The Jets moved into last place in the AFC East, and were knocked out of playoff seeding on Sunday after a last-second loss to the New England Patriots — and now their locker room is in turmoil.
Gang Green scored just three points on Sunday, which would have been a death-sentence to most teams. But, the Jets defense kept pace, and held Bill Belichick’s squad to the same amount through nearly four quarters.
That held until a last-minute punt return touchdown from New England’s Marcus Jones, who crossed the goal line with just five seconds remaining, and secured the Patriots 14th-straight win over the Jets.
If they had won, they would have moved into first place in the division.
After the game, tensions ran high among Jets players, who were seeking to explain the disastrous offensive performance.
The major point of contention came when second-year quarterback Zach Wilson was asked whether he “let the defense down” by his lackluster play. He responded simply “no.”
Star rookie wide receiver Garrett Wilson, who has led the team’s pass-catching unit, made his feelings known after the game.
“This s—t is not OK. Straight up, it is not okay,” the rookie said. “How many total yards did we have? That s*** is not going to fly. We got the dudes. It’s time to be consistent. It’s time to win the games we should win.”
The wideout wasn’t the only one to use expletives after the porous offensive performance, as head coach Robert Saleh called the team’s play “dogs–t.”
Zach Wilson, who is looking to establish himself as the quarterback of the future at MetLife Stadium, after being second overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, was terrible in the game.
After failing to complete 13 of his 22 attempts, Wilson failed to build on his solid matchup last game against the Bills — when he was nearly-perfect with 18 completions on 25 attempts.
HIs demeanor in the locker room rubbed some people the wrong way, though.
After saying that he didn’t “owe the defense an apology” after his uninspired performance, his attitude reportedly rubbed multiple teammates the wrong way.
Cornerback Sauce Gardner had to take to Twitter to clarify that he “accidentally” pressed the “like” button on a tweet criticizing Wilson, that read simply “You don’t owe your defense????” along with an attachment of a mis-read from the quarterback.
https://twitter.com/iamSauceGardner/status/1594717729369587724
“I swear I didn’t mean to like this tweet. I only found out because y’all started tagging me. We gon’ be straight,” Gardner said.
Still, Saleh said that a quarterback change was out of the question, and stood by his second-year signal caller, saying that benching him was the “furthest thing from my mind.”
