EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ā 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 ā in the stadium and at home on TV ā absolutely stunned.
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āOh, my goodness,ā 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.
āI was like, āThatās a good one there. Thatās a good one and itās got to count,āā Wilson said. "I remember saying to all of them, āYāall are gassing me up too early. Itās got to count, yāall. Letās chill!ā
"Once it counted, I was like, āYeah, all right. Now yāall can tell me whatever.āā
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 āJumpmanā logo, Wilson snared the pass in the air with both legs spread out and was able to land inside the end zone.
āI told him he might get kicked from Adidas after that one,ā said a laughing Davante Adams, who is sponsored by Nike. āThat one looked like heās headed over to Jumpman with me. So, weāre going to see. Iām going to talk to some people about that one. Iām not going to say theyāre going to replace the logo ā Mike might not like me saying that ā but that was a hard catch.ā
Wilsonās catch was immediately reminiscent of the Giantsā Odell Beckham Jr.ās one-handed grab against Dallas in 2014.
āMan, Odellās, it was different and he got two feet down and the ball was going to land out of bounds,ā said Wilson, who added he was watching that game live when Beckham made the catch. āAnd it was Odell, man. Odell against the Cowboys. That was the one.
āFor it to even come up in that convo, Iām blessed. Iām honored. But Odell, yeah, thatās that boy.ā
The play was initially called an incomplete pass, but Ulbrich challenged.
āI mean, I was talking to the ref when they were reviewing it,ā Ulbrich said. āI was like, āJust for the sake of posterity, you have to say thatās in just so it goes down in history.āā
A video replay review confirmed that Wilsonās 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.
āI felt like I put it in a pretty decent spot, but yeah, I didnāt do a whole lot when it comes down to it,ā Rodgers said. āI 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, letās throw the challenge and Brick was already in front of me throwing it.ā
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.
āThatās G, man,ā Adams said. "Iāve seen, even in walkthroughs, weāre throwing the ball back and somebody catches the ball and they run into the end zone. So we start playing catch as weāre going back and heāll do stuff like that, so itās not too surprising.
āBut being able to do that in front of 80,000 and maybe millions or hundreds of thousands watching at home, thatās special.ā
Wilson was told Beckhamās catch came in what ended up a loss for the Giants ā so Wilsonās might have been better.
āYou know what? All right,ā Wilson said with a laugh. āFair enough.ā
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL