Canal Street Chronicles
Monday Night Football kicks off for 2024.
The wait is finally over. The first Monday Night Football game of the season is here, and it featured the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets with some star-studded talent on both sides of the ball like, Aaron Rodgers, Garret Wilson, Sauce Gardner, Brandon Aiyuk and Fred Warner. Although one main star was missing... Christian McCaffrey. He was ruled out of this game about an hour before kickoff due to a lingering calf injury. Coming into this game, McCaffrey said earlier this week that he was playing but was ultimately ruled out. This was also Aaron Rodgers’ first full game as a Jet. It started off a little rocky with a fumble by Breece Hall on Aaron Rodgers’ first completion and a dropped ball on third down by Aaron Rodgers’ former Packers teammate, Aaron Lazard. The Jets ended up settling in after that and went on a 12 play 75-yard drive, capped off by a rushing touchdown from Breece Hall. The 49ers answered back, later on in the second quarter, with a 12 play 67-yard drive ending in a Deebo Samuel Jr. touchdown. The second half scoring ended with a 49ers field goal giving them a 16-7 lead going into halftime.
The second half starts, and the 49ers wasted no time getting back on the board with an 11 play 70-yard touchdown drive ending with a Jordan Mason scoring touchdown. The game looked like it was slowly starting to slip away from the Jets after an Aaron Rodgers interception led to a 49ers field goal to extend their lead to 7-26. The Jets and Aaron however responded with a touchdown after the interception to cut the lead to 13-26. The game was pretty much over after that touchdown though as the 49ers kicked two field goals to cap off the night with a 32-13 victory over the Jets.
The running game by the 49ers was the key to victory as running back Jordan Mason ran 28 times for 152 yards and a touchdown. He was the star of the game for me, tough run after tough run, doing this in your first NFL start is nothing short of special. Brock Purdy was solid in this game as well his stat line was 19 of 29 for 231 yards, no touchdowns but no turnovers which is always the key when you're the quarterback. On the Jets side of things outside of the two scoring drives everything else just looked difficult for their offense. The Jets defense, which had been their strength for the past couple of years continued to get gashed on the ground and through the air. It’s going to be difficult to win games when you let the opposing team have 401 yards of total offense, especially without their best playmaker.
