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Eric Edholm’s takeaways:

1. Jets will take ugly road win. It wasn’t pretty, but the Jets rebounded to earn their first victory of the season, using an opportunistic defense and special teams to fuel the win while the offense remains too inconsistent. Penalties on defense were an early problem, with five alone in the first 17-plus minutes of the game. The biggest was a (questionable) roughing-the-passer call against Jermaine Johnson II, which wiped out a Jets stop and led to a Titans touchdown. They appeared ready to take a two-score lead before Will Levis made a bone-headed lateral amid heavy pressure. The Jets got after Levis all game, sacking him four times and pressuring him on a whopping 60% of his dropbacks. They lost linebacker C.J. Mosley (toe) mid-game and let Levis slip out of a few more would-be sacks late, keeping the game alive. But they took the lead after a huge blocked punt from the Jets’ Irvin Charles, helping steal back momentum in the third quarter, giving the Jets just enough cushion at the end.
2. Levis makes some plays but has to avoid the bad ones. On the surface, there were things to like about Levis’ Week 2 game, coming off the disastrous fourth quarter in the loss at Chicago. Levis completed 19 of 28 passes for 192 and threw a highlight-reel pass to Calvin Ridley, who split the Jets’ Chuck Clark and Sauce Gardner to make a circus catch. Levis also had some nice plays with his legs late, showing where his improvisational skill can come in handy. But in a two-play stretch in the first half, Levis made the types of head-scratching plays he did late against the Bears, which is stunting his development in a critical Year 2. The Titans were poised to take a two-score lead with the ball at the Jets’ 6-yard line, but he opted to try to lateral the ball under heavy pressure, which led to a Jets recovery and Titans coach Brian Callahan losing his mind on Levis. On Levis’ next offensive rep, he fired a very questionable pass into two defenders – on first-and-10 with a 7-0 lead. Too much! When Levis let the game come to him more, he looked OK. And it’s not as if he can’t be a playmaker, but Levis is still learning that fine line between risk and reward in tight games.
3. Jets might have something with Allen. While Aaron Rodgers and the Jets’ passing game remains in preheat mode, the ground game kept them afloat Sunday. We expect it from Breece Hall, one of the best backs in the NFL who took over in the third quarter with a 30-yard run and a beautiful 26-yard catch on a wheel route for a touchdown. But give a hat tip to fourth-round running back Braelon Allen, who might have carved out a complementary role in the backfield with his two-TD performance Sunday. He caught a short TD pass on a pretty design that caught the Titans off guard, with Allen blasting into the end zone for his first NFL score. He earned his second score – the game-winner – by using his speed to get to the edge on a 20-yard sprint. Hall and Allen averaged 4.5 yards per rush (even while being hit several times in the backfield) and earned 12 of Rodgers’ 30 pass attempts, combining for nine catches for 75 more yards and the two scores. Rodgers was effective when he got rid of the ball quickly, but the pass game isn’t there yet. Expect the Jets to expand what their two top backs do going forward until they can get that passing rhythm down. 

Next Gen stat of the game: Titans WR Calvin Ridley hauled in four receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown against the Jets, with three of those receptions coming against Sauce Gardner for 71 yards and a touchdown. Gardner allowed five receptions for 97 yards and a touchdown when targeted, his most yards allowed as the nearest defender in a game in his career.

NFL Research: Jets RB Braelon Allen (20 years, 239 days of age) is the youngest player to score a touchdown in the NFL since Arnie Herber – who was also 20 years, 239 days of age – caught a 15-yard TD in 1930 against the Frankford Yellowjackets.