Jets looking for their Buster Douglas upset moment vs. Chiefs in Sunday prime time showdown at MetLife

When it rains, it pours.

While the Jets hope brighter days are ahead as they hope to shake off the bad mojo surrounding the team since Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles injury, the schedule brings the mighty Kansas City Chiefs to town. The defending Super Bowl champions that, oh yeah, also feature the best quarterback in the sport in Patrick Mahomes.

The Jets pulled off a stunner last season by defeating the Buffalo Bills at home. Nearly a year later, Gang Green will look to have a Buster Douglas-like moment. Douglas pulled off one of the great boxing upsets in history when he took down heavyweight champ Mike Tyson in 1990 in a fight nobody thought he could win.

“He’s a special talent,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said about Mahomes. “Some of the throws he makes are disgusting from a defensive perspective, but they’re super talented.

“He knows how to bide time and the offense … they’ve done a really nice job since the last time we had the chance to play them back in the Super Bowl.”

Saleh was referring to his previous NFL life as the defensive coordinator of the 49ers when Mahomes and the Chiefs beat San Francisco for the NFL crown after the 2019 season.

“Their O-line is really talented, much more talented than it was, the skill guys have speed, [Travis] Kelce’s gotten a heck of a lot better, that back, number 10 [Isiah Pacheco], he’s an absolute dog with the ball in his hands, a very physical runner.

“And then, of course, Andy [Reid], sometimes I wonder if he just draws it in the dirt as the game goes on, with some of the concepts that they have. It’s going to be a challenge, for sure.”

When the Week 4 Sunday Night Football matchup between the Jets and Chiefs was first revealed, everyone anticipated an O.K. Corral-like duel between Rodgers and Mahomes. Instead, Zach Wilson versus Mahomes is basically a sidebar to Taylor Swift (rumored to be in attendance to watch Kelce at MetLife Stadium).

Wilson’s tenure as Jets quarterback has been dreadful, and his stats this season are even worse than his first two years in the league. He has passed for 467 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions while completing 52.4% of his passes, which is a career low. Wilson also has a QB rating of 57.

The Jets signed free agent veteran Trevor Siemian to the practice squad this week as an insurance policy since Tim Boyle is the only other quarterback on the Jets roster outside of Wilson. On a national TV stage, Sunday’s game against the Chiefs could make or break Wilson.

Throughout his career, Wilson has faced intense criticism from fans and the media. However, the best quarterback in Jets history, Joe Namath, is now calling out Wilson for his inept performance against the Patriots.

“I didn’t take anything positive out of it,” Namath said. “It was awful.”

The walls were caving in on Wilson last season as he was eventually benched after failing to accept any accountability after losing to the Patriots last November. He was later benched again after he started for the injured Mike White.

You can’t totally blame the Jets misfortunes on Wilson as Gang Green was counting on Rodgers to snap its 12-season playoff drought and contend for a Super Bowl.

But this is the hand that the Jets were dealt after declining to sign a better solution at the backup QB spot. The Jets have one of the best defenses in the NFL and a solid special teams unit. Wilson has to perform better or risk getting benched.

With Siemian now with the Jets, Sunday could be Wilson’s last opportunity to show Saleh and the Jets coaching staff he gives them the best chance to win. Jets fans are angry and want results, something Wilson hasn’t given them enough.

“This narrative outside of this locker room is different from the narrative that’s in this locker room,” Wilson said. “I truly believe the guys in this locker room all have each other’s back.

“I got theirs and I feel like they got mine. We’re going to keep doing everything we can to improve and those guys are doing a good job of realizing, you know what, no one understands what’s going on besides us in this locker room.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep improving and getting better.”

If there was ever a game in which the Jets needed their defense to step up significantly, this is it. Gang Green has registered just one sack in its last two games against the Cowboys and Patriots.

The defensive line of the Jets was supposed to be one of the strongest in the NFL, but that hasn’t proven to be the case thus far. They also still need to create turnovers, which they capitalized on in the 22-16 OT victory against the Bills.

Jets cornerback D.J. Reed told reporters before the season that they had an opportunity to have a historic defense like the 1985 Bears or the 2013 Seahawks, but that remains to be seen. Although the Jets are good, they’ve had lapses, whether it’s not getting off the field on third downs against the Cowboys or allowing a 58-yard touchdown to Patriots tight end Pharaoh Brown.

“I really believe that is something we are built for because our defense is so rule-based and principle-based,” Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said.

“I really believe it allows our guys to problem solve better than when you got a lot of one-off defense, you got a lot of defense that provides a little bit of an illusion to the quarterback, but the players don’t know in and out, so when you do get a principle that is something you haven’t practiced, something that is one-off.

“I think it gives your players the better opportunity to problem solve their way through that, but at the same time, even when you play it right, you got tremendous speed on that side of the ball and you got a quarterback that absolutely knows how to deliver the deeper balls.”

The Jets just need to learn how to deliver that upset punch.