Despite Jets' red zone woes, offense is 'that freaking close'

On a night where the Jets’ defense dominated -- forcing four turnovers, getting two sacks and holding Philadelphia to 14 points -- the offense failed to reach the end zone on their first three trips to the red zone before punching in the game-winning touchdown on a short field thanks to Tony Adams’ first-career interception.

After New York's 20-14 win, head coach Robert Saleh, holding his index finger and thumb an inch apart, said, “We’re that freaking close offensively.”

Quarterback Zach Wilson said he wasn’t concerned about scoring just one touchdown from the four red zone trips; when the Eagles allowed Breece Hall to score virtually untouched in order to ensure their offense got the ball back with a chance to win the game.

“I wouldn’t say I was concerned, I was frustrated,” the QB said. “Too many negative plays, too many things kicking us out of having a chance to really go get a touchdown there. Super frustrating two weeks in a row not scoring touchdowns, so we gotta find a way.”

Saleh pointed to a few missed opportunities in the red zone -- specifically a naked bootleg that led to a sack in the third quarter -- as “a miscommunication” on a receiver not being in the flat for Wilson to quickly find.

“So you look at all these what ifs, the penalties, coulda ran a hip by on [Allen Lazard’s] personal foul,” he said about the receiver's illegal blindside block that took away a 25-yard completion that would have put the ball at the Eagles' 9-yard line. “So, a lot of opportunity, I thought offensive we did a really nice job moving the ball, especially in the second half. I know the yardage isn’t gonna look like that, but looked good.”

Wilson, who completed 19 of 33 passes for just 186 yards (5.6 yards per attempt), credited the “unbelievable” defense for keeping them in the game, setting them up at midfield or better on three occasions.

“The turnovers were huge, too. Those guys getting turnovers for us and putting us in good field position and we gotta capitalize on that stuff,” he said.

The Jets entered the game down a couple of offensive linemen and lost another in the first half, but Wilson praised the unit and offense for grinding through the win.

“We needed that win and I thought all the guys kept fighting,” he said. “Everyone kept fighting. We had O-lineman stepping up, [Joe Tippmann] going down and Wes [Schweitzer] coming in and stepping up and Max [Mitchell] coming in and playing this week, as well. Thought everyone was battling all the way across the board. No quit in this team.”

The head coach echoed that sentiment:

“We’re gonna continue battling. We’re gonna continue trying to find a way to right our story for this year and obviously winning this game going into the bye week is nice, but we had a big win last year, too. We gotta come out of the bye week with even more intent and more of that mindset and continue to find ways to get better so we can finish stronger.”

Wilson added there has “been no hiccup with this team” with Aaron Rodgers sidelined.

“Especially this offense, these guys understand how good we can be and we’re seeing it,” he said, “I hear ‘those guys couldn’t stop us tonight we gotta be able to get rid of the negative plays and try to stay ahead of the sticks and we can see how good we can be.'”

When asked to evaluate the quarterback’s play, Saleh said he believed the third-year passer “did a good job.”

“There are some things we can clean up third-down wise, finishing in the red zone’s always gonna be a thing that the quarterbacks gotta own, but I think he did a good job,” he said, adding he gave wide receiver Garrett Wilson a few chances to make some plays.

“He’s gonna get better, he’s gonna continue to get better, our offense is gonna continue to get better,” Saleh said. “He’s played a gauntlet of defenses through the first six weeks from Buffalo, Kansas City’s been lights out, Dallas is obviously lights out, Patriots have a really good defense and then obviously Philadelphia is one of those top five defenses.

“And he’s been playing pretty good ball and I just think he’s gonna get better as the year goes on.”

Of course, going over the film to learn from the mistakes and clean up the red zone issues and the Jets going 2-for-11 on third down and 0-for-1 on fourth down is much easier after a win.

“I’m having tons of fun, especially when we pull a big win out like that,” Wilson said. “Just feeling like I’m getting into a flow, I get statistically and everything things weren’t great … but I really feel like as on offense we’re really close.

“In the passing game and, obviously, in the run game, as well, I feel like we’re really close to letting things go.”

Saleh added: “We gave ourselves opportunities” in the second half and that the end zone, while elusive at the moment, won’t remain hard to find for too much longer.

“We gotta finish,” he said before once again holding his index finger and thumb an inch apart. “We’re that freaking close.”