The New York Jets were supposed to take a big step out of the doldrums of recent years in 2022, but it didn't work out that way in the regular-season opener against the Ravens.
Gang Green's offense sputtered in Week 1 behind veteran signal-caller Joe Flacco, who logged a whopping 59 pass attempts in the lopsided loss to his former team.
Among those taking note of the anemic offensive performance was Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, who took a pot shot at the Jets during Monday Night Football on ESPN's "Manningcast" with brother Eli.
Peyton jokingly predicted that the Seahawks would throw the ball 70 times on Monday, then riffed on the Jets' passing woes:
"The Jets threw it 59 times, and that worked out well for them. They looked good."
“Wow, shots fired early,” Eli responded.
“You can’t throw it 59 times in the opener,” Peyton continued. “You can’t throw it 59 times in the opener, you can’t do it.”
“With your backup quarterback?" Eli said. "It’s illegal?”
“Guaranteed you’re not going to win,” Peyton added.
While Peyton's burn prompted some yucks on social media, it likely wouldn't sit well with Jets head coach Robert Saleh, who declared on Monday that he was "taking receipts" on journalists and media figures who continue to mock the Jets.
In any event, while Peyton's crack seemed harmless enough, he and the Jets actually share a bit of a history. Gang Green dealt Manning a pair of stinging playoff defeats during his time with the Colts, including a 41-0 drubbing in 2003 and a crushing loss in what turned out to be his final game with Indianapolis in 2011.
Manning later got his "revenge," though, when he reportedly vouched on behalf of Adam Gase, who worked with Manning in Denver, during the team's head-coaching search following the 2018 season.
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