EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – When Aaron Rodgers gets hit, it will take him a little longer than usual to get up. His knees hurt, his ankles hurt – punches always hurt, but now they hurt even more. This is football at 40 years old.
Between squeaking and crumbling, signs of age are visible as Rodgers occasionally appears. He's still there and often glorious, like when he launched a pass into the air Monday night just before halftime – the greatest Hail Mary in NFL history, landing another 52 yards to Allen Lazard just before halftime.
Hail Mary before half time! @AaronRodgers12 let it fly!#BUFvsNYJ by ESPN-ie pic.twitter.com/4Hf2aBmI5C
— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 15, 2024
The Jets should have gone to the locker room losing 20-10. Instead it was 20:17. Maybe the old man still has some magic up his sleeve to help the team through a week of turmoil, with the head coach (Robert Salih) fired and the interlocutor (Rodgers' friend Nathaniel Hackett) demoted.
Sometimes the magic feels alive and then you realize the magic isn't real. At least not here.
“Those are the moments where you want to grab the momentum and run with it,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “Unfortunately not.”
For three weeks in a row, Rodgers had the ball late in the fourth quarter and had an opportunity for the Jets to take the lead. He lost all three times. Monday night ended when Rodgers believed wide receiver Mike Williams ran the wrong way, Rodgers tripped him, Williams slipped – and possibly suffered a concussion when a defender landed on him – and the pass was intercepted. The game ended a few plays later with Michael Clemons defending, I watched Josh Allen drive him to convert a first down and the game was over. Lost 23:20.
“Yes, it's frustrating,” Rodgers said. “I'm here to win these games. But we need to focus on the details. It's the little things every time.”
The Jets are now 2-4 – Rodgers' first-ever six-game loss. Rodgers was sacked three times and struck out five times on Monday after receiving 25 hits in the previous two games. It's getting harder and harder to get up. And now the 40-year-old, now on his last legs, must do everything in his power to get the Jets out of a 2-4 hole, something he's never had to do before.
“We have to get started,” Rodgers said. “It was a golden opportunity. Some games you win the NFL and some games you give away. It was a gift.”
Jets owner Woody Johnson made a change last week, firing Saleh and replacing him with Ulbrich with the idea of strengthening the Jets. Under Salih, the Jets kept making the same mistakes over and over again. There was a different coach on Monday, but the problems were still there and the Jets gave no reason to believe they could overcome what was ailing them, mainly because they had never been able to deal with it before.
On Monday night, the offense scored on their first two possessions – a 34-yard field goal and a brilliant 5-yard field goal. Garrett Wilson catching a touchdown — something that was never accomplished under Hackett. But the defense didn't live up to its billing, gashed by a rookie running back (Ray Davis) who went 75 of 26 in five plays. NA BuffaloDavis had first possessions of 3, 14, 6, 5, 15 and 5 yards, after which the quarterback Josh Allen had a 1-yard touchdown pass. Davis finished the game with 97 yards rushing on 20 carries – plus three catches for 55 yards – and the Bills running back averaged 5.4 yards per carry.
“It's just not the start we're used to in this defense. We need to be more diligent in everything we do,” Ulbrich said.
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Saleh has often been criticized for the Jets being one of the most penalized teams in the NFL. That didn't change with the coaching change: On Monday, the Jets were assessed 11 penalties for 110 yards, and that didn't even take into account some of the offsetting penalties that occurred. The Jets were called for four different defensive pass interference penalties and one for roughing the passer. Some of the calls were questionable — on both sides, Rodgers said — but not enough to justify it.
“We need to look at this together, take a close look at the tape,” Ulbrich said. “What is legal? What isn't? That's always telling. However, from a discipline point of view, this cannot happen. We went behind the sticks. This puts us behind before we even start. It wasn’t good enough that way.”
The attack wasn't much better. In the second quarter, a false start was triggered by right tackle Morgan Moses turning from third-and-10 to third-and-15, and then Rodgers was sacked. In the third quarter, running back Braelon Allen's 4-yard touchdown was called back by Tyron Smith holding a penalty. On the next play, Wilson missed a potential touchdown when he was hit by two Bills defenders.
Then kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 32-yard field goal. He later missed a 43-yard field goal, hit the uprights with kicks and missed key points in a three-point deficit.
“At the end of the day, we're going to lose games if we kick three balls,” Wilson said, “and you just don't want to live in a world of relying on kicks.”
Wilson also called the penalties “demoralizing.”
“It's not a good feeling,” Wilson said. “It's just shooting yourself in the foot. It's something we've been doing, something we've been emphasizing all week of practice, but we still go out there and do those things to stay out of the end zone. …We have to be better. We have to do everything we can to be better during the week. It's definitely frustrating, but we are in control of it. We have to fix this, we must and we plan to.
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The Jets gained 393 yards of offense. The running game (Breece's Hall: 113 yards on 18 carries) woke up and both Wilson (107 yards) and Lazard (114 yards) had big nights. However, the Jets scored a touchdown on only one of four red zone drives and converted 4 of 12 third downs.
“I felt good all week,” Rodgers said. I thought we were going to have a big night offensively. This should be a game where we should score over 30 points offensively, and it shouldn't even be a conversation.
Coaches change, but the problems remain the same.
After last week's loss to the Vikings, Salih insisted that “it's still early.” He was released two days later. Now the Jets are 2-4. It's getting late and fast, a feeling the Jets have become all too familiar with in recent years: seasons that start with promise and end in disaster. Wilson said he's finding that getting out of this kind of hole is easier said than done.
“I'm learning it's harder than it looks,” Wilson said. We have to find it. I don't know, man. If I knew all the answers, we would have won this game. S…man, we need to dig a little deeper. Do something extra. I can't drop this damn ball, no matter how hard I get hit. You have to experience it, you can't just talk about it. We have to go out and do these things and it has to happen now. “
The Jets had an emotional week. By all accounts it has been a positive week around the facility, the organization is moving in the same direction, the energy is coming back towards something positive. But it can be fleeting when the victories don't come. Everyone loves the new coach until he loses too.
It's only one match for Ulbrich and he's already running out of time.
“I think there is always a sense of urgency,” Ulbrich said. “It has to be. That's the nature of this league. At the same time, 2-4 are by no means beyond this problem. In no way. I know the nature of this locker room. I know how we will react. I know it. I believe this week's process was correct. I think the way we prepared was exceptional. We need to start putting together these weeks of exceptional preparation. I promise it will start paying off on Sundays.
Promises, promises.
“We just have to find a way to score touchdowns,” Wilson said, “because I don’t want to feel like that all the time.”
(Top photo: Luke Hales/Getty Images)
