Jets, Wilson Roar to Life in Late OT Win
With the Titans driving late in overtime, it seemed like the Jets had missed their opportunity. A couple errant passes to the flat could have won the game for New York. A fourth-down pass interference call gave the Titans new life. Third-and-one at the goal line resulted in a loss.
After grinding it out for nearly five quarters, the Jets were staring in the face of a tie. Then, they finally caught their break, the first real one in nearly two full years.
Randy Bullock’s kick sailed wide left, as the swarms of Jets fans in MetLife erupted. Their team had just shaken off all the negatives that came with the first three weeks to grind out a gutsy 27-24 win against a good Tennessee Titans squad.
And for the first time in a while, they had something to be truly proud of.
It might have taken a break at the end, but make no mistake about it, the Jets earned every bit of this victory. In large part, they have their rookie gunslinger to thank. Wilson shook off the rust after an early interception put the Jets in a 9-0 hole, engineering a statement drive that was capped with a two-yard touchdown run from fellow rookie Michael Carter.
Wilson finished the day 21-of-34 for 297 yards and two touchdowns to go along with the one pick. 232 of those yards, as well as both scores, came in the second half alone. That’s when Wilson really flipped the switch. Trailing 9-7 late in the third quarter, he felt pressure, rolled to his right and uncorked a deep ball into the waiting arms of Keelan Cole to set up the Jets in the red zone.
54 yards in the air, on the move, across his body and it took just a flick of the wrist. On the Jets’ next possession, trailing again, Wilson dropped the snap, recovered, rolled to his left while keeping his eyes downfield, and hit Jamison Crowder in stride at the five-yard-line.
“They’d gotten into their man coverage, and based on where that safety was playing, how tight they were playing, I knew whether it was him or Corey crossing the field, one of them was going to have a good shot,” Wilson said. “Right before I snapped the ball, feeling the safety push a little more to my right, I knew that J-Mo probably had the best option there, and so right as I picked that ball up I was trying to find him down the field.”
He didn’t panic. He trusted his pre-snap read—a great one—and made the play the Jets needed to have. Despite all the highlight reel throws he made on Sunday, that should be New York’s biggest takeaway.
Wilson found Crowder again two plays later for the touchdown, a rifle into a tight seam in the front right corner of the end zone.
The rookie’s biggest play, however, came on the Jets’ next drive, immediately following a Titans’ three-and-out. Wilson rolled to his right, this time by design. He surveyed the field before signaling to Corey Davis to go deep. Then, he set his feet, and fired a missile 60 yards in the air, through double coverage and right into Davis’s open arms for another touchdown.
“No, no, no, no, oh my god!” Saleh thought, as he’d explain after the game. “But that’s what he did. That’s what he did throughout his college tape and he got confident, he got rolling, he got outside the pocket and he made a play.”
Saleh’s right. Wilson’s second-half throws were his Pro Day throws in action, highly reminiscent of his BYU tape. An overtime throw dropped right in the bucket to Cole added one more to the tape.
Of course, he did miss some big ones. A comebacker to Davis that would have ended the game in regulation and an out to Ryan Griffin that would have walked it off in overtime stuck out. He’ll need to make those throws in the future to close games. Wilson knows that, though.
Right now, he made enough winning plays to get the job done, with the potential for even more with Crowder back in the mold and improved play from the offensive line, who kept Wilson upright virtually all day. The Jets should be excited about that.
While Wilson and the offense made the winning plays, it was New York’s defense that kept them in it throughout. It was the latest in a string of impressive performances from one of the surprise units in the NFL.
The Jets sacked Tannehill seven times, often winning with a four-man rush and getting there with regularity when Jeff Ulbrich’s unit sent pressure. They did enough to slow Derrick Henry down early and force field goals, and buckled down in overtime to force the long attempt from Bullock.
Bryce Huff had the best game of his young career, notching 1.5 sacks and forcing Tannehill to climb the pocket when he didn’t get there. John Franklin-Myers did the same, driving Tannehill into a sack in the first quarter while picking up his own shortly after. Both were impactful in the run game. When Tannehill did have to climb the pocket, he found himself in the arms of Quinnen Williams, who had two sacks on Sunday despite facing double teams from Tennessee’s interior.
It was Quinnen’s brother, Quincy, however, that had the best day of the bunch. A waiver wire add before Week One, Quincy lived in the Titans’ backfield, breaking up screens before they could develop and delivering multiple hits on Tannehill, including an early sack of his own. He and C.J. Mosley, who had his best game of the young season, combined for a whopping 25 tackles.
READ: Jets' Quincy, Quinnen Williams Make Brotherly History, Lead Defense in Win
In the secondary, without Maye, the Jets were able to slow down a banged-up Tennessee receiving corps absent Julio Jones and A.J. Brown. Still, Bryce Hall added another outstanding game to a wildly impressive start to the season. He was left on an island for most of the day and still had three pass breakups. He even got involved in the pass rush, playing a part in two sacks.
After the game, a gatorade-drenched Robert Saleh had just a few words for his rookie quarterback.
“You having fun yet?” he asked.
Jets fans can answer that one for him.
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