Zach wasn't perfect but the last drive was good enough. His escape ability and arm talents is as good as anyone we had since Namath. Tell me if Darnold would have done that?
And if Lawson keeps doing this it means either he was told to stop and doesn't care about Penalties or the CS doesn't think that was important enough to mention anything to him Both are possibilities with this crew
I haven't gone back and watched the game again yet, hopefully I'll get to do that this evening after work, but this was my biggest takeaway watching the game live. The stats don't show it but I thought Zach showed more poise in the pocket yesterday than he did all of last year, which is a great step in his development. He still had some mistakes, obviously the 2 INTs and I honestly thought he should've had a 3rd with the ball he tried to fit into a tight window on the sideline with GW, but the most important thing IMO is he didn't let those mistakes bog him down. He kept fighting and rallied the troops in the 4th quarter while being down 10 points in one of the most hostile environments in the NFL. It was an ugly win but it was a win this team and Zach desperately needed.
https://sny.tv/articles/jets-zach-wilson-looking-like-answer-qb I reaally like this Wilson quote from the above article:
When the game was on the line Zach Wilson was lights out. That’s growth, which makes this coming weeks matchup exciting. Nice win!
I have not seen the all 22 but re-watching the game the execution by the offense in the 4th quarter was at a very high level. These were really really tight windows ZW was throwing into. The win against the Browns you can blame the Browns defense but in the 4th quarter it appears you can't blame Pitt's defense but just tip your cap to the Jets offense. When an offense executes like that and the QB gets the ball out quickly into tight windows there is nothing the defense can do. But before we book tickets to wherever the SB is being played it was 12 passes and the offense and ZW have a lot of things to fix. There is a lot of bad tape in that game but Rosenblatt appears to correct in pointing out at what a high level the offense functioned. One dropped pass in either of those last two drives and everyone here would be bashing Wilson all week. The Jets drew quite a fine line between failure and success yesterday. My theory is that this is sort of like the difference between the Buffalo game and the Tampa Bay game last year. Against Tampa Zach had to throw into small windows and take chances against TB just to stay in the game. Against Buffalo the plan was to keep it close and not take chances and with 9 minutes left we were only down 3. In that game the focus was on not making mistakes. In this game Zach was likely doing the same for 3 quarters trying to avoid throwing into small windows and not taking chances until he had to when he had no choice.
I am thinking a lot of it has to do with rust. At least this is plausible and likely explanation. Obviously as good as 4th quarter was, he can't play the way he did for 3 quarters every game going forward. We will need to see some really high level full games (mixed in with up and down performances here and there bot mostly needs to be high level). I am thinking with some rust shaken off, at home against Miami is a good place to start.
This team is talented enough to win every Sunday. We are also bad enough that we can lose every Sunday. Hang-on and enjoy the ride.
Hard to say he was awful in any part of this game. He did miss a couple of throws. That Breece Hall was the one that stands out. CD gets his feet in that pick does not happen and we most likely score. GW saves a pick but that is what good WR's do. This offense can be fun to watch. I am excited for the rest of the season.
Almost all those throws were good throws. The two bad ones that stand out are the deep throw to the flag that was intercepted - I'd be curious to hear what he thought he was looking at there - and the short pass to the flat inside the Pitt 20 that was about 3 yards in front of the receiver (Hall?). Of the other incompletions, there were about 3-4 that should've been caught since the receiver got their hands on the ball, and about 5-6 that were intentionally thrown away under duress and were "smart" incompletions. And one of the two INTs hit his receiver in the hands and bounced in the air - should've been a completion, not a pick. My takeaway is that I saw a QB who isn't thinking about his stats, but is focused on moving his team and getting the win, and that manifested itself in the 4th quarter when he had to make completions even in tight windows and did. I haven't seen a Jets QB play like that since Favre, and before him Pennington (before all the injuries), and Vinny. And frankly, the coolness under pressure brought back memories of Namath for me - I'm not saying he's that good yet, but he has the potential IMO. Yes, this is one game, but for me, I'm also looking at his record and play at BYU and this game displayed the things he did for the Cougars, and why I wanted the Jets to draft him. Now he has to remain healthy.
So I have this friend who's a steelers fan, and he always gives me shit about me saying zach is good he just needs to learn to take easy yards and his yards and comp% will go up and he jokes about how the jets best offensive games were with flacco and white over the past 2 years. Well he came away from the game impressed with wilson and was like yeah I get what your saying. most of his best plays were throwaways that would have been huge negatives with other QBs or flacco back there
The difference to me seems to be that he was trusting his natural talents and skills in the 4th as opposed to thinking too much and holding ball too long in 1st 3 qtrs. He’s young and still needs to grow but there is a lot to work with.
Thanks for posting this. Yes, there are a few things to clean up to be sure. First INT was brutal. He had both Davis and GW wide open. Completely missed Davis. Almost got picked off again throwing to GW to Minka. Then again while throwing the ball away nearly got intercepted by Minka. Missed easy short throws to Hall and GW. Underthrew open Hall on the run for incomplete, but could have gone for a big gain. The second drop by Conklin (not the INT) I think is on Zach too - that should have been an easy throw that he rifled behind Conklin. The second INT I actually thought he was getting pressured and side armed it good enough for Conkiln to catch, but still not a perfect pass. My takeaway is that there is definitely rust. He should have done better on 7 throws or so, which I expect to improve for next game.
Definitely a knee jerk reaction on my end after riding the high of that win haha That comment didn't age very well.
Shoulda's and Coulda's don't matter. The only thing that matters is what actually happens. There are dropped interceptions in almost every game.
