After loss to Patriots, it’s too dark to see how Aaron Rodgers’ Jets can save their season

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After loss to Patriots, it’s too dark to see how Aaron Rodgers’ Jets can save their season

FOXBORO, Mass. — Aaron Rodgers stood at the lectern, sullen, the brim of his hat casting a shadow over his eyes. It’s hard to see in the dark.

Two years ago, in the same room, Zach Wilson sat in the back, waiting his turn as then-New York Jets coach Robert Saleh was peppered with questions about the second-year quarterback after an embarrassing 10-3 loss to the New England Patriots. When Wilson stepped up to that same lectern, he sealed his fate. Asked if he felt like he let the defense down due to his poor play: “No,” he said, “no.” His teammates were upset. Wilson was benched a week later. It was the Jets’ first step on a path that has led them to this moment, with Rodgers, and this darkness.

At that moment with Wilson two years ago, the Jets were 6-4. They had hope. At this moment, they are devoid of it. Even as their season tumbled into misery, Sunday’s road game against the struggling Patriots was supposed to be a respite. Instead, they lost 25-22 after a series of unfortunate moments, mess-ups and embarrassments. It was bad from the beginning, but it still never felt like they’d lose this game. They couldn’t. Until they did.

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— New England Patriots (@Patriots)

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Afterward, interim coach Jeff Ulbrich — promoted to be the captain of the Titanic just as it was about to strike the iceberg — summed up this moment in fitting terms, especially considering who is playing quarterback: “This is a moment of darkness.”

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In February 2023, Rodgers went into a darkness retreat in Oregon for a few days, disconnecting from the world, and from sunlight, to find some inner peace. He said after that he went into the darkness 90 percent sure he would retire. When he came out, he declared he wanted to be a New York Jet. Last year, he tore his Achilles four plays into the season and it felt like the Jets fell apart without him — but that team, with Wilson at quarterback, was 4-3 after seven games, and 4-4 after eight. This year’s Jets are 2-6 after losing to the Patriots, with a game against the 6-2 Houston Texans coming on Thursday night, in front of a sure-to-be sparse MetLife Stadium crowd.

These are the Dark Ages.

“Yeah, I’ve been in the darkness,” Rodgers said. “You’ve got to go in there, make peace with it.”

What Rodgers is missing: He merely adopted the darkness. The Jets, and its fans, were born in it, molded by it. It’s all they’ve ever known. And yet this feels like something new, like this organization has fallen into a new pit of despair beneath the one it already lived in.

“We understand that the outside world is going to get really loud right now,” Ulbrich said. “But the only thing I know in life is that when it gets dark and it gets hard, that you work and you point the finger at yourself and you look inward and you figure out, What can I do better from an individual standpoint. If we do that collectively, which I believe we will, that’s your only opportunity to dig yourself out of this. That’s your only opportunity to improve and fix some of these wrongs. That’s where we’re fortunate, that the character of this locker room, I think they’re going to demonstrate who they are.”

A counter to that point came from Ulbrich’s mouth earlier in the same news conference: “We say that’s not who we are, but it’s who we are until we demonstrate otherwise.”

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The Patriots won at the goal line on fourth-and-goal. (David Butler II / Imagn Images)

Last week, the Jets went up 15-6 on the Steelers and then lost 37-15. After the game, wide receiver Davante Adams stood in front of the team and made a speech, a bold choice for someone who had just arrived via trade five days earlier. He derided his teammates for a lack of energy, for not celebrating each other’s victories, and for the need to change the culture of losing that’s pervaded this organization for a long time. A few days later, Rodgers called it the “realest” postgame speech he’d heard in 20 years as an NFL quarterback. Adams declared it successful. Ulbrich raved about it for days, and then said on Friday that the Jets had the “best week of practice” they’ve had since he joined the organization in 2021.

As it turns out, Adams’ speech was nothing more than words, spoken from someone who only really knows about his new team through the stories his friend (Rodgers) has told him.

Adams’ words won’t stop Rodgers from aging, a descent into inadequacy and eventual retirement. Rodgers threw two touchdown passes on Sunday, and no interceptions, but nobody walked out of Gillette on Sunday thinking that was the Rodgers they remembered. These were the Jets they remembered.

“Hate to see him go out that way,” said Patriots defensive tackle Davon Godchaux. “He definitely don’t look the same. He kept moving back there, s—, I could run him down and catch him. He don’t look mobile at all.”

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Rodgers and the offense started their first drive in Patriots territory after Xavier Gipson returned a punt 40 yards. Here’s what happened after that: Rodgers completed a pass to Jeremy Ruckert that lost a yard. Running back Breece Hall gained 8 yards on a carry. The Jets called timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty — a recurring issue all season that was at its worst on Sunday — as wide receiver Mike Williams couldn’t figure out where to line up. Then, Hall dropped a Rodgers pass. On fourth-and-3, the Jets were called for delay of game, and then punted.

The Patriots turned around and scored on their next drive, capped by a 17-yard scramble by rookie quarterback Drake Maye. The Jets came right back and scored on their second drive — and yet it somehow felt worse than the opening three-and-out.

Rodgers missed Adams on a throw, but the Patriots were called for pass interference. He missed Adams again, Braelon Allen was stuffed for a 1-yard gain, and then Rodgers threw another incompletion intended for Adams, but the Patriots were called for pass interference again. A 7-yard completion to Adams got the Jets to the 15-yard line. And then they called timeout. Center Joe Tippmann fumbled the next snap, but Rodgers grabbed it and handed it off to Allen, who gained 3 yards.

And then: Timeout, again. The Jets burned all three of their timeouts before the end of the first quarter. The Patriots were then called for another pass interference before Rodgers closed out the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Conklin.

Kicker Greg Zuerlein missed the extra point. Later, in the fourth quarter, he missed a 44-yard field goal, four points that would have made a huge difference. The Jets lost for many reasons other than Zuerlein’s struggles, which have persisted all season (he missed a potential game-winning 50-yard field goal against the Denver Broncos in Week 4 and has made only 60 percent of his field goals this season), though Ulbrich said he doesn’t regret sticking with his kicker.

“The NFL is hard. Hard to win. ******* when you make it difficult on yourself,” Rodgers said. “Offensively we can’t worry about what else happens. We gotta be efficient. We gotta make the most of the opportunities. We can’t leave it up to — we gotta score touchdowns. We can’t leave it up to Greg or try to pin it on Greg. We had a lot of opportunities to score 30 and make it a two-score game and didn’t do it.”

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Maye played one more drive and then didn’t return after suffering a concussion, replaced by Jacoby Brissett, who was benched in favor of the rookie after Week 4. After halftime, the Jets allowed a 62-yard punt return from Marcus Jones to set up a quick touchdown drive, helped by poor tackling — and poor coverage — by the Jets defense. Even as the Patriots kept trying to hand the game back to the Jets, especially via penalties (five for 50 yards total) and drops (TruMedia dinged New England for four drops, though it felt like more), New York didn’t want to take it from them.

Adams was often invisible: four catches (on six targets) for 54 yards. The Jets were 4 of 10 on third down and at times got away from giving the ball to Hall even though he was thriving (80 rushing yards on 16 carries) and rookie Braelon Allen (32 yards on 12 carries) was struggling. Allen ran for a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, giving the Jets a five-point lead. Lined up for the two-point conversion, Rodgers was called for a delay of game penalty. Backed up 5 yards, he missed on the throw.

About the issues getting plays off in time, Rodgers said: “There’s a lot to look at.”

“Frustrating,” Hall said. “Another game of ********* ourselves in the foot. Offensively we had to do a better job of getting in and out of the huddle. Let Aaron be Aaron, give him time to see the defense and make his adjustments. I gotta play better personally, I felt like I still left some meat on the bone out there. It’s frustrating. This one hurt because we shouldn’t be losing this game.”

After the ******* two-point try, Brissett worked the Patriots up the field, scrambling for a 14-yard gain on third-and-long at one point, and a few plays later — again on third-and-long — completing a 34-yard pass to wide receiver Kayshon Boutte, who made a sliding catch in front of star cornerback Sauce Gardner, setting the Patriots up with a first-and-goal.

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