Insult and injury: Jets hammered by Patriots, 54-13, and Zach Wilson hurts knee

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Things went really bad to much, much worse very quickly for the Jets.

Rookie quarterback Zach Wilson injured his knee in the second quarter of the Jets’ 54-13 utterly embarrassing loss to the Patriots on a disastrous Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Mike White ended up finishing the game.

It was the Jets’ 12th straight defeat to New England, the longest current streak in the NFL, and the first time they allowed 50 points since 1995. But the Jets were more concerned with the loss of Wilson.

This whole season was about Wilson and his development. But that’s on hold now and it’s unclear for how long.

Wilson was drilled from behind by Matthew Judon and landed hard on the turf. He stayed down for a while as medical personnel attended to him. Wilson eventually walked off on his own, went to the medical tent and then limped to the locker room.

Wilson never returned and the severity of the injury wasn’t immediately known. He finished the game 6-for-10 for 51 yards.

Bill Belichick showed the Jets no mercy. He kept attacking them on both sides of the ball, throwing long passes up by 33 points late in the fourth quarter. The Patriots totaled 551 yards of offense, including 403 passing.

Without Wilson, the Jets turned to White, a fifth-round pick for the Cowboys in 2018 who made his NFL debut. White’s first pass attempt ended up being a 3-yard touchdown to Corey Davis. White overall was 20-for-32 for 202 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

The Jets, coming off their bye, thought they had their offensive woes figured out. They didn’t. They went scoreless in the first quarter for the sixth straight game and they showed little fight in dropping to 1-5.

New England had the ball five times in the first half and scored on each possession. It was 31-7 at halftime. The Jets have been outscored 44-0 in the first quarter and 106-20 in the first half.

The Jets’ one scoring drive was the series that Wilson was hurt.

He was hit after throwing a deep pass for Keelan Cole. Kyle Duggar was flagged for pass interference at the Patriots’ 2-yard line. Three plays later, White threw a high pass in the end zone and Davis made a great catch going up and snatching it.

Davis had four catches for 47 yards. Rookie Elijah Moore scored on a 19-yard reverse for his first NFL touchdown.

Defensively, the Jets badly missed linebacker and leading tackler C.J. Mosley, who didn’t play because of a hamstring injury. The Jets couldn’t stop the Patriots’ run game and/or Mac Jones.

The rookie quarterback had the first 300-yard passing game of his career. Jones completed 24 of 36 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns. Damien Harris rushed 14 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

The Jets showed no resistance on defense right from the start and had their usual first-quarter folly. They were down 14-0 by the end of the quarter.

The Patriots needed four plays to jump out to a 7-0 lead. On a trick play, Jones threw a swing pass to receiver Kendrick Bourne and he launched it to Nelson Agholor for a 25-yard touchdown just 2:17 into the game.

The Jets’ first offensive series after the bye was a three-and-out after a short run, short run and a sack.

The Patriots struck again on their second series with Harris running all over the Jets’ defense. He had carries of 9, 32 and 6 yards and punched it in from 1 yard out to make it 14-0 with 7:21 left in the quarter.

The Jets finally put together a good drive in the first quarter. They appeared as if they would end their season-long first-quarter scoring drought. But Matt Ammendola’s 48-yard field-goal attempt missed wide right.

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