Wilson Ditches Boring For Explosive To Lead Jets To First Win
Who wants to be boring anyway?
The Jets prized rookie quarterback Zach Wilson, who came into Sunday’s home tilt versus Tennessee humbled by his league-high seven interceptions in three games, was supposedly being coached to cool his… you know what’s. As in, maybe don’t always go for the high-risk big play when the checkdown is available.
That’s because two weeks ago in New York’s home opener against New England, Wilson almost literally threw the game, tossing four interceptions, all of which travelled over 10 yards in the air, according to ProFootballFocus.com. In the press room following the 25-6 defeat, Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh made his now well-known “it’s ok to be boring” plea to Wilson.
Well, Wilson played a fairly safe game the following week in Denver, with both his interceptions occurring well after it was in doubt, but it did no good as the Jets were thrashed, 26-0 to fall into an 0-3 spiral. Great, the team was now awful AND boring.
Boring certainly has its time and place in NFL games, but don’t dismiss the importance of executing explosive plays. They can erase a lot of what went wrong in other areas. Exhibit A: Wilson and the Jets made just enough of those chunk plays to outlast an injury-depleted Titans squad, 27-24, in overtime on Sunday.
Hallelujah, the Jets won’t be winless this season after all.
It's not a stretch to state that this game was Gang Green’s best overall performance of the young season, considering the prior sample. It happened to mark the first time the Jets had a lead in any game, or even possessed the ball when not down by multiple scores after halftime.
Still, Sunday’s list of “quintessential Jets” moments was quite voluminous: a defense that couldn’t get that one big stop at the end of regulation (including a fourth-down pass interference penalty on safety Jarrod Wilson that would have iced the game) and allowed a pair of third-and-20-plus yard conversions against a team that was down two All Pro receivers in Julio Jones and A.J. Brown and seemingly had offensive linemen limp off the field every half hour; an anemic first-half offense that featured Wilson’s eighth interception of the season and several more drops by Jets receivers; and Wilson’s inexplicable decision in overtime to attempt to run the ball into the end zone instead of throwing it away, thereby turning a third-and-goal from the one into a fourth-and-goal from the five. The Jets were fortunate that Titans kicker Randy Bullock, who was a perfect three-for-three on field goals to that point, choked on a potential game-tying 49-yarder on the game’s final snap.
The Titans dominated ball possession, won the turnover battle, and lost the game. The difference: those explosive connections on Wilson’s shots downfield.
It started when Wilson and former Titans receiver Corey Davis hooked up for a 30-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter to spark the Jets’ first touchdown drive since the latter stages of Week 1’s loss in Carolina. After Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur turned back the clock for a few possessions (more on that later in the week), Wilson went back to work late in the third quarter, rolling out to hit Keelan Cole with a 54-yard bomb to set up a Matt Ammendola field goal.
After Derrick Henry’s plunge put the Titans back up 17-10 in the fourth quarter, Wilson took the Jets 77 yards down the field in four plays to tie it up, highlighted by a 43-yard post-up to Davis that forced Titans cornerback Dan Cruikshank to commit a pass interference penalty and a busted-play-turned-29-yard-strike to Jamison Crowder after Wilson dropped the snap.
When the Jets got the ball back again after a Titans punt, all Wilson needed this time was one play—a 53-yard beauty of a throw to Davis off another scramble to his right—to put New York back on top.
Finally, facing a crucial third-and-two early in the overtime, Wilson dropped one last gorgeous pass into Cole’s arms on the left sideline for a 29-yard gain into Ammendola’s field goal range.
I know it’s only one game, but it’s the first one where we’ve really seen how Wilson’s arm talent made a significant impact. Jets fans haven’t witnessed such shock-and-awe since the days of Vinny Testaverde at the turn of the century, so forgive us for the hyperbole. Per ESPN, the last time a Jets QB completed two 50-yard passes in one game was Geno Smith-to-Eric Decker in 2014.
Folks, this is what an NFL offense is supposed to look like. It’s why General Manager Joe Douglas moved on from Sam Darnold in the offseason and selected Wilson with the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Wilson made plenty of mistakes on poor reads and inaccurate throws, but it didn’t matter. New York averaged just 2.6 yards per carry on 25 rushing attempts and it didn’t matter. The defense surrendered 430 yards and 24 points and it didn’t matter. The Jets explosive plays cured all ills.