While Zach Wilson’s 53-yard touchdown bomb to Corey Davis will lead all the highlight shows, Jets coach Robert Saleh was more impressed with less sexy throws.
“What gets lost in the excitement of the explosive plays that he generated was … I think it was 14 of his 18 completions were [thrown] for 7 yards or less,” Saleh said. “He didn’t get hit, there were balls getting in and out of his hands. He had, I don’t have a QB rating in front of me or anything, but I know he was very efficient, and he can play that style of ball. And there was even more to be had in those situations, as we’re all aware that third down to close out the game, the shallow cross to [Ryan Griffin] to close out the game, there are opportunities for even more, which he’ll get better at.
“But at the same time, everyone saw the creativity and the off-schedule stuff that is getting all the attention, but that represented four of his completions. He’s in really good head space, his mindset’s in the right spot in terms of he knows he can be even better and those are things he’ll continue to grow on.”
Two weeks ago, Saleh said he wanted Wilson to play “boring” football. Sunday certainly wasn’t boring when Wilson was pointing for Davis to go deep, but Saleh said there were plenty of other examples of Wilson being smart with the ball.
“So, we say this thing about boring football and we’re not looking for ‘Charlie Checkdown,’ that’s for sure, right?” Saleh said. “We still want him to be aggressive like we said, but we also want him to be smart with the ball.”
The Jets coaches might love the short throws, but there’s no doubt what throw had his teammates talking.
“Man, that play that he told Corey to go deep,” running back Tevin Coleman said. “I was like, ‘How did you even see that? How did you know you could even throw that? You didn’t even throw that as hard as you could.’ It looked like he just tossed it up there and it went like 60. I was like, ‘Wow that’s crazy. He can launch that thing.’ That was real good to see out of him.”
Saleh now has to prepare his team to travel to London to face the Falcons. The Jets are flying out Thursday night.
“It’s a tricky week but fortunately, I’ve been a part of this game three times when I was in Jacksonville when we went three consecutive years,” Saleh said. “In my three years, we tried it once leaving right after our Sunday game, we tried it once leaving on a Monday and then we left on a Thursday. So, we have a really good, we feel like we have a really good plan, travel plan, going in. So, to keep it as normal as possible for our guys and just a matter of getting in there, getting acclimated to the time change and playing on Sunday.”
Saleh said WR Elijah Moore “looks like he’s coming out” of concussion protocol. He labeled Moore and WR Jeff Smith (concussion) as day-to-day. CB Brandin Echols also suffered a concussion in Sunday’s win.