Zach Wilson had 317 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday, but he had those 317 yards on just 18 completions out of 35 attempts – a lot of explosives, so to speak, but not a lot of consistency.
And he knew it, too, as this postgame press conference after Sunday’s loss to the Lions sounds a lot different than the one last month right before he was benched after a putrid performance against the Patriots.
“I gotta be better, man,” Wilson said bluntly. “We had explosives offensively, but it’s just the first and second downs, staying ahead of the sticks, and I left a number of plays out there. I have to look at it as a learning process, just try to keep improving every week.
Even his interception, which he quickly admitted was “a bad decision,” brought about a seemingly-better fundamental understanding of the why and not just the how.
“I was trying to locate Garrett (Wilson) across the middle and had (Elijah) Moore on the outside, but the corner did a good job coming back and getting it when I floated one,” Wilson said. “Giving that up, I put our defense in a bad situation and gave up three points, and those points came back to bite us. I have to take better care of the football.”
Back to the overall line, Wilson had eight completions that went for 20 or more yards, so it was almost feast or famine – very little happened between 7 and 15 yards, and there were just as many times Wilson made a mistake (the INT, an intentional grounding, taking four sacks) or didn’t do a good job in playing the field position game.
“We had some explosives, but we have to put drives together,” Wilson said. “Explosives are great, but you have to be able to pick apart defenses and sustain drives, e ahead of the sticks, complete plays on first and second down to get into manageable third downs, and be more consistent.”
“We created a lot of explosives,” added head coach Robert Saleh, “but we missed some opportunities and they forced some mistakes.”
One of the plays Wilson wishes he had back came with just under two minutes left in the first half, where he missed Tyler Conklin on a third-and-28 at midfield in a spot where even getting half that back gives the Jets a field goal try.
“Every play is looked at separately, so it’s going back to even if it’s a conceded down…that incomplete to Conklin, I can’t do that,” he said. “Play the field position, get him a good ball, protect the ball and trust our D, because those guys do an amazing job.”
Overall, Saleh said that Wilson had some “ebbs and flows,” a “good first half and a good finish after some third quarter adversity.”
“I thought he played well,” Saleh added. “There’s always going to be things we can nitpick, and everyone can be better from a technique standpoint, but he moved the ball and created explosives.”
And, to a man, the offensive skill players agree that the lack of success on offense isn’t all on No. 2.
“They had a good scheme, and it takes all 11 of us. Wide receivers weren’t as open as we should’ve been, so the line has to hold up for a second longer…there’s a lot it takes to get it done,” said Garrett Wilson. “Any time you know you’re getting man coverage and you haven’t been in that position in three weeks, it’ll be tough on you, but I think he handled it well. He showed a lot of perseverance, especially at the end making some of the throws he did, and he gave us a chance to win. That’s all you can ask for. All of us feel like we left some plays out there, and that’s the reality of it.”
“It’s a culmination of a lot of things. When we look at the tape, there will be one person doing something wrong when we falter, but it’s not a one man thing,” added C.J. Uzomah, who caught both of Wilson’s TD passes. “We all know we have to play better, play damn near perfect to win.”
So where do the Jets go from here? Well, as a team, they have to quickly flush this loss, and for Wilson, it’s back to the drawing board.
“The biggest thing is you have to be able to learn and move on, and our team does a good job of that,” he said. “We’ll watch each play and judge the good and the bad. There’s a lot to learn from, and a lot of plays I want back. Until I can correct those and make the easy ones, I have to keep learning and try to improve.”
It’s rumored Mike White has a broken rib that needs to calcify before he’ll be cleared for contact, so it seems likely Wilson will get the start in a do-or-die game against Jacksonville – but he knows nothing is guaranteed, and is taking nothing for granted.
“That’s not up to me; all I can do is watch the film, improve, and keep trying to put the offense in the best situation to win, which I didn’t do today,” Wilson said, “but our team always battles and approaches things the same way, and we’ll be ready for Thursday.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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