There was not much to like about Jets quarterback Zach Wilson’s play for most of Sunday’s game against the Giants, but he saved his best for last.
After Giants kicker Graham Gano missed a field goal with 24 seconds left to play, the Jets had the ball on their 25 and needed a field goal to tie the game. They had picked up three first downs in the second half to that point in the game and had no timeouts, so it was a pretty big surprise to see Wilson reel off back-to-back 29-yard completions to Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard to set up Greg Zuerlein’s game-tying kick.
Overtime saw a deep ball to Malik Taylor result in a pass interference penalty that set up Zuerlein’s winning kick and the finish to the game left Lazard feeling like he’d seen an imitation of the quarterback the Jets thought they’d have leading the offense this season.
“I think Zach showed a glimmer of Aaron Rodgers in what he was able to do in those last 24 seconds,” Lazard said, via Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post. “He just gave us a chance, and that’s all we can ask for.”
No one was thinking about Rodgers while watching Wilson for the first 59 minutes of Sunday’s game and the Jets hung around in large part due to the Giants’ own issues at quarterback, so the Jets will have to come up with a better approach in the weeks to come. Doing so off of a win beats the alternative, however, and the Jets will hope that future glimmers prove to be more sustainable.