DENVER — You shouldn’t need any extra motivation when you are Zach Wilson … not after his first two nightmare seasons … not after Joe Namath and seemingly all of New York wanted him to disappear.

And when Broncos head coach Sean Payton lambasted Jets OC Nathaniel Hackett at the start of training camp, that was Aaron Rodgers’ guy, not his.

But when Rodgers’ Achilles betrayed him on opening night, Hackett became Zach Wilson’s guy.

Hackett was the one whose task was learning what could make Zach Wilson tick; how he could help Zach Wilson try to keep the Jets’ season alive.

Wilson was the one who had this chance on Sunday to show Payton what kind of coach Hackett can be for a quarterback, the kind of head coach he never was for Russell Wilson.

Breece Hall (22 carries for 177 yards, 1 TD rushing, 3-for-17 receiving) did instead.

Hackett, the 31-21 avenger over Payton, didn’t work any magic with Zach Wilson — other than the fact that the quarterback had played error-free football until the end.

Hall made sure he didn’t need to.

It doesn’t take a genius to ground and pound when your running back, freed with no pitch count at last, became Breece the Beast once again.

Hall exploded through a huge hole on the right side of the line on the Jets’ first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, and he was gone untouched for a 72-yard TD, gone for a 15-13 Jets lead, showing the burst he had left on this very Empower Field at Mile High artificial turf a year ago when he tore his ACL. He had carried four times for 72 yards that fateful day, including a 62-yard run.

On the ensuing drive, Zach Wilson found Tyler Conklin for 19 yards and Garrett Wilson for 10 yards before he was sacked, and Laken Tomlinson recovered the fumble, and soon it was 18-13, then 21-13, then 24-13.

Russell Wilson closed to within 24-21, and now Zach Wilson took over with 4:44 left. The stadium was rocking.

On third-and-4, he rifled a 37-yarder to Conklin.

Then came the critical error.

He looked downfield for Garrett Wilson.

The failed back-shoulder ended up in the hands of Patrick Surtain at the Denver 3.

Russell Wilson had 2:14 and one timeout left, needing a field goal to tie it.

On third-and-15, he found Jerry Jeudy for 20 yards.

Quincy Williams’ sack-fumble and Bryce Hall’s 39-yard fumble-recovery TD sealed it.

Xavier Gipson had fumbled a punt that Tremon Smith recovered at the Jets’ 39 late in the third quarter.

But then Quinton Jefferson promptly recovered a Marvin Mims Jr. fumble on a pitch from RB Samaje Perine at the Jets’ 49. LT Mekhi Becton was limping badly. Hall was not. Field goal.

Zach Wilson’s first completion to Garrett Wilson was a 12-yarder on the two-minute drive at the end of the first half that should have ended with a field goal at the least.

There were 15 seconds left in the first half and Zach Wilson didn’t have any timeouts left. What you cannot do here is complete a pass without getting out of bounds or throwing for the end zone.

Zach Wilson completed a pass with approximately 10 seconds remaining for 5 yards to C.J. Uzomah … who was tackled by Kareem Jackson and could not get out of bounds.

And then as the clock ticked toward zero, as his teammates scrambled to get lined up, Zach Wilson showed no urgency to clock the ball.

Until the scoreboard clock read :00.

Anybody home?

Zach Wilson had thrown one pass — high for Garrett Wilson in the end zone on third-and-goal — on the field-goal drive earlier in the second quarter that saw Hall rumble for 50 yards. Not the worst strategy at the time when the Jets’ O-line had surrendered three sacks in the first quarter,

Payback for Hackett.

Compliments of Breece Hall.