Oakland Raiders vs. New York Jets: Twitter Reaction and Full Postgame Quotes

The New York Jets put a quick end to CarrMania, taking down the Oakland Raiders, 19-14, on Sunday. The scoreboard indicates a close affair, but in truth, the Jets were in control of this game from start to finish—their own untimely mistakes kept the Raiders within striking distance. 

The game was not particularly well-played on either side. The Raiders posted just 158 yards of total offense (with a good portion of that total coming at the end of the fourth quarter). Rex Ryan's squad helped keep the game close with 11 penalties.

If there was ever a play to symbolize this game, this would be it:

Bleacher Report

As Coach Ryan told ESPN's Rich Cimini, he knew this game should have never been as tight as it was for so long:

Giving up 11 penalties is never a positive thing, but the fact that the Jets were able to win the game so easily while making so many mistakes says as much about their improvements as it does about their shortcomings. If the 2013 Jets gave up that many penalties in a game, it almost certainly would have resulted in a loss. 

While Ryan was critical of his team's miscues, the Jets gave their coach plenty of reason to be excited.

Not only did his scrutinized defense only allow 158 yards of offense, but his running game and quarterback did more than enough to win the game. Even more importantly, his team already has a win under its belt as it heads into the most difficult stretch of the schedule. 

The tandem of Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson outproduced the entire Raiders offense, posting 170 combined yards, including a 71-yard touchdown gallop from Ivory. Ivory and Johnson averaged 10.2 and 5.2 yards per carry, respectively.

Ryan used this opportunity to take a jab at Austin Howard, a former Jet, who predicted the Raiders to have a bit more success in the trenches than they did, as Ryan (sarcastically) told Darryl Slater of NJ.com:

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“We knew, the Raiders, they were going to come in here and push us around..That’s what was told. They certainly did that–to the tune of 25 yards rushing...I mean, we knew they’re big, bad dudes, man. Obviously.”

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Defensive end Sheldon Richardson, who was also not amused by Howard's comments, threw a not-so-subtle shot back in Howard's direction.

Most importantly, quarterback Geno Smith continued to show development in his first regular-season outing of the year. He only missed on five of his passes, going 23-of-28, including a touchdown. His lone interception came on an outstanding veteran (and athletic) play by safety Charles Woodson.

It is hardly a coincidence that Smith played as well as the running game produced. As Ryan noted, Smith was able to be so efficient because he was given a ton of room and time to maneuver in the pocket. The MVP of the game was the entire offensive line, which created big holes for Ivory to run through while giving Smith the time and space he needed to make relatively easy throws.  

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Even Brian Winters, who was in danger of losing his job in the offseason after a disappointing rookie campaign, played exceptionally well. He and the rest of the Jets line paved the way for massive running lanes that Johnson and Ivory took advantage of. 

As good as Smith's numbers were, he did have flashes of rookie-esque ineptitude on a handful of miscues. Smith's refusal to give in to inevitable sacks resulted in some disastrous losses. The two sacks he succumbed to resulted in a combined loss of 31 yards—on one occasion, he took the Jets out of field-goal range because of his refusal to admit the play was a lost cause. He lost a fumble as well. 

An inferior team like the Raiders allows Smith to make these mistakes without pay a dear price for them, but he will need to clean up the finer details of his game if the Jets are going to beat the upcoming heavyweights on their schedule.

Defensively, this game was a vintage performance from a Rex Ryan defense, which is exactly what one would expect against a rookie quarterback who was making his regular-season debut. Carr did manage to complete 20 of 32 passes, but most of them were checkdowns and shorter passes, as evidenced by his 4.7 yards-per-pass average.

Ed Mulholland/Getty Images

While they were playing against a rookie quarterback, the Jets' highly scrutinized secondary was up to the task. Outside of a spectacular catch from James Jones in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, the Jets did not give up a play over 17 yards. The Raiders' top receiver, Rod Streater, was held to 46 yards on five catches. 

The Jets secondary was certainly aware of the magnified attention it was going to get, but Darrin Walls did not let any outside talk affect his game:

Predictably, the run defense was nothing short of dominant. The Raiders amassed just 24 yards on the ground and coughed up two fumbles—a point of emphasis for the Jets this year after struggling to create turnovers in 2013. 

On the surface, it is easy to make the simple claim that the Jets merely found a way to beat a downtrodden Raiders team at home. While beating the Raiders has not been a particularly impressive feat for more than a decade, the Jets were clearly a dominant team—giving their fans hope that the best is still to come. 

The Jets won't be able to get away with mistake-ridden performances against teams like the Green Bay Packers or Denver Broncos. As Calvin Pace tells Kimberly Martin of Newsday, the Jets know that they won't be lining up against the likes of Derek Carr on a weekly basis:

But they did show that they are a class above the bottom-feeders—something that could not be said about them with any kind of confidence at this point last year.

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