Elijah Moore has arguably been the Jets’ biggest playmaker over the last month, but even after a career day last week against Miami, he noted it meant little because the Jets lost their third straight game.
So, you can understand how, even on a day where he wasn’t a stat monster, Moore was thrilled when speaking postgame after the Jets’ win over the Texans in Houston, about how his positivity and the team working hard finally paid off.
“It means everything man; I’m really, really happy,” he said. “It’s really tough, but I feel like I have to be the example. People don’t expect me to be like this being young, but I want to set the example. If they see me positive and uplifting, they’ll do the same. Positivity is everything; it’s all we should put out.”
“Ignore the noise, the praise, and the criticism, and focus on keeping the main thing: getting better every week and building the foundation,” head coach Robert Saleh added of that mantra. “This organization is going to get somewhere, and get there quick, but the main focus is showing up to work and doing everything we can to get better week by week.”
Moore led the Jets with four catches and was second on the team with 46 yards receiving, but his most important contribution was a seven-yard run late in the game: a Jet sweep on 4th-and-1 from the Houston 15.
The Jets were up 18-14 at the time, and a field goal would have given then a touchdown lead – but that late in the game, Robert Saleh trusted his top playmaker to make a play, and that he did.
“I gotta get it. When they trust in me with the game on the line, I have to be right,” he said. “Shout out to the o-line, that’s all I can say.”
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The Jets ended up with a field goal on that possession when all was said and done, thanks in part to a holding penalty that made it first-and-goal at the 18, but they were able to tick another minute off the clock and forced Houston to use all three of their timeouts.
A good ending to a game that saw the Jets struggle for most of the first half, but finally punch in a touchdown late in that half and then hold the Texans scoreless in the second.
“We just came inside, made corrections, and when the game started slowing down a bit, we saw the big picture and started moving down the field,” Moore said of the second half surge. “We definitely had to make adjustments.”
Moore has just four rushes for 45 yards this season, but his first NFL touchdown came on the ground, and he’s been lining up in quite a few scenarios for the Jets lately, which has him harkening back to his college days at Ole Miss.
“I feel like I’m back in college with Lane Kiffin; he set the example for me, and I’m glad that’s happening,” Moore said. “All the receivers, when we get out there, we all think about being WR1, so when I get out there, that’s all I think about no matter where it is.”
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