Just call Gang Green the Cardiac Kids – for they finished their season-opening jaunt through the AFC North 2-2 thanks to their second fourth-quarter comeback, this time a 24-20 win in Pittsburgh earned in the final minute.
In what was Zach Wilson’s return to the Jets after preseason knee surgery, Gang Green went up 10-0 in the second quarter, thanks to Wilson catching a TD pass from Braxton Berrios – but Pittsburgh made it 10-6 at the half, and then got a pair of rushing scores from backup QB Kenny Pickett to make it 20-10 Steelers.
And then, just like two weeks ago in Cleveland, the Jets went to work.
“I thought we battled…it wasn’t the prettiest game, but we did a good job battling and held up when we needed to hold up,” head coach Robert Saleh said after the win.
An 11-play, 81-yard drive, Wilson hit Corey Davis for a score to make it 20-17, and after the Jets picked off Pickett inside their 35, another 11-play drive ended with Breece Hall scoring on a second-and-goal from the two, a play that was upheld upon review and left the Jets up 24-20 with 16 seconds left.
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“It was an inside punch play and I had to make a linebacker miss, and I reached the ball across. They wanted to say I fumbled, but I knew it was a TD the whole time,” Hall said. “It was just a blessing for us to get the ball back and go on this game-winning drive. With Zach today, we had a sense of calm and knew we could drive the ball, so we were confident and knew what we had to do.”
When those 16 seconds expired, Pickett’s third INT, this one in the end zone by Lamarcus Joyner, sealed the win.
"It was an ugly win, but some of the most fun I've had playing football,” Wilson said. “The emotions, the ups and downs, trying to overcome adversity…I just thought such great fight by the guys. The defense getting takeaways to get us extra opportunities, and the O-line, fighting to the end with guys in different positions, did an amazing job making me feel comfortable back there.”
This fourth-quarter comeback was a lot different than the one in Cleveland, because Gang Green had pretty much the entire period to work with – but it says a lot that they made two straight touchdown drives on offense, and the defense made back-to-back big plays with the Steelers holding a first down inside the Jets’ 35 with just over four minutes left.
“It was just capitalizing in opportunities. When we got that opportunity after the interception, it was a really good, precise drive,” Saleh said. “We had the fourth-down conversion on the drive to get it to within three, and in critical situations, the guys stepped up and made plays when they needed to.”
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“I think there was so much growth just in the last two minutes for us as an offense, to put together a clean drive and punch it in,” Wilson added of the final drive.
And credit to Wilson for stepping up as a leader on that drive.
“The defense got the ball back for us, and in that huddle you could feel it; everyone had the confidence we were gonna go out there and score,” said Tyler Conklin. “Zach was confident, and once they got us the ball back, we knew what we had to do.”
“He got us in the huddle and said, ‘Let’s go score an effing touchdown,’ so that was our whole mentality, and we weren’t flustered or nervous,” added Hall.
And, yes, credit to the defense for stepping up and making Kenny Pickett’s second and third interceptions of the game huge ones the set-up and the icing.
“We’ve got a great team, and if we execute, communicate, and go out there and give it all our 100 percent we can do big things,” Quinnen Williams said. “We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. As a defense, we got to execute to the best of our ability and communicate to the highest level, and we did that today.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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