Jets' defense does its job again and gets help from the offense this time

The sky was gray, the rain was falling and the stands were minus a whole lot of fans. But this wasn’t another gloomy day for the Jets’ defense when its good work was all for nothing.

These guys haven’t complained about the offense’s struggles. But they were thrilled to see that unit rise and complementary football come to life in a 30-6 victory over Houston on Sunday at MetLife Stadium that halted the Jets’ slide at five games and lifted them to 5-8.

“It felt really good,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “We’ve seen it plenty of times in practice. We’ve seen the execution. We’ve seen the offensive guys work really hard to maintain and play to the standard that they’re capable of.”

The defense has persevered despite the problems on offense, doing its part more often than not and keeping a good attitude.

“Just having the right group of men in the locker room,” cornerback D.J. Reed said. “[General manager] Joe Douglas, he brought in a lot of great men. Everybody in our locker room is quite honestly just good guys. [It’s also] Coach [Robert] Saleh, with the program he’s running.

“There’s no finger-pointing. We’re all in this together . . . So today for us to play complementary football is just a true testament to coaching and to the players, how we react to every situation.”

The defense shut down quarterback C.J. Stroud, the top candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year, and the rest of the Texans’ offense.

Stroud went 10-for-23 for 91 yards and no touchdowns. He left with 6:30 remaining after taking a hit and will enter concussion protocol.

Houston (7-6) had only 135 yards overall — 81 net rushing and 54 net passing. The Jets (5-8) had five sacks and tied a season high with 10 passes defensed, including three by Reed.

“Our whole thing this entire year is just to control what we can control, and regardless of how the offense or special teams does, we know on defense we have to hold it down,” said edge rusher Bryce Huff, who sacked Stroud for a 14-yard loss. “And luckily today everybody played together and we had a good game.”

Reed lauded the work of the secondary and the defensive play-calling. He also spoke about how happy he was for Zach Wilson and praised his “professionalism.” The quarterback received the keys again after being benched for two games and went 27-for-36 for a season-high 301 yards and two TDs.

“He told us during the week that . . . he’s going out to play for us and he loves us and he’s going to give it his all, and he’s basically playing with nothing to lose,” Reed said.

“I feel like that’s the scariest man. Someone that has nothing to lose, he’s going to go out there and just give it his all because what’s the consequence? You’re going to bench him again? . . . That was his mindset coming into this game. And he definitely showed how great he can be in this league.”