Christian Hackenberg lost the battle of the former Jets quarterbacks Saturday night.
John Wolford, who was in Jets camp this summer before being cut to make room for Davis Webb, led the Arizona Hotshots back from a 12-point deficit en route to a 20-18 road victory over Hackenberg’s Memphis Express on Saturday during Week 2 play in the Alliance of American Football.
Wolford’s 4-yard pass to Tim Cook with 7:07 remaining clinched the win for Arizona.
Hackenberg — the Jets’ 2016 second-round bust — was 14-for-25 for 102 yards and no touchdowns. He ran for one touchdown on a 4-yard scramble in which he got drilled afterward. This was the second consecutive poor game for the the former Penn State star who threw for 87 yards and an interception in a 26-0 loss to the Birmingham Iron in Week 1.
“We just got to keep getting better,” Hackenberg said. “We had a chance to win the game. Couple of chances to win the game. It just didn’t roll our way.
“We just got to keep going back to work.”
Wolford, on the other hand, bounced back from a shaky start. He threw two interceptions in the first half, but came alive in the final two quarters. Wolford, who was 6-for-7 for 173 yards in the second half, was 14-of-22 for 194 yards and two touchdowns.
Wolford, who was named the Alliance Offensive Player of the Week in the season opener, wasn’t as good as he was the first week, when he went 18-for-29 for 275 yards and four touchdowns in Arizona’s 38-22 win over the Salt Lake Stallions.
Nevertheless, Wolford said he was proud of his team’s resilience.
“Certainly not how we drew it up going into the game,” he said. “But a win is a win. It was a team effort. Anytime you can get explosive plays, it’s going to ignite an offense. In the second half, we started to get those.”