EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Garrett Wilson saw the ball floating his way, so he did everything he could to catch it.
He jumped, legs out and arms outstretched in the end zone. And with a dazzling, one-handed grab, the star wide receiver gave the New York Jets the lead and left everyone watching — in the stadium and at home on TV — absolutely stunned.
“Oh, my goodness,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said.
Wilson’s acrobatic 26-yard touchdown catch helped the Jets to a 21-13 victory over the Houston Texans on Thursday night. And it’ll surely end up on highlight reels for years to come.
“I was like, ‘That’s a good one there. That’s a good one and it’s got to count,’” Wilson said. “I remember saying to all of them, ‘Y’all are gassing me up too early. It’s got to count, y’all. Let’s chill!’
“Once it counted, I was like, ‘Yeah, all right. Now y’all can tell me whatever.’”
With the Jets facing third-and-19 from the Texans 26, Aaron Rodgers tossed the ball up toward Wilson in the end zone. And the Jets star receiver did the rest.
Looking like the Michael Jordan “Jumpman” logo, Wilson snared the pass in the air with both legs spread out and was able to land inside the end zone.
“I told him he might get kicked from Adidas after that one,” said a laughing Davante Adams, who is sponsored by Nike. “That one looked like he’s headed over to Jumpman with me. So, we’re going to see. I’m going to talk to some people about that one. I’m not going to say they’re going to replace the logo — Mike might not like me saying that – but that was a hard catch.”
Wilson’s catch was immediately reminiscent of the Giants’ Odell Beckham Jr.’s one-handed grab against Dallas in 2014.
“Man, Odell’s, it was different and he got two feet down and the ball was going to land out of bounds,” said Wilson, who added he was watching that game live when Beckham made the catch. “And it was Odell, man. Odell against the Cowboys. That was the one.
“For it to even come up in that convo, I’m blessed. I’m honored. But Odell, yeah, that’s that boy.”
The play was initially called an incomplete pass, but Ulbrich challenged.
“I mean, I was talking to the ref when they were reviewing it,” Ulbrich said. “I was like, ‘Just for the sake of posterity, you have to say that’s in just so it goes down in history.’”
A video replay review confirmed that Wilson’s shin was down in the end zone and a touchdown was called to give the Jets a 14-10 lead with 12:54 left in the fourth quarter.
“I felt like I put it in a pretty decent spot, but yeah, I didn’t do a whole lot when it comes down to it,” Rodgers said. “I just kind of lobbed one up there and he made an unbelievable catch. When I saw the replay, it looked like he had his knee in and I thought, shoot, let’s throw the challenge and Brick was already in front of me throwing it.”
It was the second of two one-handed touchdown grabs Wilson made against the Texans. The first was a less spectacular, but still impressive, 21-yard TD in the third quarter.
“That’s G, man,” Adams said. “I’ve seen, even in walkthroughs, we’re throwing the ball back and somebody catches the ball and they run into the end zone. So we start playing catch as we’re going back and he’ll do stuff like that, so it’s not too surprising.
“But being able to do that in front of 80,000 and maybe millions or hundreds of thousands watching at home, that’s special.”
Wilson was told Beckham’s catch came in what ended up a loss for the Giants — so Wilson’s might have been better.
“You know what? All right,” Wilson said with a laugh. “Fair enough.”
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