The Jets haven’t scored 30 points in any game all season. That’s nevertheless the goal each week, according to quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“Offensively we set our sights on scoring 30, and it was right there for us,” Rodgers told reporters after the 25-22 loss to the Patriots. “We had second and one, couldn’t convert, there’s points, missed a field goal, so there we are right there.”
Thirty wasn’t just the magic number for today. It’s the regular objective.
“Offensively, our goal has just got to be to score 30,” Rodgers said. “Doesn’t matter what the other two sides are doing. We have trust in our defense and teams, but if we’re not scoring 30, we’re underachieving. This offense can do that every single week.”
If it can, it hasn’t. And today’s loss wasn’t due to a lack of energy, the buzzword in the aftermath of last week’s loss to the Steelers.
“I thought the energy was great today,” Rodgers said. “I thought guys were engaged. I thought we played with some passion. We just execution-wise didn’t do enough.”
So why is a roster that doesn’t reflect 2-6 talent struggling to win?
“Well, we’re not playing complementary football,” Rodgers said. “We haven’t put it together really since the last time we won a game where all three phases played really well. Same thing today.”
They haven’t won a game since Week 3, when they beat the Patriots on a Thursday night.
Rodgers also was asked what his message to the team would be.
“I’ll tell them,” Rodgers said.
One thing Rodgers was willing to tell reporters was that the players (like him) who have had success elsewhere have “got to lead to pull us out of this.”
“I’ve been in the darkness,” Rodgers said. “You’ve got to go in there, make peace with it.”
They first need to make peace with the fact that the 6-2 Texans are paying them a visit on Halloween. Which will be sort of like hearing the doorbell ring, opening the door, and seeing a bag on fire.
The Jets fell to 2-6 on Sunday with their fifth straight loss. After the game, Patriots defensive lineman Davon Godchaux offered a blunt assessment of the current status of Aaron Rodgers’s performance.
“Hall of Fame quarterback,” Godchaux told reporters, via Mark Daniels of MassLive.com. “Hate to see him go out that way. . . . He definitely don’t look the same. He kept moving back there — shit, I could run him down and catch him. He don’t look mobile at all.”
Rodgers had only 233 passing yards, his 31st game in a row without throwing for 300 yards. It’s the longest streak without a 300-yard game since Byron Leftwich started 31 consecutive straight for the Jaguars, Falcons, Steelers, and Buccaneers from 2004 to 2012.
As their playoff chances begin to fade, it will be interesting to see whether he keeps pushing through the various injuries that have been bothering him this season. Or whether he’ll slip to IR and call it a season. And possibly a career.
There were a number of reasons why the Jets lost to the Patriots in New England on Sunday afternoon, including a pair of missed kicks by Greg Zuerlein.
Zuerlein missed an extra point after a touchdown in the first quarter and he missed a 44-yard field goal in the second half of the 25-22 loss. Zuerlein’s inability to make kicks was not a new development.
He missed a field goal against the Steelers in Week Seven, two field goals against the Bills in Week Six, and a game-winning try against the Broncos is Week Four. The Jets lost all of those games as well and the run of ineptitude has led to questions about making a change.
The Jets opted not to do so, which led to interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich being asked at his postgame press conference whether he regrets sticking with the veteran. Ulbrich said he doesn’t regret that choice, but it’s a safe bet that the team’s fans have a different opinion about the decision-making that has contributed to the team’s current five-game losing streak.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo created a stir when he called his team soft after last Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars, but he probably won’t come up with the same characterization this week.
Running back Rhamondre Stevenson scored a one-yard touchdown to cap a 12-play, 70-yard drive with 22 seconds left to play and the Patriots beat the Jets 25-22 at Gillette Stadium. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who was in because Drake Maye suffered a head injury, completed passes to convert on a pair of long third downs, including a 34-yard strike to Kayshon Boutte that made up for earlier drops by the wideout.
The Jets got the ball back and Aaron Rodgers appeared to complete a 21-yard pass to Garrett Wilson on first down, but officials ruled it incomplete and did not review the play. They completed a pass to Davante Adams on the next snap, but the clock ran out before they could try another play.
The Jets had pulled ahead 22-17 on a Braelon Allen touchdown run before the two-minute warning, but their defense was not up to the task of stopping a Patriots offense that has struggled all season.
Their attempt to win for the first time since Week Three was also hampered by two missed kicks by Greg Zuerlein, who has now missed seven kicks on the season. That meant any glimmers of production from Wilson, running back Breece Hall and tight end Tyler Conklin went for naught.
It’s now five straight losses for a 2-6 Jets team that seems likelier to be eliminated from the playoff picture in December than it does to mount the kind of run of consistent play that would put them in the playoffs. They’ll host the Texans on Halloween and it will be a scary crowd waiting for them after Sunday’s collapse.
The Patriots will be in Tennessee and that’s another winnable game for them whether Maye is cleared to return to action or not.
Sunday’s game against the Jets got off to a great start for the Patriots and quarterback Drake Maye, but things went less well over the last 20 minutes of the first half.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a pair of touchdown passes after Maye staked the Patriots to a 7-0 lead with his first NFL touchdown run and the Jets lead 13-7 at the halfway point in New England.
Maye’s running staked the Pats to a lead, but the downside came on the next Patriots possession. Maye was hit in the head while scrambling for a first down early in the second quarter and he was taken to the locker room to be evaluated for a head injury. The Jets pulled ahead on their next possession and it will be up to Jacoby Brissett to try to pull off a comeback at home because Maye has been ruled out.
Rodgers was 8-of-13 for 77 yards and the Jets ran for 70 yards, but their offensive efforts were hampered early by issues lining up and getting the snap off in time. They burned all three timeouts in the first quarter and could have used them to get one more possession before the break.
The Jets will get the ball coming out of the break and they’ll hope for a smoother operation once they’re back on the field.
