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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- As reporters filed into a conference room beneath MetLife Stadium for Russell Wilson's post-game press conference, somebody mentioned the Seattle Seahawks' team bus wouldn't leave without the quarterback. Especially after a game in which Wilson proved, yet again, that he is the driver behind the wheel for one of the NFL's most consistent teams.
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Wilson showed no signs of his leg injuries Sunday afternoon, when the Seahawks quarterback carved up the New York Jets for 309 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-17 win.
"To go through some of the things that he's gone through these last couple weeks and to not take a day off - not take a minute off, to be here and to go through every practice and to be in the training room with me everyday - it just shows how much of a warrior he really is," Seahawks tight end Jimmy Graham said.
Graham, who is less than 11 months removed from tearing his right patellar tendon, had six catches for 113 yards on Sunday.
Wilson, who suffered a high right ankle sprain in the season opener Sept. 11 and a sprained left MCL on Sept. 25, ran by design only once but finished 23 of 32 - including 12 of 12 on the Seahawks' three touchdown drives - while completing passes to eight different receivers.
The surgical performance came at the end of a week in which Wilson spent most of his time rehabbing his right knee. He even hired a live-in nurse to stay with him and administer middle-of-the-night treatments.
"I have the best job in the NFL - to be a starting quarterback in the NFL, 32 men in the world get to do what I do," said Wilson, who wore a custom brace on his left knee. "Every week, I'm going to do everything I can to be at my best. I'm grateful for the people I have around me, for my teammates and how hard they work everyday.
"Just a little ding here and there, that's not going to stop me from playing."
Wilson hit his stride in the second quarter, when the Seahawks scored twice on drives that totaled 178 yards. He threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Spiller, who signed with the team on Wednesday, and a 42-yard touchdown pass to wide-open rookie Tanner McEvoy. It was the first career catch for McEvoy, who went to high school at nearby Bergen Catholic.
The Jets pulled within 14-10 at the half on Ryan Fitzpatrick's 17-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Marshall with 13 seconds left in the second quarter. New York got no closer in the second half as the Seahawks sandwiched a pair of Steven Hauschka field goals around Christine Michael's first career touchdown catch, a 6-yarder from Wilson.
Even with a hobbled Wilson, the Seahawks (3-1) have scored 64 points in their last two games after putting up just 15 in splitting the first two games of the season.
"He's only had one half when he didn't have something wrong this season," Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said of Wilson. "I really don't know how to say enough about his mentality. He has a perfect mentality to endure whatever he needs to endure."
Now, with the Seahawks heading into their bye, Wilson gets two weeks off to get better.
"I got two full weeks?" Wilson said with a grin. "Oh man. I can't wait."
The reeling Jets (1-3) can't wait for a break, either, but their bye isn't until after Week 11, at which point the season might be long over. New York has been outscored 51-30 in losing its last two games, during which Fitzpatrick has thrown a whopping nine interceptions, including three on Sunday.
"It's obviously not somewhere we want to be, not somewhere we thought we'd be," Fitzpatrick said. "But nobody is going to feel sorry for us, so we can't sit here and pout about it."
Especially in the midst of a rigorous schedule. The Jets, who are in the midst of four straight games against teams that made the playoffs last season, visit the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals in the next two weeks.
"We fought two battles two weeks in a row and we lost, but the season is not over," Jets head coach Todd Bowles said. "We have to get better and we're going to do that next week. We're going to get better."
Fitzpatrick was 23 of 41 for 261 yards. The Jets scored their last touchdown when wide receiver Charone Peake picked up a Fitzpatrick fumble and raced 40 yards for his first NFL score with 2:15 left in the fourth quarter.
NOTES: Jets RG Brian Winters (concussion) and CB Darrelle Revis (thigh) each left with injuries. ... Among the Jets' inactives was TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who was claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Monday but practiced only twice during the week. ... Among the Seahawks' inactives was RB Thomas Rawls (fractured fibula). Seattle general manager John Schneider said during a radio interview Sunday morning that Rawls, who was injured Sept. 17, will likely be out for another month. ... Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, who was the Jets' head coach in 1994, improved to 4-4 as a head coach against the Jets.
