In games like the Jets had against New England on Sunday, an outstanding performance or two can often go by the wayside.
For instance, rookie wideout Garrett Wilson's name hardly came up after the 22-17 loss to the Patriots. Yet he had a pass-catching display that was not only significant for him but also noteworthy in franchise history.
Yet even Wilson declined to pat himself on the back. He was more concerned with the consistency that his offense had trouble sustaining for much of the middle of the game.
"Right now, we'll get a big play, but how we're stacking them, we've got to be consistent," the thoughtful, creative 10th selection of the 2022 NFL Draft said. "I feel like it'll come over time, but that's got to be a focus for us. We've got to be more consistent, we've got to put drives together.
"The Patriots kept us on the sideline ... all game," he said, a reference to the Patriots' 11:08 advantage in possession time. "It never was sit down and get back up. It was one of those things where they were making our defense work and the offense was sitting on the sideline."
Early on, it didn't look like that kind of day for the Green & White offense, and Wilson, along with TE Tyler Conklin, were reasons for that. Both caught six passes, Conklin for 79 yards and both Jets touchdowns, while Wilson assembled 115 yards of offense, 85 of it coming in the first half.
The significance of the yardage for GW: After a grand entrance as a Green & White wideout in Game 2 at Cleveland — eight receptions for 102 yards and two TDs — he wasn't nearly as visible the next five games. So his Patriots game marked his second game over 100 receiving yards as a pro. And that made him only the second Jets rookie at any position to put together two 100-yard receiving games in a season. The other who leaped out with a pair of three-figure games? Al Toon, the 10th pick of the 1985 draft and a Ring of Honor inductee.
"With Corey [Davis] being out," head coach Robert Saleh said, "we had a chance to get Garrett on the field a little bit more."
Wilson didn't score this game but he played a huge role in the Jets' first 10 points. His 54-yard catch-and-run from Zach Wilson set up Greg Zuerlein's short field goal to open the game's scoring. Then his back-to-back 23- and 10-yard grabs to start the first series of the second quarter moved the Jets into plus territory and crisply on to Conklin's first TD and a 10-3 lead.
At that time the Jets offense looked like it might be ready to contribute to ending the Patriots' recent reign in the teams' rivalry. It was not to be, but Garrett Wilson sees him and his offense not taking any extended time off to ponder the lack of consistency that he spoke of.
"You play a long season, and we've got the Bills next week," Wilson said, summarizing Saleh's postgame message to his team. "So there's no taking the foot off the pedal for us. There's no real time to dwell on the loss. We've got to move on and get ready to play a really tough opponent."
And we all know the saying about when the going gets tough.
