Surrounded by amped-up Kenny Pickett fans, opposing quarterback Zach Wilson was undaunted.
The Pittsburgh Steelers home crowd spent the afternoon chanting “Ken-ny, Ken-ny.”
Wilson snagged the glory away from Pickett and his hyped fans.
The New York Jets quarterback marched his team down the field for a game-winning drive that left the fans stunned at Acrisure Stadium.
Steve Serby of the New York Post gushed about the quarterback’s nerves in his column, pouring it on thick.
“Because with the game on the line, The Kid got back up off the canvas and showed he is a cold-blooded fighter and set his huddle and organization and fan base afire with hope and belief at last in his 2022 debut,” Serby wrote. “It was Jets 24, Steelers 20 when it ended, only after Zach Wilson laughed in the face of danger and defeat to seize the moment the way Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh envisioned he would one day when they anointed him their franchise quarterback.”
Trailing the Steelers 20-17 with 3:34 left in the fourth quarter, Wilson delivered the message to his team.
“Let’s score a (expletive) touchdown,” Jets running back Breece Hall told the New York Daily News after the game. “So that was our whole mentality. We weren’t really flustered or nervous. We just felt like we have to take one play at a time and we did that.”
The Steelers had the game set up for a fairytale ending after Pickett took the reins as quarterback in the second half. Halfway through the fourth quarter, the Steelers seemed ready to improve to 2-2 up 20-10. Wilson had other ideas with two clutch drives.
“Wilson led an 11-play, 81-yard drive that finished with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Corey Davis,” NJ.com wrote. “The key play came earlier on the drive when Wilson found Davis for a huge fourth-down conversion. The Jets turned first and goal from the 1 into first and goal from the 11 after two bad penalties, but still managed to finish the drive with a touchdown.”
Then came the final drive after a Pickett interception.
“The Jets got down to the goal line with time to put the game away,” wrote Andy Vasquez of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “And rookie running back Breece Hall did it with a questionable decision. Hall, on second-and-goal from the 2, stretched the ball out to try and score the touchdown. Initially, it was ruled to be a fumble. But upon review the officials determined Hall had crossed the plane of the goal line, securing the game-winning touchdown.
“A good break for the Jets? Maybe things are changing.”
Tough break for Pickett and the Steelers.
