," Fields told reporters, via Yahoo Sports. "This week, I found myself in my closet crying on the ground, lying down. Not because of the hardships, not because of the troubles. I felt like I was built to handle that… Yesterday, I was just praying over and over and over again, just one win."
Jets owner Woody Johnson publicly criticized his quarterback’s play during the NFL’s annual fall meeting.
"It’s hard when you have a quarterback with the rating that we’ve got," Johnson said to a scrum of reporters. "He has the ability, but something is not jiving. If you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you are going to see similar results across the league."
Fields obviously heard what his employer had to say, though he referred to it as "outside noise at the end of the day."
"I get that he’s the owner of the team, but that’s outside noise," he continued. "The biggest thing was my teammates believing in me and my coaches still believing in me."
While Fields got his first win as a Jets player, Glenn has been waiting for this feeling for seven weeks. The coach didn’t hold anything back either, recognizing the Jets had the Bengals’ defense on its heels and continued to go for two-point conversions on back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
Without both being successful, perhaps we’re still talking about a winless Jets team on Monday.
But that’s not the case. Instead, the Jets have "Victory Monday," and hope to build off their win as they head into their bye week. They will be back out on the field Nov. 9 at home against the Cleveland Browns, another struggling team.
"It’s been a lot for me emotionally, spiritually," Fields said. "When I was on the field, I was damn near about to start crying, not because we won but because of the goodness of God. Everything I’ve been through this past week, everything that we’ve been through as a team these past seven weeks, it was a lot of ups and downs, and I got a lot of support from my teammates, from my brothers, from my family, from my friends, and most of all I’m just thankful. Yesterday, I started praying, praying like crazy, just for a win."
Fields went 21-of-32 for 244 yards with one touchdown pass to receiver Tyler Johnson before the end of the first half. Hall added 133 rushing yards on 18 carries with his two scores, while also throwing a touchdown to rookie tight end Mason Taylor.
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