A bad day at the office.
That’s to put it lightly as New York Jets rookie quarterback Zach Wilson tossed four interceptions in a forgettable performance vs the New England Patriots.
Gang Green ended up losing 25-6 and despite some heroic performances from the defense, offensive line, and the running game they couldn’t overcome the turnover battle.
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NFL Twitter Lets the Former BYU Stud Have It
To add insult to injury, the entire NFL world made fun at both Jets fans and Wilson’s expense.
It started in the middle of the contest as Patriots’ defensive stud Kyle Van Noy, who was unable to suit up in this contest due to injury, brought up horrible memories from the Jets’ past.
This of course in reference to the infamous Monday Night Football game between the Jets and Patriots in which Sam Darnold was mic’d up and said on the sideline that he was “seeing ghosts.”
Gang Green lost that game 33-0 and the former USC stud had a horrendous performance going 11-of-32 for a career-low 86 passing yards and also tossed four interceptions in the contest.
Wilson didn’t lose nearly as bad on the scoreboard and his stat line was markedly more impressive going 19-of-33 for 210 passing yards and four horrible turnovers. Although the overall performance was still one the Jets would like to forget.
At the time of his four interceptions, he had four completions. In other words, he had completed as many passes to his own teammates as the ones he was going up against.
There is no other way to put it, through his first two games, Wilson has been an unmitigated disaster. There have been a few bright moments but they have been overshadowed by the silly mistakes.
Even the New England Patriots official social media got in on the action dubbing him “Mr. INT” after his slew of turnovers.
This latest joke is one that Wilson is going to have to get used to because it’ll never die. Sam Darnold’s Carolina Panthers are 2-0 and on top of the football world as he looks like a new man with a better supporting cast and improved coaching. While Wilson is 0-2 and drowning in turnovers.
Wilson was asked about the jump from BYU to the NFL in his post-game presser and said that has nothing to do with his sloppy play so far.
Yes somehow Tom Brady at 44 years of age is still in the NFL dominating and despite jumping to a different conference entirely is involved in trolling the Jets and their new quarterback.
The Top Takeaways Following This Epic Loss
That was a deflating loss there is no other way to slice it. The good news is whether Wilson tossed one interception or four or if they lost 33-0 or 25-6, it still only counts as one loss.
This is a 17-game regular season, the longest in NFL history, this is a marathon, not a sprint. The Jets can still turn this thing around and more importantly get Wilson back on track.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh had a very interesting takeaway from Wilson’s performance and what lesson he believes his young passer will learn from this one:
“It’s just having confidence that it is okay to have a boring game of football. Wilson is an electric dude and he’s competitive as crap and he wants to win so bad. Sometimes it’s okay to be boring.”
Loved this answer from Saleh. Wilson wowed a lot of people with his off-script highlight-reel throws in college. Those passes are sexy and will often appear on SportsCenter, but it’s not everything.
Not every play is going to be a home run, you have to be comfortable taking singles, doubles, and the occasional triple.
An area that Wilson struggled in during this contest was not taking the simple plays that were in front of him.
The key is making sure that you can live for another down and keep your team alive. Too often the Jets were moving the ball or were put in a good position and Wilson tried to get the superstar play when a normal play would’ve been more than sufficient.
Being a rookie, it’s a learning process and Wilson will be better from this, but at least for today he is taking his lumps from all the social media trolls and rightfully so after that horrendous performance.
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NFL Twitter Trolls Jets’ Rookie QB Zach Wilson After Poor Performance