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Brett Rypien, Broncos survive Jets to grab first win of the season

It wasn’t pretty by any means.

In fact, it was incredibly sloppy all around.

But when it was all said and done on Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, the Denver Broncos had picked up their first win of the season.

The Broncos, behind quarterback Brett Rypien, held on to grab a 37-28 win over the New York Jets.

Rypien nearly fell apart in fourth quarter

Rypien was having a decent day through three quarters.

The 24-year-old, who was making his first career start, had thrown for nearly 200 yards and had a pair of touchdowns to give Denver a solid eight-point lead headed into the final quarter — which they quickly pushed to 11 after a 54-yard field goal.

That, however, is when he fell apart.

Rypien threw a brutal interception into triple coverage — his intended receiver was nowhere to be found — that Pierre Desir easily ran back for a touchdown.

The pick marked Desir’s second of the night, following an impressive sideline grab in the first half.

Rypien threw another interception just four plays later, too, after he severely underthrew a pass intended for tight end Nick Vannett — which set up a 36-yard field goal to give the Jets a one-point lead.

In the end, though, the Broncos defense bailed him out.

After mounting a solid nine-play, 35-yard drive, Denver kicker Brandon McManus gave them the lead again after drilling a 53-yard field goal. The Broncos then stalled the Jets’ drive — and nearly picked Sam Darnold off — before coming up with a sack on fourth down to regain possession.

Rypien then handed the ball off to running back Melvin Gordon and came up with a massive block down field on the outside to pave the way for Gordon’s 43-yard touchdown, which sealed the nine-point win.

“It was a battle. I think that it’s kind of my first introduction to like, wow, this is what the NFL is like every week,” Rypien said, via ABC7’s Troy Renck. “It’s a battle to get wins out here. We had to fight for everything we got. It didn’t go right at times — a lot of things went wrong. I turned the ball over. Thankfully we were able to come out with a win.”

Rypien finished the day throwing 19-of-31 for 242 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s the first quarterback to win in his first start in the league while throwing three interceptions since 1997. Gordon finished with 107 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.

Jets quarterback Sam Darnold — who mounted an impressive 46-yard touchdown run in the first quarter — finished 23-of-42 for 230 yards through the air while picking up another 84 on the ground.

Is Adam Gase going to be fired?

Probably. But that won’t happen on Friday morning.

Despite sitting on perhaps the hottest seat in the league, Gase did not need a win in order to keep his job, the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported on Thursday morning. Doing so, sources told him, would be both “counterproductive in general” and “potentially damaging” to Darnold.

While minds can obviously change, and another brutal loss doesn’t help any, it sounds like Gase has at least one more week to redeem himself.

Brett Rypien of the Denver Broncos
Brett Rypien and the Denver Broncos have picked up their first win of the year. (Elsa/Getty Images)

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