After Jets catch some breaks against Texans, time to hit the gas for rest of season

Things have finally started to go the Jets’ way.

It took a while to get here. Probably too long considering where we are in the season and where they find themselves in the standings. And it came in a game in which the first half was so awful and uninspiring it seemed as if it was going to be another of those nights we talk about for years to come when we recount the miserable games this franchise has endured.

There were even rousing chants of “Sell The Team!” echoing through a far-from-full MetLife Stadium.

But the breaks eventually showed up for a team that hasn’t seen them in many years.

Consider how the Jets beat the Texans, 21-13, on Thursday night: On a highlight-reel touchdown that had to be reviewed to be counted — and believed — early in the fourth quarter. And it came after a holding call negated an Aaron Rodgers scramble to the 3 that would have set up a first-and-goal. Without that penalty who knows what happens, but on third-and-19 from the 26 the Jets had no choice but to take a shot at the end zone.

What occurred then was the best catch in the building since Odell Beckham Jr. made his one-handed grab a decade ago. Garrett Wilson jumped up and snagged the ball with one hand, his legs splayed like a gymnast’s floor routine, before crashing to the turf in the back of the end zone. The play was initially ruled incomplete but interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich challenged the call and it went to the tablets.

There it was still unclear whether Wilson was in or not. His left foot touched inbounds twice before he went out of bounds, and as the Giants-Steelers game taught us on Monday, it takes both feet to be a completion. But the frame-by-frame analysis further showed that Wilson’s left shin had planted itself in bounds before his left knee came down out of bounds.

Touchdown, Wilson.

Game-saving touchdown, Wilson.

Season-resuscitating, faith-reinstalling score, Wilson? We’ll see.

This second-half awakening on Thursday night needs to become a second-half awakening for the season too. The Jets have winnable upcoming games against the Cardinals and Colts before their bye. They could conceivably be 5-6 at that point.

On Sunday they were completely buried with their loss to the Patriots. No time better than a Halloween night to rise from the grave.

The Wilson touchdown was just one of the twists of inches that suddenly started falling in their favor. In a game in which they managed just 69 yards in the first half and their best play was their worst — an end-around run by rookie Malachi Corley that, opposite Wilson’s, was ruled a touchdown and then wasn’t. Corley celebrated far too soon and dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line. The ball went out of bounds and was ruled a touchback for the Texans.

These crazy Jets actually found a way to make their foibles work for them.

In the second quarter it seemed like Rodgers hit Tyler Conklin for a short pass that he fumbled and the ball was recovered and returned for a touchdown. It turned out that Conklin never caught the ball, though. A lucky drop!

Then in the fourth quarter the Texans appeared to kick a 43-yard field goal that cut the lead to 14-13 but Eric Watts was flagged for a illegally contacting the long-snapper. Houston took the points off the board and was given a fresh first-and-10 at the 12. Two runs and an incompletion later they lined up for another field goal, this one from 27 yards. And normally trustworthy Ka’imi Fairbairn missed it. It clanked off the left upright with 6:54 left and kept that precious Jets lead at 14-10.

That, by the way, was the same upright where after Wilson’s first touchdown of the game, a 21-yarder to open the third quarter, new kicker Riley Patterson doinked his extra-point attempt. Somehow the ball made it through on that one, though, to tie the score at 7.

When Rodgers hit Davante Adams on a 37-yard touchdown with 2:56 left to make it 21-10, it was all but over.

The Jets defense did its part, too, harassing C.J. Stroud for eight sacks, several of them on key third downs. The most important was by Solomon Thomas late in the second quarter when he pushed the Texans back 4 yards to make them try a field goal from 56 yards rather than 52. Fairbairn missed that one wide right.

Now the key is to hold onto this vibe. The last time the Jets won way back in Week 3 was on a Thursday night too. They took the weekend off and all their mojo was lost. They can’t afford to do that again.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.