It looked like this time things might be different for the New York Jets.
They got off to a solid start against the New England Patriots in front of a raucous, packed stadium cheering their team on to finally beat Bill Belichick’s group for the first time in years.
It turned out to be the same old story.
Zach Wilson was intercepted three times and the Jets lost their 13th straight game to the Patriots, 22-17 on Sunday.
“We have to do better with the ball,” coach Robert Saleh said. “This is a team that delights in your mistakes and if you make a mistake by a hair, you’re going to pay for it. So, collectively, all of us, we have to be better on the ball.”
Especially Wilson, whose mistakes against the Patriots were a big reason for the end of the Jets’ four-game winning streak.
“I need to play better,” Wilson said.
Indeed.
The second-year quarterback is still in the progress phase of his development, with the Jets (5-3) looking to see him take clear steps forward and establish himself as the guy who will lead the franchise for years to come. Well, Sunday was a big step back.
Wilson had the first 300-yard passing game of his career, going 20 of 41 for 355 yards and two touchdowns to Tyler Conklin. But the three interceptions could raise more questions about the quarterback.
“We have faith in Z,” Saleh insisted. “He has played good football. He has taken care of football since he returned. He has shown flashes of good football, so everyone in the dressing room is still behind him.”
But for how much longer?
Aided by unnecessary roughness on Jabrill Peppers, the Jets quickly entered Patriots territory on their first possession of the second quarter. Wilson capped the drive with an 8-yard pass to Conklin for a 10-3 lead – Wilson’s first touchdown pass in four games.
But Wilson was also intercepted for the first time in four games shortly before halftime when his pass floated into the hands of Ja’Whuan Bentley, giving the Patriots the ball at the Jets’ 40-yard line.
It looked like Mac Jones gave it back to the Jets when Michael Carter II intercepted it and returned it for a touchdown, but it was negated by a roughing-the-passer call on John Franklin-Myers. It ended up being a sequence that changed the Jets’ momentum.
“Ten-point swing,” Saleh said. “It ended up being 17 if we count what happened in the second half. “It was a costly sanction.”
The Patriots ended up getting points on the drive, cutting the deficit to 10-6 on Nick Folk’s 42-yard pass as time expired in the half.
New England (4-4) started with the ball to open the third quarter and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a five-yard pass from Jones to Jakobi Meyers.
“They had good momentum,” Saleh said. “Credit to them. Other than that, I didn’t feel like they were able to do what they wanted from a defensive standpoint. Offensively, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot and didn’t allow ourselves to continue the offenses and put together good plays in a row.”
Greg Zuerlein missed a potential game-tying 45-yard field goal on the Jets’ first possession of the second half and the Patriots added two more field goals to take a 19-10 lead.
Wilson was then intercepted by Devin McCourty on consecutive drives.
“I only had two crazy plays,” Wilson said. “On the second interception (McCourty’s first), I really wanted to throw the ball… And then on the last one, I really just wanted to make a play instead of getting off the field and I can’t do that. .
“There I put my defense in a bad situation.”
It was Wilson’s first losing start this season after missing the first three games with a knee injury. He led New York to a comeback in Pittsburgh in his season debut, but his play was far from spectacular in the three victories that followed.
Wilson was operating more like a game manager than a game changer who can carry an offense. That was by design, in large part, as New York faced some tough defenses with Miami, Green Bay and Denver.
New England was another tough opponent for a young quarterback. And Wilson and the Jets were ruined by their inability to avoid mistakes.
“We just have to join him,” Saleh said. “Coaches, we need to find a way to make it not necessarily simpler, but just help him continue to progress and evolve. He is still a young man. Playing quarterback in this league is not easy. Collectively, we have to do better for him.”
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