Wilson leads shorthanded Jets to win over Jaguars
EAST RUTHERFORD » When the schedule came out months and months ago, Jaguars-Jets seemed like it could potentially be a fun battle between two teams on the rise, featuring the number one and number two overall picks in the most recent draft facing off for the first time.
When it came time to finally play the game, however, it was expected to be a largely loathed, post-Christmas lump of coal between two teams that had combined for all of five wins.
It ended up being a unique mix of both.
Offensive lineman Conor McDermott’s one-yard touchdown catch on fourth-andgoal from the one-yard-line with 9:24 left in the fourth quarter ended up being the spark Gang Green needed to hang on for a dramatic 2621 win over Jacksonville at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
“Thought it was truly, truly a team effort,” said acting head coach Ron Middleton, who filled in for Robert Saleh, who missed the contest due to COVID protocols.
“Special teams, offense, defense, everybody stepped up…it was an awesome win. Awesome win.”
A late Eddy Pineiro field goal padded the lead for the Jets, who needed every bit of that cushion. Rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence, taken first overall by the Jaguars in the most recent draft, led Jacksonville on a twominute drill that nearly won them the game, but was ultimately doomed once tight end James O’Shaughnessy was unable to get up after making a short reception, which by rule charges his team a timeout, which was their last.
After Lawrence’s 26-yard run down the right sideline got the ball to the Jets sixyard-line with 32 seconds left, a five-yard completion to Marvin Jones, Jr. got them to within three feet of victory, but it’s as close as they’d ultimately get. An incomplete pass to Dare Ogunbowale — in the game after starting running back James Robinson was lost after an Achilles injury — took three seconds off the clock, but the killer was the Jones catch, as without their last timeout, Lawrence elected to spike the ball on third down after he was unable to get out of bounds, leaving just one play remaining to gain the necessary yard.
Lawrence’s pass to Jones was incomplete — and a flag for an illegal shift would have nullified it anyway — and Zach Wilson, taken one selection after Lawrence in the 2021 Draft, took the final snap to cap off an impressive win for the Jets (4-11), albeit one that will ultimately hurt them when it comes to determining the order in 2022.
“It got real tense,” Middleton deadpanned. “I can’t imagine what my facial expressions were. I thought it was a great game, too good of a game. Good for TV ratings, anyway…this side liked the way it ended.”
While it was a difficult day for Wilson through the air — he threw for just 102 yards while completing 14 of his 22 passes with no turnovers and one touchdown, the short strike to McDermott — he impressed on the ground, somewhat necessary given many of his top targets were out due to either injury or COVID protocols.
After a Matthew Wright field goal for the Jaguars opened the scoring, Wilson turned in what may be his signature moment on his rookie year thus far, breaking off the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in franchise history, scampering
for 52 yards down the right sideline to give the Jets a 6-3 lead with 4:08 remaining in the first quarter.
Jaguars offensive lineman Will Richardson recovered a Lawrence fumble in the end zone to put Jacksonville back on top early in the second quarter, but the Jets electrified the home crowd once again when Pro Bowl snub Braxton Berrios ran the ensuing kickoff all the way back for 102 yards and the go-ahead score with 13:08 remaining in the first half.
Wright and Pineiro swapped field goals — Wright kicked two, Pineiro one — to get the score to 16-15 in favor of the Jets before the fourth quarter dramatics unfolded, starting with the rare “big man touchdown.”
“We’ve run this play twice
in practice this week, and Zach has thrown it to him both times, and he looked very natural catching the ball,” Middleton explained of the pass to the 6-foot-8, 310 pound McDermott, adding that this was the first week where McDermott was in position to make that catch on the play, replacing backup lineman Dan Feeney, who moved to guard for the week.
Wilson couldn’t help but agree.
“That was probably the highlight of my entire life so far, that touchdown pass,” he said. “The funny part is, we put the play in (in) practice, and the O-line gives me crap for never throwing to them… I threw it to ‘Derm’ two times in practice, just joking around, like hey, it would be funny if he caught it. It’s not
even part of the read. So, I go through one, two, three. Pressure comes up the middle, I escape to the right, and I just see this big dude in the
back of the end zone with his hands in the air and no one around him. The dude made an awesome catch coming down with it.”