– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY — Where is Tom Tupa when you need him?
For some reason, which probably boils down to something revolving around the quarter-century-long stranglehold that Bill Belichick has had on the franchise he spurned immediately after getting married at the New York altar in 2000, the Jets, and particularly their quarterback du jour, have had some of their most embarrassing and/or heart-wrenching career moments against the New England Patriots. Sunday was no exception.
In a game the Jets probably should have won, but lost 15-10, Jets quarterback Zach Wilson somehow outdid himself compared to the two starts he had against New England last year, where his turnovers doomed a possible Jets win at home before a shambolic performance in Foxboro — followed by a complete lack of a mea culpa when asked if he let his team down in a 9-3 defeat — led to his demotion. It shouldn’t have gotten worse, but leave it to a Jets quarterback against Belichick to find another level on the elevator below the bottom floor.
Wilson was skittish, looking down at the rush and completely afraid to let passes rip down the field. Wilson played like a person who didn’t want to get booed by the crowd, and upon knowing this, the crowd responded with more vociferous disapproval for every failed checkdown and needless scramble out of the pocket that led to a throw out of bounds.
It’s almost as if Wilson was seeing ghosts, something former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold admitted to on a hot mic when playing a Monday Night Football game against the Patriots in 2019 that saw New England win 33-0. Maybe Wilson was trying to avoid injury, something Vinny Testaverde couldn’t do in the 1999 season opener for the Jets against New England, rupturing his Achilles tendon and turning a promising season with Super Bowl aspirations into a fight just to finish .500.
The same Super Bowl aspirations that the Jets came into this season with, at before another Achilles injury, to Aaron Rodgers in the season opener a la Testaverde, are disappearing like ghosts in thin air with Wilson at the helm. The only times Wilson wasn’t afraid to throw the ball was when the team was down 13-3 late in the fourth quarter and drove for the team’s only touchdown — when there was no choice but to actually throw caution into the win and act like a former No. 2 overall pick — and on the last play of the game, an incomplete pass on a Hail Mary that traveled over 65 yards in the air, was almost caught by Randall Cobb on a deflection in the end zone, and, arguably, was Wilson’s most impressive throw of the afternoon.
The boos rained down on Wilson and a Jets’ team that’s seeing their season slip-sliding away a month before Halloween, and head coach Robert Saleh, seeing the same story unfold like everyone else with allegiances to Gang Green, unwittingly put more fuel to the fire as he engaged in coachspeak at the moment supporters needed to hear the truth: the punter, one like Tupa when he replaced Testaverde in that 1999 game and actually threw a touchdown pass to Keyshawn Johnson, might give these current Jets a better chance to win than their current signal-caller.
I can get into a long dissertation about what we’re seeing, obviously,” Saleh said about Wilson’s performance today and his development over the offseason. “I think, obviously, his pocket presence to us has been so much more improved. His accuracy is much improved. His decision making is much improved. Like I said, New England’s got a hell of a defense over there. They do. Obviously, it just wasn’t good enough today.”
If today’s not good enough, what’s in store for Wilson and the Jets when the defending Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs come into town in seven days’ time? Or when that Super Bowl’s other participant, the Philadelphia Eagles, drive North on the New Jersey Turnpike and pay a visit in three weeks?
Is it time for Tim Boyle? Is it time for the punter? Wilson and the Jets are stuck with each other in having to sell a product that’s good enough for purchase (e.g. stout defense, decent special teams) but has one major defect (quarterback). At least a match-up with the Patriots doesn’t happen again until the season finale, when 2023 will be a thing of the past. Though that means the next super embarrassing moment in Jets quarterbacking history will just get a very, very early start in 2024.
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