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MORE FROM STEVE SERBY He was crestfallen when it ended, when a fumbled snap cost him his first chance to slay Patrick Mahomes, when a horrific holding call against Sauce Gardner cost him a

second and last chance to win the game. A year ago, Zach Wilson took no accountability for costing his team a game in New England and alienating his teammates, but this time, on a night when

he outdueled the great Mahomes, he was being consoled by teammates after Chiefs 23, Jets 20. “That’s on me. Critical situation I can’t have a play like that. I cannot drop the ball,” Wilson

said. “I lost us that game and I cannot do that.” Mahomes had engineered a fourth-quarter FG drive to take the lead and now here came Wilson, a more fearless Wilson, a more confident

Wilson, a more decisive Wilson, a more poised Wilson, a Wilson who was playing to win instead of not to lose. Complete to Garrett Wilson for 8 yards. Complete to Tyler Conklin for 13 yards.

Forty-nine yards from the Jets’ first lead of the game. Tershawn Wharton recovered the fumble at the NYJ. Zach Wilson spent the next 7:24 watching helplessly as Mahomes scrambled for 24

yards on third-and-23 and Michael Carter II’s interception and return to the NYJ 32 was nullified by that third-and-20 holding call that never should have been called. Robert Saleh was

certain that Zach Wilson was going to win the damn game. And so was Zach Wilson. “Absolutely,” he said. “It’s not on the defense. It’s on me.” It’s not on him. Don’t blame Zach Wilson for

this one. There will be no talk of a quarterback change this week, nor should there be. All that talk about a running game supporting the embattled quarterback? This was Air Wilson instead,

for better or for worse. And stunningly for the most part, it was for the better. He let it rip. He looked like a professional quarterback. The world had turned upside down. The gunslinger

within Wilson had surfaced without warning, and No. 2 in the white jersey was outplaying No. 15 in the red jersey. And when Wilson fired a 10-yard TD pass to Allen Lazard, and escaped

trouble to dive into the end zone for the two-point conversion that made it Jets 20, Chiefs 20, after it had been Chiefs 17, Jets 0, Carter was lifting Wilson from behind and MetLife Stadium

was going bonkers, even with all those many red-clad Chiefs jerseys in the stands. Maybe it was the presence of Aaron Rodgers on crutches that inspired Wilson. “It’s always exciting to see

the big brother,” he said. Maybe it was giving Taylor Swift something new to sing about. Maybe he was driven to prove Joe Namath and most of New York wrong. Amazing what can happen when you

get the ball out of your hands and into the hands of your playmakers. Amazing what can happen when OC Nathaniel Hackett designs a creative and simpler game plan, even with a failed

flea-flicker and a pair of Xavier Gipson jet sweeps. “I think me and Hack are growing more trust in each other,” Wilson said. Wilson (28-for-39, 245 yards, 2 TDs) completed passes to 10

different receivers. He targeted Garrett Wilson 14 times, always a good idea. It was a little less than perfect, of course. Zach Wilson barely overthrew Garrett Wilson on what would have

been a 29-yard TD pass before bouncing back to beat the blitz on a 1-yard TD pass to C.J. Uzomah … before throwing behind Garrett Wilson over the middle in KC territory with eight seconds

left in the half. He had barely missed a diving Conklin in the end zone earlier. “I threw that one low to Conklin,” Zach Wilson said. “That shoulda been a touchdown. The little things that

win games, if you want to be great, you gotta have those.” But you weren’t expecting Phil Simms in Pasadena, were you? Zach Wilson hadn’t gotten much help early from the much-ballyhooed Jets

defense. He didn’t much help from Saleh, who opted for a field-goal attempt on fourth-and-3 deep in KC territory early in the second quarter trailing 17-2. And then opted for what became a

missed 52-yard FG on fourth-and-1 at the KC 35 with 30 seconds left in the half and two timeouts left. News bulletin: You don’t try to beat Mahomes with FGs. But on this night, armed with a

17-0 lead, the great Mahomes would throw two first-half interceptions and somehow let Zach Wilson and the Jets back in the game. The kid can blame himself all he wants. It wasn’t his fault.

“If he plays that way, we’re gonna win a lot of games,” Saleh said. There are no moral victories, no medals for trying. But Zach Wilson stared down the great Mahomes and didn’t blink. “It

just shows his resilience,” Connor McGregor said. “It shows his maturity. It shows the growth that he’s had since last season.” It was supposed to be a tailor-made mismatch. The Jets lost a

game but left hopeful that they had found themselves a quarterback.