Jets takeaways from Sunday's 23-20 loss to Chiefs, including Zach Wilson's encouraging performance

On Sunday night, in front of a national TV audience, much of the attention was centered around a major star who was in attendance. However, Aaron Rodgers' presence did little to inspire the Jets early on, as they fell into an early 17-point hole against the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

To the Jets' credit, they battled back to pull within eight by halftime -- in part, thanks to two uncharacteristic interceptions thrown by the reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes -- then tied the score on their first drive of the second half.

Kansas City took a three-point lead on a field goal with 10:51 to go and then recovered a Zach Wilson fumble near midfield on the Jets' next possession. On the ensuing drive, the Chiefs frustrated the Jets by converting on third-and-22 and third-and-20 to run out the remaining clock.

Aside from that fumble, Wilson had possibly his best game as a Jet and easily his best game of the 2023 season. Maybe Rodgers' presence had a positive impact after all.

Here are the key takeaways...

- The Chiefs drove downfield quickly on their first drive, aided by a Jermaine Johnson unsportsmanlike penalty and two Mahomes to Travis Kelce first-down connections, but the Jets managed to force them to settle for a field goal. However, when the Jets predictably opened up with a three-and-out on offense, that soon became a double-digit lead when Isiah Pacheco broke free for a 48-yard touchdown run.

- With the fans already losing patience in the offense, the Jets managed just one first down on their next possession and then a blown coverage led to a long touchdown for Noah Gray. These are the kinds of lapses the Jets cannot afford to have from their defense. Gray is the fourth backup tight end to score a touchdown against the Jets in three weeks.

- Fans have been crying out for some creative plays from the Jets offense, but when they finally tried to do this, the execution was poor. Wilson almost fumbled the handoff on a jet sweep that lost yardage and was then sacked on a flea-flicker. Interestingly, it was Xavier Gipson and not who saw action in some of these special packages and Mecole Hardman did finally have success on a Gipson end around down inside the 10-yard line.

- Unexpectedly, Wilson settled down after the slow start and led the Jets to a field goal after a Jets safety, then threw a one-yard touchdown pass to CJ Uzomah to make it 17-12. The Jets used a lot of play-action to get Wilson going and the likes of Garrett Wilson, Randall Cobb and Allen Lazard all made plays to help him out in the first half.

- While Wilson was playing well, Mahomes was uncharacteristically poor in the first half, by his own lofty standards. He was badly off-target on interceptions by Ashtyn Davis and CJ Mosley, who also dropped another potential interception. While the connection with Kelce was working well early, the Gray touchdown was a gift and Mahomes didn’t have much other first half success.

- Wilson, who completed 28 of 39 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown, led a superb drive to open the second half, highlighted by his touchdown throw to Lazard and his game-tying scramble on the two-point conversion. He completed two nice back shoulder throws to Tyler Conklin and Jeremy Ruckert on the drive.

- It was all going so well for Wilson, who had the Jets driving, in Chiefs territory, down by three, midway through the fourth quarter. However, a key loss of focus saw him fumble a snap for a crucial turnover. Remarkably, this was just Wilson’s second fumble since his rookie year but couldn’t have come at a much worse time.

- Despite dropping to 1-3, the Jets will take some positives from being able to go toe-to-toe with the world champions. Some of their upcoming games certainly look winnable if they -- and Wilson, in particular -- can play like this. While the Jets may have discovered a little of what their identity could be going forward, though, they simply can’t afford to keep spotting teams, especially good ones, a double-digit lead every week.

Highlights

What's next

The Jets hit the road to face the Denver Broncos on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. in Week 5.