San Francisco 49ers spoil Aaron Rodgers’ return to NFL action with dominant win over New York Jets

By Ben Morse, CNN

(CNN) — The San Francisco 49ers put in a dominant showing to beat the New York Jets 32-19 on Monday, spoiling Aaron Rodgers’ return to NFL action.

San Francisco running back Jordan Mason was the star of the show, getting the start in the absence of Christian McCaffrey, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year who was out with a calf injury.

Mason enjoyed a career performance, totaling 147 rushing yards on 28 carries, including a five-yard touchdown at the start of the second half. Niners kicker Jake Moody also added six field goals.

After the game, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy heralded Mason’s impact in the Week 1 victory.

“So obviously,” Purdy told reporters, “Christian [McCaffrey] is the best in the league at running back and what he does, I’m not taking anything away from that, but I think JP did a good job of coming in and filling his void and doing his job to allow other guys to get open and allow us to run our offense.”

The game was Rodgers’ return to the NFL having missed most of last year after suffering a torn Achilles on the fourth snap of the Jets’ 2023 season opener.

The fourth snap of this year’s campaign had ominous tones too for New York when the team’s running back Breece Hall had the ball punched out of his hands by Niners linebacker Fred Warner, with the resulting fumble recovered by San Francisco.

Despite the poor start, Rodgers soon showed why the Jets traded for him ahead of last season. Near the end of the first quarter, the 40-year-old was vital in orchestrating a 14-play, 70-yard drive, culminating with a three-yard Hall touchdown run.

However, the Jets offense then struggled to produce much until late in the third by which point San Francisco had built up a comfortable lead. Per the NFL, the Jets only had 21:20 minutes of possession, the lowest mark of Rodgers’ career.

Rodgers – who threw 13-of-21 for 167 yards, a touchdown pass and an interception – reflected on his return to action by saying: “I can play better.”

“I missed a couple of throws, I missed the one to Garrett [Wilson] on the last drive I was in. The pick, I missed just slightly inside on that one,” the former Green Bay Packers quarterback said, per the Jets website. “I felt overall I was getting the ball out pretty good, but we had some opportunities that I’d like to have back.”

“We were just bad on first and second down for a lot of the game,” Rodgers said. “Then we had a couple of drives where we converted third downs. I felt like we didn’t have any third-and-10-plusses tonight. But we didn’t convert those third-and-mediums. We had a drop, a couple of penalties, bad throw. There’s a lot to correct.”

The 49ers totaled 401 yards on offense, even with McCaffrey missing as head coach Kyle Shanahan’s team got off to a promising start to the 2024 season after suffering heartbreak in February in a 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII.

It was a quiet night for 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who signed a big-money extension in the offseason, finishing with two catches for 28 yards, but it didn’t matter much on a night where a lot went right for San Francisco.

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