CNN
—
The San Francisco 49ers put on a dominant performance, beating the New York Jets 32-19 on Monday, spoiling Aaron Rodgers’ return to the NFL.
The star of the game was San Francisco running back Jordan Mason, who started in the absence of Christian McCaffrey, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year, who was sidelined with a calf injury.
Mason had a career-high performance, totaling 147 rushing yards on 28 carries, including a five-yard touchdown early in the second half. Niners kicker Jake Moody also made six field goals.
After the game, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy praised Mason’s contribution to the Week 1 win.
“So it’s obvious,” Purdy told reporters, “that Christian (McCaffrey) is the best running back in the league and what he does, I don’t want to diminish, but I think JP did a good job of stepping in and filling his void and doing his job to give other guys space and allow us to play our offense.”
The game marked Rodgers’ return to the NFL after missing most of last year with a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth snap of the Jets’ 2023 season opener.
The fourth snap of this season also had a grim picture for New York: Niners linebacker Fred Warner knocked the ball out of the hands of the team’s running back, Breece Hall, and San Francisco was able to recover the resulting fumble.
Despite the poor start, Rodgers soon showed why the Jets signed him before last season. Late in the first quarter, the 40-year-old was instrumental in orchestrating a 14-play, 70-yard run that ended with a three-yard touchdown run by Hall.
The Jets’ offense, however, was unable to get much done until the end of the third quarter, when San Francisco had a comfortable lead. According to the NFL, the Jets had only 21:20 minutes of possession, the lowest number in Rodgers’ career.
Rodgers, who completed 13 of 21 passes for 167 yards, one touchdown pass and one interception, reflected on his return to action by saying, “I can play better.”
“I missed a couple of throws, the one to Garrett (Wilson) on my last drive. I missed the pick by a little bit,” the former Green Bay Packers quarterback said, according to the Jets website. “I felt like I got the ball out pretty well overall, but we had some opportunities that I would like to have again.”
“We were just bad on first and second down for most of the game,” Rodgers said. “Then we had a couple of drives where we converted third downs. I felt like we didn’t have any third-and-10-plus attempts tonight. But we didn’t convert those third-and-medium attempts. We had a drop, a couple of penalties, a bad throw. There’s a lot to correct there.”
The 49ers totaled 401 yards on offense despite missing McCaffrey, giving head coach Kyle Shanahan’s team a promising start to the 2024 season after suffering a 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in February.
It was a quiet night for 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who signed a pricey contract extension in the offseason and finished with two catches for 28 yards, but that didn’t matter much on a night when a lot of things went right for San Francisco.
