Sam Darnold infamously said at one point in his Jets career that he was “seeing ghosts,” and while Zack Wilson may not have seen any supernatural spirits, he did see a lot of Carolina Panthers in his face as they blitzed relentless in a 19-14 win in Charlotte.
Despite that, and a first half where he struggled mightily, Wilson felt his NFL debut was a success, in that he wasn't overwhelmed by what his first professional game brought to him.
“You have to give those guys credit, flying around and doing their job on defense, but I felt like I was seeing the field well, even early on when we struggled a little bit,” Wilson said. “I felt like I was seeing what I was supposed to be seeing, and I just felt like we were a little bit short on execution and some of the details overall. I have to clean that up, and as a team, we have to watch the film and do better next week.”
“The first half was rough. We couldn't really establish a run game or a pass game,” said receiver Corey Davis, who caught Wilson’s first career TD pass. “The second half kind of looked a little bit better, but that's not who we are. We're a lot better team than that and we know it.”
Wilson started 6-for-16 for 84 yard and one interception, but collected that first TD pass in the third and ended 20-for-37 for 258 yards and two scores to the one pick. Still, quite a few missed chances according to head coach Robert Saleh, which will improve in time.
“He's only going to get better from this,” Saleh said. “There were so many missed opportunities with regards to letting it rip – even his interception, he didn’t put the zip he needed to on it. But, a lot of great things for him to learn off of, and we're still really excited about him.”
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Part of the struggle can be pinned on the Jets’ offensive line which, despite being rebuilt and fully healthy, was hassled all day long by a heavy blitz scheme from the Panthers.
“It's tough, but it's part of the job, right?” Wilson said. “I feel like I’m getting better experiencing stuff in your face. You have to be able to play, you just can’t say, ‘oh, there’s pressure, I can’t do my job.’ I’m just going to keep working and getting better at that.”
“I don’t like seeing him get hit; that’s our guy, and we gotta protect him, but today wasn’t good enough,” Davis added.
The line did lose Mekhi Becton to a knee injury on the same play Wilson threw his first career TD, but while the linemen will take the brunt of the blame, Saleh won’t be the one to give it to them.
“It's early in the season and especially with a young quarterback, they're going to eat you up,” center Conner McGovern said. “Not that we didn’t prepare for it, but when a team is blitzing you every snap, it might be a little softer. It's kind of what we expected and what we prepared for, we just need to execute better.”
"There's a lot of things that are involved in protection. I'm never going to just blame the offensive line, especially in the first half when a lot of those breakdowns happened,” Saleh rebutted. “Credit to those guys, they did some good things schematically. Protection has to hold up, but it’s a collective effort.”
And one thing no one will take blame for, and only give Carolina credit for: the late sack by Derrick Brown when the Jets had first and goal with just under three minutes remaining, one that looked like it rocked Wilson quite a bit.
“I was fine, but I felt like I got hit by a truck for a second,” Wilson smiled. “You just gotta catch your breath, understand we’re still in it, and keep going. I got the wind knocked out of me a little bit, but you gotta stand up and we were able to go down and execute.”
“He took some shots today, but he got back up and showed resolve,” Saleh added. “He’s fearless, he really is.”
As Saleh himself says, all gas no brake – and the Jets, despite a tough road loss to open the season, are full speed ahead into their home opener next Sunday against the Patriots.
Just ask C.J. Mosley, who had four tackles in his first game in nearly two calendar years.
"We just gotta make sure we watch our film, correct our mistakes, and have a short term memory, because we have a division game coming up next week.”
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