It’s been a particularly drama-filled week for Zach Wilson, but the New York Jets third-year signal caller out of BYU responded to all the noise Sunday by having his best game of the season as the Jets beat the Houston Texans 30-6 to snap a five-game losing streak.
Amidst talk that he didn’t want to return to the starting lineup after being benched last month and a report by the Deseret News’ Doug Robinson that he will be traded in the offseason, Wilson finished the day by completing 27 of 36 passes for 301 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
It marked the first time since December 18 of last year that Wilson reached the 300-yard mark in a game.
The performance came on a day when Wilson, the second pick in the 2021 NFL draft, was opposite Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who was the second pick of the 2023 draft.
Stroud has been phenomenal as a rookie this season but had his worst outing of the campaign as Wilson outclassed him.
Stroud finished just 10 of 23 for 91 yards with no touchdowns before leaving the game in the fourth quarter because of a head injury.
Perhaps the early going of Sunday’s game was a strong indication of how Wilson’s day would go, as he completed his first six passes of the day for 60 yards.
He slowed down in the second quarter (he was 9 of 15 for 92 yards at halftime as the score was tied at 0) but then was tremendous in the third.
In that third quarter, Wilson completed 12 of 13 passes for 154 yards with a touchdown pass to Randall Cobb as the Jets held a 14-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Then to open the fourth quarter, Wilson led a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 3-yard connection to Breece Hall to put New York up 21-6.
In the fourth quarter, Wilson finished 6 of 8 for 55 yards with the touchdown before the Jets began to drain the clock (they made three field goals in the fourth).
“The second half, I thought Zach probably played the best game of his career,” New York head coach Robert Saleh said postgame.
“Just the off-schedule stuff, the timing and rhythm and getting the ball out where it needed to get to, being aggressive but smart at the same time...he was out there having a good time and he made a lot of things happen that weren’t there, so hats off to him. I thought he was outstanding today.”
As much as it was a great performance from Wilson, he was focused postgame on moving forward to finish the season strong, even as his status of staying in the starting lineup is unknown.
“It’s exciting, but we’ve still got four (games) left and my focus is on the guys and how we can grow from this and how we can keep pushing and stack this win,” he said.
“We’ve got to use it for next week. We need to understand that this is the standard, but we’re going to enjoy this one.”