LONDON — There was a moment in the third quarter on Sunday when Aaron Rodgers was slow to get up, his leg caught between two Minnesota Vikings defensive linemen after a hit on a third-down throw. He limped off the field and, at the behest of team trainers, headed toward the big blue medical tent, helmet off.
Just as he was about to enter the tent, the Vikings were called for a roughing the kicker penalty — the offense was getting the ball back. Rodgers shook his head, turned around, put on his helmet, and gingerly jogged back onto the field.
“I said screw it, I’m going back out there,” he said after the game.
This felt like it could be a moment — one of those moments that can turn around a season, a potential turning point for a team that always seems to find new ways to lose.
On the next play, Breece Hall rushed for 10 yards, his only productive run all afternoon. Rodgers completed passes to Garrett Wilson for 11 yards, Hall for three yards and Braelon Allen for 15. Allen ran it for seven yards.
.@GarrettWilson_V movin’ the chains ⛓️#NYJvsMIN on NFLN pic.twitter.com/NsDxLaaOOd
— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 6, 2024
After a mix of completions and incompletions, Rodgers hit Allen Lazard with a back-shoulder throw in the end zone — only Lazard couldn’t haul it in, one of his four drops in the game. The Jets settled for a field goal.
And that’s the Jets in 2024 — and in every season, really, since Robert Saleh became head coach. They come close to meeting the moment, and then they fall short.
The Jets fell behind 17-0 on Sunday and yet still marched back, with a chance to take the lead, down six, when Rodgers got the ball back with 3:07 remaining. He got them to the 26-yard-line with 49 seconds left. And then he underthrew wide receiver Mike Williams on a go-ball down the right sideline, intercepted by Vikings cornerback Stephon Gilmore. It was a fitting ending to a 23-17 loss, coming on a day when Rodgers played his worst game in a Jets uniform — and one of the worst of his career.
Rodgers was bruised and battered all afternoon, the offensive line failing to adequately protect him for the second consecutive week. His decision-making was poor, particularly on two first-quarter interceptions, one returned for a touchdown. And yet, the Jets fought back. They could have won. Maybe they should have. But that’s not good enough anymore.
“You’re always going to find silver linings,” Robert Saleh said. “I’m not ready to talk about them now but I do appreciate that our guys continue to battle and they fought and gave ourselves a chance. We’re right there with a chance to score a touchdown at the end of the game and go win it and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us.”
Saleh’s players seem to have a better grasp on the reality: Fighting back, but still falling short, isn’t going to cut it anymore. This is Saleh’s fourth year as Jets coach. Moral victories are no longer acceptable — they haven’t been since 2021.
“We’re not gonna quit but that’s mandatory when you get to this point,” said wide receiver Garrett Wilson. “There’s no excuse to quit. If we wanted to fold it in when we were down 17-0 some of us don’t belong here. That’s how I feel about it. At the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. We can’t get down 17-0, but once we’re down 17-0 there’s no excuse, we’ve gotta find a way to battle back. I think we did our best at that but at the end of the day we didn’t win the game. We’re not going to take any moral victories here. We gotta show up and win a game.”
Linebacker Quincy Williams took it a step further: He’s tired of the same old story.
“I’m gonna be honest. People get tired of hearing the same s—,” Williams told SNY. “People gotta take accountability from the top to the bottom. That’s all I gotta say … people gotta start taking accountability, I’m tired of saying the same thing every week.”
Reminder: It’s only Week 5. Moral victories are still losses, and the Jets have been doing a lot of losing over the last four years. This team was supposed to be “a quarterback away” — that’s what Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas convinced owner Woody Johnson of after the 2022 season (before getting Rodgers), and again after 2023 (when Rodgers missed all but the first four plays of the season with an Achilles injury). It’s why Saleh is still the head coach despite never sniffing the postseason.
Rodgers was going to be the quarterback to save them. On Sunday, he went from (nearly) a big reason they won, to instead the main reason they lost.
“You gotta be honest with your performance every single week and hold yourself to a standard,” Rodgers said. “Obviously that was below my standard. I just found out I’ve never thrown two picks in the first quarter before. That’s a first … in a game we lose by six, plays like that are exponentially highlighted. Three turnovers for me is definitely out of character.”
The loss did not feel out of character, not for the Jets. They started slow. They were penalized too many times. There were too many mistakes, especially on offense — and not just Rodgers’ interceptions. The running game (Hall: nine carries, 23 yards) was ineffective. Rodgers was hit (three sacks, 11 QB hits) too many times. And the offense wasted another stellar effort from the defense, which made Sam Darnold (14 of 31 for 179 yards and an interception) look more like the old Jets version than the one that was in MVP conversations through four weeks.
The offensive play-calling was suspect, especially when the Jets, struggling to move the ball, opted to go for it on fourth-and-2 in the second quarter at the Vikings’ 26-yard line rather than kick an easy field goal, a second consecutive failed run. Those were points that might’ve changed the calculus in the fourth quarter, when Rodgers threw his last interception.
“Feel like we gotta be able to get those,” Saleh said. “We weren’t moving the ball very well, we were down there, trying to be aggressive to see if we could get seven.”
It was bad from the beginning, even if it started to look a little better at the end. Here’s how the Jets’ first five possessions went: three-and-out, three-and-out, interception, interception, turnover on downs and then a four-play drive that went nowhere. By then, the Jets trailed 17-0.
“Put us in a hole early. Didn’t give our defense much support. Fighting an uphill battle the rest of the game and in this league it’s gonna be hard to win that way,” Wilson said. “We’ve gotta find a way to start faster and play better earlier.”
Added Rodgers: “It puts our defense in a hole. (The defense) played great. They gave up 16 points to an offense that’s been ripping everybody up … they kept us in the game and we did just enough but we need to be playing with a lead. We have to start faster. We say it every week, what’s the magic recipe for that? We’re going to spend some time this week trying to figure that out.”
Rodgers’ first interception came when he didn’t see Andrew Van Ginkel drop and tried firing a quick pass to Wilson. Van Ginkel snagged it and scored after running 63 yards.
Mr. Pick 6@AndrewVanGinkel
📺: @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/u9mFg6d4EE
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 6, 2024
On the next one, Rodgers badly missed Lazard on a post route, sailing it over his head and into the arms of Vikings corner Cam Bynum.
“I gotta take care of the football,” Rodgers said. “You can’t turn the ball over three times and win in this league.”
He wasn’t the only one to make mistakes. Wilson slipped a couple of times on routes, though at least he and Rodgers seem to be getting on the same page: Wilson finished with 13 catches on 22 targets, for 101 yards including a one-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Lazard only caught four of his 10 targets. Williams had two catches for 25 yards. (Davante Adams, anyone?)
The Jets got away from the running game early, though it wasn’t particularly effective anyway (36 yards on 14 carries), a recurring issue in recent weeks. Hall is averaging 2.3 yards per carry over the last three weeks.
“If you get down 17 you don’t have a choice but to abandon the run,” Hall said.
Defense kept the Jets alive, overcoming an overabundance of defensive pass interference and defensive holding penalties — cornerback Sauce Gardner was flagged three times, cornerback D.J. Reed twice — and injuries. Linebacker C.J. Mosley didn’t play, Gardner missed plays in the second half while being evaluated for a concussion (he returned), and cornerback Michael Carter II (hamstring) was injured during pregame.
But after the Vikings went up 17-0, here’s how Minnesota’s possessions went: punt, punt, punt, field goal, interception (cornerback Brandin Echols, filling in for Gardner), field goal. The Jets sacked Darnold four times and hit him seven times. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson only had two catches for 31 yards in the second half.
But the offense couldn’t meet their standard, a familiar tale.
“I thought defense was outstanding today,” Saleh said. “I thought they battled and kept answering the bell.”
When the game started, though, the Jets were not ready to answer the bell. It’s been a common occurrence during Saleh’s tenure, slow starts – especially on offense. The Jets are now 2-3 with difficult games coming against the Bills and Steelers in the next two weeks. It’s past time for the team to show more urgency.
“It’s early,” Saleh said. “We’re five games in. Obviously we’d like it to be a lot better but it’s early and we’ve got a long way to go.”
“Early” will become “too late” if the Jets keep losing like this.
“There will be a lot of people outside the building who won’t be sticking with the Jets,” Rodgers said. “If we stick together I still have a lot of confidence in this team. I think it’s a team that’s going to make a run. Whether that run starts next week or the following week, whenever it might be, I’m confident in our guys. I’m confident in our leadership. I’m confident we’ll get this thing straightened out.”
(Top photo: Shaun Brooks / Imagn Images)
