Braelon Allen scored the game-winning touchdown on a third-and-9 run from the Cleveland 22-yard line late in the fourth quarter, lifting the Jets to a 17-12 win over the Browns at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
Allen said he didn’t expect the call. The Jets trailed by two with the ball at the Browns’ 22 when head coach Frank Reich sent him into the backfield on third down. Allen broke a tackle and ran it in.
“Honestly, I was just really hype,” Allen said. “During the play, once I broke past first level, I knew it was over.”
The score capped a career day for Allen, who finished with 116 yards on 24 carries — the most by a Jets running back in a single game since Breece Hall ran for 133 yards in Week 8 of last year. It was the first 100-yard rushing game of Allen’s career, and his touchdown marked the Jets’ longest rushing score on third down since Bilal Powell in 2017, according to Stats Perform.
Allen had already topped his previous career-high of 59 rushing yards, set last week against the Bears, well before his fourth-quarter touchdown. He pulled three Browns defenders along with him for a first down on the Jets’ opening drive, which ended in a touchdown, and closed the first quarter with back-to-back runs of 8 and 17 yards.
With Hall sidelined by injury, Allen got the chance to carry the load as lead back. He missed most of last season after a four-game 2025 campaign ended with a season-ending MCL injury, following a rookie year in 2024 that showed flashes of his potential.
Teammate Garrett Wilson said the Jets see that kind of running from Allen in practice all the time, but Sunday was different.
“All of a sudden, defenders start taking creative angles,” Wilson said. “They start running next to him. They acting like they’re trying to catch him. They don’t want to touch him.”
Wilson added that the team sees this version of Allen regularly in practice, but “on Sunday, it holds a little more weight.”
The day wasn’t flawless — Allen lost a fumble that the Jets recovered and had a drop near the sideline. But he also showed the physical running style that’s defined his game, including an 18-yard gain on third-and-4 in the third quarter after bouncing outside a wall of Browns defenders.
“It was good, man,” Allen said. “It was fun. [Sunday] was the perfect day to go out there, run the football, so it’s a lot of fun when you can do it well — especially knowing that everybody knows you’re gonna do it.”
