EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — New York Jets Players and coaches often say they can’t point fingers, even when things are at their worst – which they are right now.
There was a play late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, a media failure that fit perfectly into a season of misery and confusion. But that play was sparked by a decision made on the other side of the ball a few minutes earlier.
It looked like the Jets were going to win. They regained their momentum at the start of the second half, with a takedown on a forced fumble then a Brece Room hit a few plays later. They advanced 24-16 on a Kenny Yeboah touchdown reception early in the fourth quarter. THE Colts let’s reduce it to a two-point game, and then Aaron Rodgers worked the offense down the field, killing the clock and getting them to the Colts’ 25-yard line with 3:30 left. On fourth-and-2, Rodgers went to the line of scrimmage. Jets cornerback DJ Reed thought they were going to go for it. Instead, Rodgers tried to draw the Colts offsides. It didn’t work, so the Jets called a timeout. Anders Carlson converted a 35-yard field goal. Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich viewed it as a show of confidence in a Jets defense that repeatedly during the 2022 and ’23 seasons did its job at the end of games.
“When we saw the placement team go on, we were all happy like, let’s do what we do,” Reed said. “For the last three years, that’s what we’ve done.”
That’s not what they did on Sunday. It’s 2024.
On the player’s second play, Anthony Richardson broadcast it during Alex Pierce on the right sideline. Cornerback Sauce Keeper I managed to make the road safe Jalen Millswho was supposed to be in position to prevent Pierce from catching the ball, or even intercepting it. Instead, Pierce easily caught it, a 39-yard gain.
At the end of the play, Gardner ran over and pointed at Mills. Literally pointing fingers. Twice.
What a pass from Anthony Richardson! @Colts are threatening 👀
📺: #INDvsNYJ on CBS/Paramount+
📱: pic.twitter.com/xTTdoEKmMs– NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
“It’s a play that shouldn’t have happened,” Gardner said.
A few plays later, Richardson ran for a 4-yard touchdown. The Colts didn’t convert their two-point conversion, but that didn’t matter. The Jets offense, with no timeouts, fumbled on the first snap, then killed the clock on second down. Rodgers was sacked on third down and time ran out. The Jets, embarrassingly, lost another game they should have won. Final score: 28-27. Jets record: 3-8. Jets season: in the toaster.
“It’s hard to deal with,” Reed said. “This is what you play for. You want to play meaningful football in November, December, January… We want to stay together. We must stay together. The outside world is going to point fingers – and that’s understandable – but the guys in the locker room, we have to stick together and I feel like we have the right character to do that.
In what has arguably become the most disappointing season in Jets history, it’s clear that while the Jets have the right character, they don’t have the right guys.
The Jets are at the point in the season where their offense is booed off the field in their stadium in the first quarter. The fact that when fans applaud, it’s usually in a mocking tone — like when, on Sunday, the Jets offense converted its first first down just as the first half was about to end , or when Gardner made an impressive tackle in the second. quarter after struggling for weeks to get opponents on the field.
They were supposed to combine a winning defense with one of NFLthe greatest quarterbacks to become a true playoff contender. Instead, since Robert Saleh was fired and replaced by Ulbrich, the defensive coordinator, the defense appears to be one of the worst in the NFL, allowing 26.2 points per game, failing in fundamentals and collapsing in key moments.
“I noticed that,” Reed said. “These last two games, we haven’t played at our level defensively. We gave up on touchdowns or explosive plays. I can’t really explain what it is. Coach Ulbrich certainly has a lot to do, but he’s an adult and can handle it. I just think it’s about executing and playing our role. I feel like we’re not executing, no matter what we’re told to do, we’re just not executing on the field.
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And there’s the Rodgers part of all this. Earlier in the week, he was asked if he still planned to return in 2025, as he stumbled towards the end of the worst season of his career. He responded lukewarmly: “Yeah, I think so.”
Sunday’s performance did nothing to make it seem like Rodgers’ return to the Jets would be a good thing, for the team or the player. The 40-year-old didn’t even surpass 100 passing yards until the third quarter. He didn’t seem willing (or unable) to throw the ball down the field, and his excuses for that — last week he said the offensive line needed to block longer, on Sunday he blamed his lack of deep throws on Colts playing a two-man game. defense – aren’t quite up to par.
Over the past two weeks, Rodgers is 1 of 6 on passes thrown more than 10 yards downfield, with the only completion coming on a nice throw down the sideline. Xavier Gipson in the fourth quarter on Sunday. Those moments have been few and far between, and the Jets offense has somehow become less explosive since being traded for Davante Adams. Rodgers finished Sunday with 184 yards on 29 pass attempts.
Ulbrich was asked if Rodgers’ reluctance was holding back the Jets’ offense. He deflected his response.
“We will carefully examine the tape,” Ulbrich said. “There’s obviously an element that injuries are going to hamper anyone in those kinds of situations, but it never comes down to one man. It comes down to protection, receivers, running backs, running game, all those things. So, I know Aaron would love to play better, but it’s not just him, it’s all of us.
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Rodgers just doesn’t look like Rodgers anymore, even if no one around the Jets organization wants to admit it publicly.
“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t my best performance,” Rodgers said. “I felt like I did some good things, but unfortunately in this match sometimes you have to make a decision and choose a side and sometimes you choose the right side and sometimes you choose the wrong side… It’s just one of those weird things sometimes you pick the right side and get lucky and sometimes you don’t and you have to look at the damn tablet and see that a guy was open.
He was asked if this kind of struggle was something he had never faced before – he refuted that claim.
“It happens all the time,” Rodgers said. “It happens all the time, but sometimes you pick it right and you go for it and seem to pick it right all the time. Sometimes it’s an intuition. I’m going through progressions. Sometimes in both of these situations I should have skipped a progression and just trusted the guy to be open. Sometimes it hits, sometimes you just wish you could stay with the progression. That’s the beauty and frustration of the game.”
The Jets are 3-8. Their playoff hopes, if any, vary between one and four percent, depending on your source. There is reason to be frustrated. And none of it is pretty.
“It’s very difficult to understand,” Reed said. “I’m still processing it right now.”
(Top photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)