Jets' Ty Johnson Isn't Satisfied After 'Surreal' Career Game
As the Jets broke out of their huddle in the fourth quarter on Sunday, set up on the Raiders' one yard line, wide receiver Breshad Perriman turned to running back Ty Johnson and said the following five words.
"Congrats on your first touchdown."
Johnson smiled.
A few seconds later, after taking a handoff from quarterback Sam Darnold in the shotgun, Johnson powered into the end zone up the gut for the first touchdown of his NFL career.
"I didn't believe I actually scored," Johnson told reporters on Wednesday in a Zoom call. "It was just really wild. I was like 'damn, I just scored!'"
Johnson's career game against the Raiders featured far more than just his first trip to paydirt. The second-year running back shattered his previous career-high numbers, rushing for 104 yards on 22 carries.
Before Sunday, Johnson had 14 touches in the entire season. The last time the running back had five-plus carries in a single game was over a year ago.
On Oct. 2, the Maryland product was picked up by the Jets for some depth at the running back position one day after he was released by the Detroit Lions, the team that drafted Johnson in the sixth round in 2019.
With rookie La'Mical Perine out on injured reserve, Johnson has had his number called far more often over the previous two weeks heading into Week 13. Then, when starting running back Frank Gore went out with a concussion on just the second play of the game on Sunday, Johnson knew it was his time to shine.
"It was a great moment. It meant a lot to me, meant a lot to my family," he said. "It's been a long two years and it was just a blessing. Obviously, you hate to see a player go out to get an opportunity to go [into the game] but at the end of the day, coaches gave me an opportunity to go in there and play and that's what I was going to do. I wanted to play and just have fun."
It wasn't just a momentous occasion for Johnson. A Jets running back, within his first 25 career games, hadn't gone for 100-plus rushing yards since Bilal Powell did it back in 2013. Johnson was also part of a rushing attack that eclipsed 200 total yards against Las Vegas, the most New York has had on the ground in a single game all season.
Johnson recognized that while his numbers were certainly memorable, validation of his hard work leading up to this point of his career, this is only the beginning. He called his high school coach after the game and was reminded that one good game is no excuse to stop working at his craft.
"There's a lot of things I still got to work on," he explained. "So it's just [time to] keep working. Really that's it. Stay level headed, take everything as it comes and just work, man. That's all comes down to."
Gore was limited in practice to start Week 14 on Wednesday as he recuperates from last weekend's concussion. While Gase expects the future Hall of Famer still to play on Sunday in Seattle, Johnson is poised to build on his breakout game with another solid performance.
Whether he sets a new career-high or settles back into his usual role for the rest of the season, Johnson made it clear what matters most. Until this Jets team can find a way to get into the win column, he won't be satisfied.
"This is football we get to play a kids game for money," Johnson said. "The yards, the touchdown, it was all great and all, but the icing on top would have been having the win and that's what I'm worried about is the win."
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