Jets Q&A: Who led the team in touches and scrimmage yards?
Jets running back Zonovan Knight stiff-arms Bears safety Elijah Hicks as he heads upfield during the second half at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Lee S. Weissman/Lee S. Weissman
You guessed it, Zonovan “Bam” Knight. In his NFL debut, the undrafted rookie had 17 touches for 103 yards on Sunday.
Knight carried the ball 14 times for a team-high 69 yards and had three catches for 34 yards.
It was Saturday when Knight found out “for sure” that he was going to be active. His number was called more often than he expected because the Jets lost Michael Carter to an ankle injury in the first half.
“I didn’t know he was out,” Knight said. “I was wondering why I kept going back out there. Everything happens for a reason, so I’m glad I was able to make the most of those opportunities.”
That was a surprise all the way around. Robert Saleh felt the Jets weren’t getting enough from the running game lately. He likes Knight’s “style of running” and said Robinson, who was acquired from Jacksonville last month, is still learning the system.
“Over the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of meat on the bone in the run game,” Saleh said. “We felt like if we could just get vertical and get rolling . . . with James, he’s still working our system. There’s still things that he’s getting comfortable with, so no one has seen the last of him.
“I thought this would be an opportunity to get a change of pace with Bam, who gets vertical pretty quick.”
Saleh said he doesn’t know the severity of the ankle injury. He said it’s a sprain but not “what type of sprain.”
If it’s a high ankle sprain, Carter will miss multiple weeks.
He will be further evaluated on Monday.
Once they knew Justin Fields (shoulder) was out, it didn’t matter to them whether Trevor Siemian or Nathan Peterman started.
There actually was some confusion pregame because about 45 minutes before kickoff, Siemian hurt his oblique in warm-ups. Peterman was expected to start, but Siemian wound up starting and finished the game.
“We were preparing for Fields,” Saleh said. “The only difference between Fields and the other two kids is the quarterback run game. All of the pregame stuff, nothing changed.
“It didn’t matter once Fields was out — we were playing a completely different game.’’
Very comfortable. He completed 78.6% of his passes.
“Growing up in Florida, we get rain pretty much every day,” White said.
Elijah Moore, another Florida native, said, “We’re used to that . . . We actually, like, wet the ball on purpose to prepare ourselves for scenarios just as such.”
Some didn’t know it was the first time. Others did and said it was nice to give the defense a lead for a change.
“Once we did, it felt like something off our chest,” Garrett Wilson said. “Just go out there and play and not have the pressure on the defense to go out and get that stop like it has the rest of the season.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
