The Jets had their chances to hang with the Dallas Cowboys. Despite trailing at the half, 18-10, they had scored a field goal and got the ball first to start the second half. Then the wheels seemingly fell off and the Jets fell to 1-1 after their 30-10 loss in Week 2. Here’s our quick recap of the game.
Final score: Cowboys 30, Jets 10
Game notes
- Quarterback Zach Wilson was okay in this one. Yes, he melted down in the fourth quarter, but that wasn’t all his fault. He faced pressure all game long because the Jets thought it was a good idea to let 38-year-old Duane Brown go one-on-one with Micah Parsons. Wilson finished 12/27 for 170 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions and a 38.1 QB rating.
- Wilson had 36 rushing yards. That was eight yards more than the rest of the team combined. Breece Hall had nine yards rushing, Michael Carter had eight and Dalvin Cook had seven.
- The Jets didn’t dress first-round pick Will McDonald. That can be chalked up to the numbers game. Carl Lawson returned and the Jets decided not to dress 10 defensive linemen. Depth was needed elsewhere and this is also a credit to how deep the Jets are on the defensive front.
- The Jets got almost nothing on offense save for the big 68-yard touchdown to Garrett Wilson. Take that and his other catch away and the Jets had 132 yards on offense. The Cowboys had 382. Wilson just had the wind knocked out of him. He is ok.
- Quincy Williams, on the other hand, is being evaluated for a knee injury, so hopefully he is ok.
- So far, No. 1 receivers for the opponent have been successful against the Jets. For the second week in a row, the Jets have allowed a 100-yard game to a receiver. Last week, Stefon Diggs had 102 yards and a touchdown on 10 catches. This week, it was CeeDee Lamb going for 143 yards on 11 catches.
- Very hard to win football games when your offense goes 1/8 on third down while your opponent is 9/15 and they have almost double the total yards that you have (382-215).
- We’ll see the numbers at some point, but the offensive line was bad. Like, really bad. This was the worry all preseason and it came to fruition Sunday. It doesn’t get much easier next week against Matthew Judon and the Patriots.
- The Jets had a pair of roughing-the-passer penalties that were very ticky-tack and felt eerily similar to last season against the Patriots in that it felt like those plays really helped shift the momentum in favor of the Cowboys. Dallas would score a touchdown following one of those penalties and the second helped Dallas move the ball to the 1-yard line following the touchdown and subsequently converted the two-point conversion.
It was over when...
…Zach Wilson threw an interception with about 11 minutes left in the game. Wilson was under pressure all game and it finally got to him when Micah Parsons came up the middle, Wilson was flushed to his right and was picked off by Jayron Kearse. The Cowboys turned that interception into three points to take a 30-10 lead. It was really over when Wilson threw two more interceptions after that.
3 stars of the game
No. 3 star: Garrett Wilson – 2 catches, 83 yards, 1 touchdown
No. 2 star: Quincy Williams – 7 tackles
No. 1 star: C.J. Mosley – 9 tackles, 1 QB hit, 1 TFL, 1 pass defended
Play of the game
WILSON. WILSON. TOUCHDOWN.#NYJvsDAL on CBS & Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/GheoDzRskP
— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 17, 2023
Not too many choices, but a 68-yard touchdown pass – the longest of Zach Wilson’s career, by the way — is always nice. Just too bad there weren’t too many other highlights other than the converted fake punt.
What's next?
The Jets will look to end a 14-game losing streak against the Patriots as Mac Jones and company visit MetLife Stadium next week for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff.
