PITTSBURGH — On a night that was expected to garner a lot of attention as the Jets' newest addition, Davante Adams, made his team debut as an All-Pro receiver, it was Garrett Wilson who stole the show.
All for the wrong reasons.
For Wilson, the Jets' 37-15 loss to the Steelers Sunday night at Acrizier Stadium was the worst game of his NFL career. In that game, a pass from Aaron Rodgers ricocheted off the chest and into the arm of Steelers cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr., earning him a blow. An overwhelming intercept.
Afterwards, Wilson was left with little doubt as to how sick to his stomach he was.
“That's why we lost the game at the end of the day,” Wilson said. “That can't happen. It can't happen. It's a bad play. We have to catch the ball. We're playing bad right now, so we have to fix it.”
In the third quarter, with the Jets leading 16-15, Wilson was open on the left sideline, a pass from Rodgers hit the No. 5 on his jersey, the ball bounced into Bishop's arms, and Bishop turned the ball over. I returned it. 41 yards to the Jets 1-yard line.
Adding to the damage, on the return, Jets right guard Xavier Newman suffered a severe neck injury after being blocked on the ground and was carried off the field on a stretcher.
Thankfully, he was later cleared by doctors to return to New Jersey with his team.
But Wilson was angry at himself for the game-changing play that led to Russell Wilson's 1-yard touchdown run and gave the Steelers a 23-15 lead.
“It's kind of a culmination of not being able to attack the ball in games and developing bad habits,” Wilson said. “I have to fix that and use my hands to catch the ball. I have to do what I'm supposed to do and what I know I can do. I'm not pushing it. As a kid. I just don't believe in what I've done since then.
“The way I look at it, if I didn't drop that ball, we were going to win the game. I'm going to do what I was brought here to do and do what people expect of me and live up to my own expectations. I feel like if we can do what we're doing, we can win this game. We let everyone down today. We let the team down.”
Wilson had five catches for 61 yards on nine targets.
Adams, acquired on Tuesday, caught three passes for 30 yards on nine targets, but had some disagreements with Rodgers.
Rodgers threw him an out pass on the first offensive play of the game, but either the pass was too wide or he wasn't in the right position, and the result was awkward.
“I wouldn't call it rusty,” Adams said. “Obviously we can continue to go at a better pace. The first play of the game was just football. It doesn't always go well. We had a really good week of practice, so we had a really good week of practice. , we will continue to practice well next week and see what we can do to turn things around.”
