Victory Monday 🙌

Edition #538

Good morning ☕

As mentioned last week, I'm on holiday in Amsterdam this week with the family so newsletters will either be very short, or we’ll have a break for a couple of days, but I had to get a quick note out this morning after that performance last night.

For one week, everything just fell into place. Zach Wilson played an outstanding game, making the right read, delivering the ball on time and making plays. He allowed his playmakers to make plays, think the back shoulder to Garrett, the two-seam balls to Conklin. When we needed a big play, he came out and delivered. 300+ passing yards and with all the talk this week, it couldn't come at a better time. I've questioned him as much as anyone, but I'm pumped for him today. To come out and deliver a performance like that in those conditions, that's what we've wanted to see all season.

The Jets score 30 points, Zach puts up 300+ yards with multiple TDs and the Jets put up their 5th win on the season.

Most Touchdowns in a game this year.

Most passing yards in a game this year.

Most first downs in a game this year.

And all of it happened in the second half. That was the first time the Jets have scored 30 points in a half in 5 years.

Zach Wilson had just three incompletions in the entire second half, just three. You know I've been critical of Wilson over the years and I feel it was justified. But there's no criticism today because he was outstanding. When a player deserves praise he gets it and Wilson deserves all the praise today.

Even on that fumble, while it was ill-advised to dive head-first, especially in those conditions. That was a guy trying to make a player who was high on confidence. I’ve got no real problems with someone looking to make a play. The fumble was unfortunate and resulted in 6 Houston points, but we came right back down the field after and put more points on the board, largely thanks to Wilson and Wilson.

Zach pushed the ball downfield when he needed to, but I think the throw that I loved the most was when Houston brought 6-7 players and Zach identified it straight away and got the ball out in around 1.5 seconds to his hot read. That to me is quarterbacking and that’s what he needs to do consistently, read, identify and react.

He also completed 8/12 when pressured, if you’ve been a subscriber here for a while you’ll know we’ve talked about his struggles under pressure and how if he wanted to stick he’d need to improve that aspect of his game. Well, first step taken. He also happened to be 8/12 on third down when passing as well.

Part of the solution it seems was targeting Garrett Wilson, who knew. The second-year player caught everything thrown his way, including some passes he had no right catching. With his 9 receptions and 108-yard performance, he broke franchise records for most receiving yards (1,956) and receptions (159) through the first 2 seasons, formerly held by Wayne Chrebet.

I think you do have to give some credit to Hackett as well, he introduced some boots, some misdirection, jet sweeps were called at the right time, Houston played a lot of two-high and we got those crossing routes into the game plan to exploit it. Cobb's TD was a perfect example.

I also thought we did well in terms of run blocking, Conklin and Ruckert were excellent on the ground and although the offensive line started yet another combination and gave up some sacks, I actually thought they did a pretty nice job overall. So credit to them for fighting through this. Zach's mobility certainly helped and we saw a little swagger when he avoided a sack by rolling out and hit Wilson for a big gain. It was the kind of play we saw in his rookie year but not very often since.

You obviously can’t talk about that game without mentioning Breece Hall. On a day where Dalvin Cook averaged 1.9 yards on 7 carries, Breece averaged 4.0 yards on 10 carries. He also added 8 receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown, largely thanks to the play above. But we need to tip those carries, in no universe should Breece only be getting 3 more carries than the highly ineffective Cook.

We haven't even got to the defence. Houston lost Tank Dell last week and Dalton Schultz was inactive due to injury, they then lost Nico Collins in the first quarter, but the way this defence played, I'm not sure it would have mattered. DJ Reed and Sauce Gardner were absolutely outstanding, getting their hands on everything, the boys up front did their job and the linebacker duo of C.J. and Quincy were incredibly active.

Four sacks on the night, one each for Quinnen Williams, Will McDonald, Bryce Huff and Solomon Thomas, and plenty of pressure as well.

Stroud was held to under 100 yards, Houston was 1/12 on third down and they were held to under 150 net yards on the game. I mean that's phenomenal, considering Houston were the #9 ranked offence coming into the game.

They're now gone 31 straight games without allowing a 300-yard passer which is the longest streak by any team since the Indianapolis Colts' run of 52 consecutive games from 2005-08. Which is pretty astonishing. They'll have a big challenge next week with Miami on the schedule.

It also raises the question around Aaron Rodgers and whether he may be ready to return on Sunday instead of Christmas Eve…it's going to be interesting as Zach is coming off the best game of his career, and what we need to learn about Zach is related to his consistency and can he put back to back good games together. We won't do that if he's on the bench in what is very likely another playoff-less season.

I don't want any negativity today. I'm here for all those positive vibes.