On the down side for the offense during most of Tuesday's sixth practice of Jets training camp, the unit scuffled against a resurgent defense.

On the positive side, the O won the two-minute drill to conclude practice. And Justin Fields was in the middle of the fantastic finish.

"I think we started off very slow at the start," Fields said. "At the end of practice, the last period, I think we ramped it up a bit."

And the finest part of the morning was that Fields was back, maybe not at 100% strength from his dislocated toe of last week but definitely trending upward, in his health — with a plastic shield encasing the injured toe inside his shoe — and in his two-minute bounce back performance. On fourth-and-short, the QB took off on a long scramble for the first down to keep the chains moving, then found rookie TE Mason Taylor for the 15-yard touchdown that "won" the final drill.

"I'm very relieved," Fields said of his damaged digit. "God was definitely looking out that day, and I'm glad to be back on the field working."

The gotta-have-it drive may have helped his offensive teammates and coaches, not to mention Jets fans, almost forget about the fire that erupted on the team's social media when, during last Thursday's practice, Fields came up limping after a short pass, hobbled to a cart and was taken inside the Atlantic Health Training Center for an examination that, at least from the outside, was fraught with visions of a serious injury to the Green & White's promising new field general.

Among the concerned was Fields' former Ohio State pass-catching partner, WR Garrett Wilson, who at the time indicated he felt cautiously optimistic about his friend's injury.

"Knowing him for the past decade, damn near now, it's always like when is he going to be back out there again?" Wilson said. "He's a tough cat. He broke his ribs in college against Clemson and I don't know if he missed a play. If Justin goes down, I know it's likely serious when he leaves the field. So for that, I was relieved to see him getting reps the next day."

Now with Fields' toe almost good to go — head coach Aaron Glenn noted the QB is still wearing "this huge deal" of plastic to protect the foot — the NFL, a.k.a. Not For Long, moves on. AG was happy with Fields' progress over the past several practices, but the offense's Tuesday struggles prompted him to underscore one of the coaching points he's been making to all his players.

"Even though the defense had a really good day against the offense, you saw in that drill how the offense picked it up and got down there and got the score," Glenn said. "Things are going to happen in this game that you don't like, but how do you respond to that? When you get in stressful situations, that's one thing I have to coach with our guys, that it's never over. I want our guys to always understand we can always win the game no matter what the situation is."

And the Jets offensive players know instinctively, especially hearing AG's preaching it every day, that regardless of whose ribs or toes are hurt or the ups and downs of late July training camp, the offense needs to take aim at starting and finishing games the same way, with authority. That's something that Jets teams over the previous decade have struggled with, and Fields, for one, knows it's time for change.

"I think this time is very valuable in terms of getting repetitions, getting on the same page with guys, especially when you're learning new concepts." the QB said. "I definitely didn't want to miss much time and that's why I was kind of eager to get back on the field and keep going."

And also eager to help the Jets realize his own and AG's desires to have a 60-minute offense, one that Wilson thinks "can be explosive."

"We can't have a few bad reps, bring it all up, talk with each other, then decide, all right, let's go," Fieklds said. "It's got to be right out of the gate."

And dare we say with their quarterback toeing the line and leading the way.