EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.— Trevin Wallace looked back at Jaycee Horn in confusion.

It was first-and-10, the Jets were at the Panthers 38-yard line, and trailing 13-3 at that point. With clock quickly ticking towards the fourth quarter, Carolina knew they'd probably try to throw and Wallace, the inside linebacker, had somehow drawn a receiver coverage assignment.

"He was matched up on the receiver and he was looking at me like, 'You want to switch?' Because I was on a running back," explained Horn after the Panthers' 13-6 win.

"I'm like, 'Bro, just stay on him, you (run a) 4.4, you probably faster than him.'"

Wallace had a completely different line of thinking.

"Bruh they payed you all that money," Wallace exclaimed, pointing towards Horn, who signed a major extension this offseason. "You better cover the receiver! But he looked at me and was like 'You got it?' And hey, if he trust me, he trust me."

The trust from the Pro Bowl corner was well placed…but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Wallace stayed on the receiver, Allen Lazard, and Horn took the running back, Breece Hall. The Jets shifted Hall over for the direct snap and Wallace thought he was safe. No need to cover Lazard. Except, it was a trick play. Hall pitched it to Isaiah Davis, who flicked it back to quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who set up to heave it down field to Lazard. The deception worked to confuse the linebacker—for at least a second.

"What was crazy was, when I looked I was like, 'OK it's a reverse.' Then said, 'Hold up, wait a minute, running back ain't got the ball,'" Wallace recalled.

Instead, Taylor had the ball and was dropping back and winding up, because Lazard had broken free and was streaking down the far sideline. When Wallace realized Hall wasn't running, he looked up, saw the ball in the air, put two-and-two together that it was going to the receiver he had been entrusted with, and had one thought.

"I said 'Oh dang, I got to run.' So I was like 'Dude just run, hope for the best,'" Wallace laughed.

His teammates had no doubt (or at least in hindsight, they had no doubt) that Wallace had the speed to catch up to Lazard.

"Of course, he 4.4," safety Lathan Ransom responded without hesitation, referring to Wallace's 40-yard dash time. At the Combine, Wallace's ran a 4.51, but that's neither here nor there. His background gave him the speed and know-all to make the play.

"Yeah, he played receiver in high school so he better have PBU skills," exclaimed nickel Chau Smith-Wade.

In fact, Wallace played receiver, running back, quarterback (at times), linebacker, and special teams returner.

"Oh, he's like that, for sure," bragged safety Tre'von Moehrig of Wallace. "I mean, I watched these guys since I got out here, so I see their ability and yeah, he's like that. He's special."

Still, in the moment, Wallace wasn't sure he'd be able to make up the distance in time.

"Ahhhhh," he grimaced, asked if he knew he had that closing speed. "I was praying to God, 'Just run, just run!' I didn't even look back, I was like run, that's all I was thinking, just run."

In the end, he ran fast enough, sticking his hand in to save what looked to be a wide open touchdown, ensuring Horn made the right decision to trust the second-year linebacker to stay on the play. The very next play, Horn intercepted a ball in the end zone—a one handed highlight takeaway—to keep the Jets off the scoreboard in a close game.

But that never happens without Wallace's PBU.

"Trevin's a hell of a player," said Horn. "Just to see the growth he made the last couple of weeks, just staying with it, you know, when, when everybody was tough on him early on, I'm super proud of him and I think he's just going to keep getting better."

"Next play, Jaycee got a pick," Wallace nodded. "Good things come to those who run. And I ran."