The Jets defense reverted back to their old ways on Sunday, when they allowed the Eagles offense to cruise to a 33-18 win.

The immediate outrage centers around the defense being atrocious and rightfully so.

This season was always about the development of Zach Wilson. And the silver lining is Wilson had a three touchdown performance and flashed his potential.

Last week, Wilson struggled. But it made sense since it was his first game in four months. Against the Eagles, he played better.

Growth. That’s where the focus should lie.

The offense finally looked functional to open a game under Wilson, scoring twice in the first quarter.

The unit fizzled as the game went on, but the No. 2 overall pick showed signs that he can run the offense at a high level. Overall, Wilson finished 23-of-38 for 226 yards with three total touchdowns and one interception.

“There were definitely improvements, I thought I had some good plays,” Wilson said. “Processing as far as just getting through guys. Now the next step comes with finding that balance and how I can go out and use my playmaking abilities and also stay within the offense for 99% of the time. I still think there’s a lot of improvement I can make next week. This was a good game to learn.”

Head coach Robert Saleh labeled this performance as Wilson’s best performance in terms of decision making and staying within the offense.

“His footwork was awesome. His eyes, his tempo, playing within the scheme, not trying to overanalyze,” Saleh said. “Thought this was by far his best game in terms of just progression and playing within the scheme.”

This was a game where the Eagles weren’t going to allow the Jets to throw it deep and Wilson needed to execute with throws under 20 yards.

Wilson did that extremely well. He went 17-for-26 for 192 yards with two touchdowns and one interception on throws from zero to 19 yards according to Next Gen Stats.

And when Wilson trusted his pre-snap reads and got the ball out of his hands in under 2.5 seconds, he went 13-for-17 for 96 yards with two touchdowns.

Coming into Sunday, Wilson repeatedly struggled in the first half. He was completing just 49% of his passes with seven interceptions and no TDs for a dismal passer rating of 28. In the first quarter he only had 75 yards passing.

Against the Eagles he had 50 yards passing with two touchdowns. That’s improvement and that’s all you can ask for with a rookie.

In the second half, the offense didn’t get much going. But that had more to do with the defense allowing the Eagles to possess the ball for 21 minutes to the Jets’ nine.

More on the defense, or whatever the Jets call the unit whose job is to stop opposing offense.

For the sixth time in the last nine games, Gang Green allowed the opposing offense to put up more than 400 yards. Everything that could go wrong for that Jets unit did.

Most of the damage came in the first half with the Eagles scoring 24 points. But for the fifth time in the last seven games, allowed 30 points or more.

“The first half clearly wasn’t good enough,” Saleh said. “Second half, I thought we came out and showed some fight. Lot of self-inflicted wounds on some of those third-and fourth-down calls that we need to be better at – coaches, players, everybody. They were able to sustain drives in the second half, some to their credit and some self-inflicted.”

Eagles punter Arryn Siposs’ services were rarely needed with the Eagles scoring on all but one drive.

The Jets couldn’t stop the run and allowed 185 yards on the ground—120 to Philadelphia running back Miles Sanders alone.

Eagles starting QB Jalen Hurts was ruled out with a foot injury, a positive for the Jets defense, which didn’t have to deal with Hurts’ dynamic dual threat ability. But it didn’t matter.

Gardner Minshew stepped in for Hurts and tore them apart. Minshew had only five incompletions and threw for 242 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with a 133.7 passer rating.

On Minshew’s first drive, he completed three passes for 61 yards and a touchdown to tight end Dallas Goedert. That sparked the backup QB to go 14-for-15 in the first half as the Jets had zero answers for him.

And Jets defensive ineptitude had a direct effect on the offense because in the third quarter the Eagles possessed the ball for almost 14 minutes and ran 24 plays. While the Jets ran three.

You read it correctly. Three plays.

“It’s disappointing. Our offense was rolling. We scored three touchdowns early in the first half and Zach and the receivers, the run game, all of it was working really well,” Saleh said. “If we could have gotten a stop early, It felt like our offense would have turned around and gotten some points. We had some chances there, but obviously, it wasn’t good enough.”

That completely took the Jets offense out of rhythm. And in the fourth quarter Wilson went 11-for-22 for 118 yards and an interception.

But the silver lining is Wilson showed growth. A three touchdown performance doesn’t happen every week, especially from a rookie quarterback. His performance today is something the Jets can build on.

The 3-9 Jets will look to upset the Saints next week at MetLife Stadium.