The Jets managed just 68 rushing yards on 19 carries and three rushing first downs in Monday night’s loss to the 49ers, but Jets coach Robert Saleh believes that says less about his own offense than it says about the 49ers’ defense.
Specifically, Saleh said 49ers linebacker Fred Warner was such a dominant force against the run that he deserves most of the credit for what the Jets failed to do. Saleh was the 49ers’ defensive coordinator for the first three years of Warner’s career, and Monday night was Saleh’s first time coaching against Warner.
“Fred is, I’ll go ahead and say it, the guy is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I don’t know if a lot of people recognize that, but he is,” Saleh said. “At times during the game it felt like there were three of him out there, the way he was running around. It was a different feeling being on the opposite sideline for the first time ever in his career to watch it. He did a lot of things. There were a couple of plays that are touchdowns versus 25 other teams, and he came out of nowhere to save it. So, credit to him, he’s an unbelievable football player, but our run game was damn close, just like the passing game was close. But obviously we didn’t get the opportunities we wanted.”
On Sunday, Saleh’s Jets take on the Titans, and Saleh will hope that his running offense looks better against a defense that doesn’t have Fred Warner.