PITTSBURGH — It was at 11:31 p.m. when New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and his brother, Christopher, took an elevator down to the ground floor at Acrisure Stadium. They walked past the Jets’ entrance onto the field and headed toward the visitor’s locker room just as the Pittsburgh Steelers put the finishing touches on a blowout with another touchdown, the PAT their 31st consecutive point. Johnson was pissed off when the Jets were beat up by the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1. He was even angrier after they lost the Denver Broncos in Week 4. After a Week 5 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, he fired head coach Robert Saleh.
He did it to spark something in a team that, he said, is the most talented of any in his 25 years as Jets owner. That’s why he approved an expensive trade for wide receiver Davante Adams last week, and pushed to give disgruntled defensive end Haason Reddick a new deal this week. He threw money at the Jets’ problems. But money can’t make a miracle, not here.
Aaron Rodgers, the man who was supposed to create those miracles, walked through the visitor’s tunnel seven minutes after Johnson walked past it. Rodgers sauntered through, alone, his jersey dirtied, his left hand bloodied, his legs hurting. He grabbed his face mask and pulled it down, grimacing with frustration, and then ripped his helmet off, staring ahead at the blank white wall in front of him as he turned the corner. He let out a breath.
Misery can be suffocating. And the Jets are running out of oxygen.
The Jets needed a win on Sunday night. At one point, it felt like they would get it. They went up 15-6 in the second quarter with a touchdown and a successful two-point conversion. That score held as Rodgers and Allen Lazard connected on a back-shoulder throw up the right sideline, a 20-yard gain, right before the first half’s two-minute warning. Then, two plays later, Rodgers forced a pass intended for Garrett Wilson, surrounded by defenders, despite Breece Hall being open underneath for an easy first down. Steelers rookie Beanie Bishop intercepted it. Everything changed.
FIRST @NFL INT FOR BEANIE‼️
📲 Stream on NFL+: https://t.co/COxKRnr6Mc pic.twitter.com/LCLFvTnVl8
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 21, 2024
“It was a bad throw, I should’ve just dumped underneath,” Rodgers said after the game. “That play, for whatever reason, just changed the entire energy, it changed the game.”
The Steelers came back and scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to wide receiver George Pickens, who feasted on the Jets’ depleted secondary all evening. Rodgers threw another pick in the third quarter, this one bouncing off an open Garrett Wilson’s shoulder before Bishop secured it, again, and returned it to the 1-yard line. By the time Johnson exited his owners suite and headed toward the locker room, the Steelers had scored 31 consecutive points. The Jets lost 37-15. A season that started with so much hope is starting to feel hopeless, seven weeks in.
The Jets were not ready for Sunday night, just as they were not ready for any of the four games they’ve played since a dominant Week 3 win over the New England Patriots. They’ve lost four in a row, and most of their issues are consistent with what they were when Robert Saleh was still the coach — and even when Zach Wilson was still the quarterback.
“We just didn’t execute,” Adams said after his Jets debut. “The moments we had to put the ball in the end zone or finish a drive or get three, we just didn’t execute, didn’t finish. That’s been the underlying thing for this team this year.”
Signs that this was going to be a long night started during pregame warmups. Rodgers felt like something was off.
“It shouldn’t be that difficult,” Rodgers said. “I just felt like the energy, it starts with me. The energy, for whatever reason at halftime was a little flat. It was flat before the game too. I gotta look at myself and what I can do to bring better energy. But we all gotta do better.”
Rodgers’ first pass of the game went to Adams, his old friend and favorite target from the eight years they spent together in Green Bay. Adams dropped it. It might’ve been a harbinger of things to come.
Most of Rodgers’ passing production came on dump-offs to Hall, who accumulated 103 yards on six receptions but only rushed for 38 yards on 12 carries, one of them a 13-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Rodgers threw 25 passes intended for wide receivers, but only completed 13 of them. Adams was targeted nine times, but only caught three for 30 yards (and caught none of his three targets after halftime). Wilson had five catches on nine targets for 61 yards, was called for two false starts and dropped two passes — one of them, the interception in the third quarter, was especially costly.
“I gotta catch the damn ball,” Wilson said. “I’m playing like s— right now. I don’t take it lightly. That was the reason we lost the game at the end of the day. S— can’t happen. It’s terrible plays, it’s like a culmination of bad habits … I gotta fix it. I’ve got good hands, I’ve gotta use my hands to catch the damn ball.”
Wilson’s drop was costly, certainly. The Steelers scored on the next play, a one-yard Russell Wilson sneak, but plenty of other things contributed to the loss. They might have needed to win this game to save their season; instead, the Jets dug themselves into a deeper hole that will be difficult to climb out of, especially if this version of Rodgers they’re getting: 40-years-old, hesitant to throw downfield, and turning the ball over at a rate he hasn’t for most of his career. He has seven interceptions in seven games, the most he’s thrown through seven games since 2010. He has his worst completion percentage (61.7 percent) since 2015. This is his worst record through seven games in his 17 years as a starting quarterback.
“Everything is still right in front of us,” Rodgers said. “We gotta somehow keep the belief in the locker room and start a run. We can’t win 10 in a row unless you win the first one. So we gotta be very critical of ourselves, each of us individually tomorrow, and then come in with the right attitude all week and go to New England (in Week 8) and get a win.”
But how can a team “keep the belief” if it keeps losing, the same way, over and over again?
“Stop listening to you guys (the media), No.1,” Rodgers said. “No. 2, gotta be accountable. I gotta play better. That’s the key. I gotta play better.”
Johnson fired Saleh in hopes of swinging the momentum in a positive direction. But a coaching change can’t make their 40-year-old quarterback younger. It can’t fix the problems that have plagued this organization for over a decade. Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich was supposed to inject some energy into a team that needed it. So far, that experiment hasn’t worked.
Rodgers is stumbling and the defense is crumbling. The Jets entered Sunday night’s game without three of their five starting defensive backs — cornerbacks D.J. Reed and Michael Carter II, and safety Chuck Clark. During the game they lost their other starting safety, Tony Adams, to a hamstring injury in the second quarter, then lost Clark’s replacement, Ashtyn Davis, in the third quarter as he was evaluated for a concussion. (Offensively, right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker left in the second quarter with an ankle injury and his replacement, Xavier Newman, was carted off after a frightening neck injury sustained during Bishop’s third-quarter interception return.)
The run defense has been an issue all season, and on Sunday Steelers running back Najee Harris rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. All told, this defensive unit feels like a shell of what it was supposed to be.
Naj in for 6️⃣ @ohthatsNajee22
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— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 21, 2024
“That game, especially that second half, that’s not who this team is,” Ulbrich said. “That’s not good enough and that starts with me and the coaching staff and it goes down to every single player on this team. We can all give more, and we will give more. We have what we need. This is not who we are. I’m extremely disappointed.”
Until the Jets actually show progress, make strides in ways they haven’t for four weeks, these are all just words. They are 2-5, and that it who they are until they prove otherwise.
“This season ain’t over,” Wilson said. “You still got everything out in front of us. I feel like we’ve got everything we need here. It’s time to go play on Sundays, on game day, whatever it may be like. It’s time to win games. At the end of the day, that’s gotta be it.”
On Sept. 25, as the Jets were riding the high of a primetime win over the Patriots, Rodgers told reporters that “our biggest struggle is going to be handling success.” They haven’t won since.
(Top photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images)
