3 Takeaways from Jets' Week 6 Win vs. Eagles

Before Sunday, the New York Jets had never beaten the Philadelphia Eagles. However, New York ended that streak and moved to 3-3 on the season with a stunning 20-14 victory.

As one might have expected, it was a physical back-and-forth battle between two teams with stout defenses. Zach Wilson and the Jets offense didn't play great, but they did enough to complement a heroic performance by a defense missing starting corners Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed.

The Eagles appeared poised to put the game away with less than three minutes remaining, but a Tony Adams interception put New York in position for the go-ahead score. Philadelphia no longer remains undefeated, while New York remains in the thick of the AFC East race.

Here are our biggest takeaways from the Jets' Week 6 win over the Eagles.

Defense Shows Return 2022 Form

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Jets DL Quinnen Williams secures an interception.

Against Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown and a balanced Eagles offense, the Jets needed a standout defensive performance to pull off the upset on Sunday. They got it.

The Jets held Philly to just 79 rushing yards, forced Hurts to pass 45 times, secured three interceptions and held Philadelphia scoreless in the second half. It was the sort of performance we often saw from the New York defense in 2022, when the team ranked fourth in both yards and points allowed.

However, that high level of defensive play had been missing for much of 2023. We saw it during the Week 1 win over the Buffalo Bills, but the defense has too often been good, not great.

Coming into Week 6, the Jets ranked 29th in rushing yards allowed, 14th in passing yards allowed, 22nd in yards allowed and 14th in points allowed. It was entirely fair to wonder if New York had a chance of pushing for the playoffs with Aaron Rodgers sidelined by a torn Achilles.

After watching the defense handle the league's last undefeated team and hand the Jets a victory, however, New York should feel very good about its postseason chances heading into the bye week.

Wilson Limits Mistakes, Offensive Line Remains a Liability

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Zach Wilson

The Jets can indeed win a lot of football games without Rodgers if they can get serviceable play from Wilson. The third-year signal-caller doesn't have to take over games the way Rodgers might, but he can't continually hurt his team with mistakes.

For the second straight week, Wilson played mostly mistake-free football. He was just 19-of-33 for 186 yards, but he didn't have a turnover. Wilson did throw an interception last week against the Denver Broncos, but that was more of a great pick by Patrick Surtain II than a poor throw by the 24-year-old.

Wilson took care of the football against a very good Eagle defense—one with eight takeaways over the first five weeks—and the Jets won. That's the good from New York's offensive performance.

The bad is that the Jets offensive line continues to be a problem. Wilson was sacked five times and was frequently under duress. The Jets also struggled to spark their ground game, and star running back Breece Hall was held to just 3.2 yards per carry.

New York has to do a better job up front if it hopes to win consistently, and with Alijah Vera-Tucker (Achilles) out for the year, it might want to consider the O-line market ahead of the October 31 trade deadline.

Robert Saleh Made the Right Call at the End

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Jets head coach Robert Saleh

The Jets could have cost themselves late in the game by scoring too quickly, and Robert Saleh's decision-making could be questioned had New York lost.

Following Adams' interception, New York had 1st-and-goal with less than two minutes remaining. Instead of forcing the Eagles to use their last two timeouts, the Jets scored on a Hall touchdown run, bleeding a mere four seconds off the clock.

That gave the Eagles the ball back, down six, with 1:46 left and two timeouts. The Jets defense came through once again, holding on fourth down, but it was a precarious position to put the defense in.

"Smart to let the Jets score there. Eagles have 1:46 and two timeouts left for Jalen Hurts to redeem himself. Jets up, 20-14," Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Yet, it was smarter to play for the touchdown and trust the defense than to play to the clock and potentially take a two-point lead. Field goals aren't guaranteed, and after not giving up a second-half score, preventing a touchdown felt like an easier task for the Jets defense than preventing a go-ahead field goal.

Given the score and the timeout situation, Saleh made the right call, even if he'd be questioned for it with a different result.