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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff WriterNov 10, 2024, 10:15 PM ET
- Rich Cimini is a staff writer who covers the New York Jets and the NFL at ESPN. Rich has covered the Jets for over 30 years, joining ESPN in 2010. Rich also hosts the Flight Deck podcast. He previously was a beat writer for the New York Daily News and is a graduate of Syracuse University. You can follow him via Twitter @RichCimini.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Explaining the New York Jets‘ most lopsided loss of the season — and their ill-fated season as a whole — a visibly frustrated Aaron Rodgers kept it short.
Just like most of his passes in the 31-6 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at State Farm Stadium.
Rodgers, 3-7 for the first time in his 20-year career, admittedly held back his feelings as he stood at the podium after one of his worst statistical performances ever.
“There’s been a lot of emotions this year, for sure,” he said.
Asked to elaborate, Rodgers said, “I’m not going to.”
Why not?
“A lot of different emotions,” he said. “That’s a loaded answer, but it’s not the time or the place to get into that right now. But at some point, I’ll give you a better answer.”
Rodgers, who fancied the Jets a Super Bowl contender, has presided over one of the most disappointing seasons in recent franchise history. While the Jets aren’t mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, their 14th straight non-playoff season is a near certainty.
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The Jets traded for Rodgers last year to make them winners, but the plan has failed. Wide receiver Davante Adams, his close friend, said he’s trying to “work with [Rodgers] to make sure he keeps his mind right as much as possible because it’s tough. If Michael Jordan was on this team, he wouldn’t be happy.”
The embarrassing loss certainly wasn’t Rodgers’ fault — the defense missed 20 tackles, according to Next Gen Stats — but his lack of production against the 24th-ranked pass defense was alarming.
Rodgers (22-for-35) passed for a season-low 151 yards and completed only one pass that traveled more than 10 yards in the air. His 4.3 yards per attempt was his worst mark in any start with multiple pass attempts since 2019; it was the fourth lowest of his career. His longest completion went for only 15 yards, a dump-off to running back Breece Hall. This was one of only four games this season where a team had no plays of least 16 yards.
At times, he seemed hesitant to pull the trigger on downfield throws. He attempted only two passes over 20 yards, both incomplete.
“We had a few chances,” Rodgers said. “I missed the spot a couple times. I don’t think we handled the noise and the empty pressure that they brought very well.”
The worst sequence came on the Jets’ first drive of the third quarter. They had a second-and-goal from the Arizona 3-yard line, and Rodgers threw three straight incomplete passes. On one of them, he failed to see tight end Tyler Conklin, who was open in the end zone.
Rodgers targeted Adams 13 times in the game, but they connected on only six of them for 31 yards. The Rodgers-Adams reunion was supposed to spark the offense, but they have failed to re-create the incredible chemistry they had with the Green Bay Packers.
Afterward, both players lamented a lack of energy by the team — a bugaboo that surfaced a few weeks ago.
“I thought after a big win Thursday night, a nice long week, we were going to come out with a lot of energy and win the game, and we didn’t come out with great energy on either side of the ball,” said Rodgers, who’s averaging only 226 passing yards per game.
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson said, “[The] energy’s not there because we’re playing like, we’re playing like trash. So that’s how I see it.”
The once-formidable defense was the primary culprit, as the Cardinals opened the game with five straight scoring drives — including touchdown drives of 70, 70, 70 and 88 yards. Quarterback Kyler Murray completed 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards, including a franchise-record 17 straight completions to end the game.
The most glaring mistake came in the second quarter, when it still was a 14-6 Cardinals lead. Cornerback Sauce Gardner missed a tackle on tight end Trey McBride on a third-down play. Instead of punting, Arizona marched for a touchdown to make it 21-6.
“I have to make that tackle,” Gardner said several times.
Jeff Ulbrich, who dropped to 1-4 as the interim coach, took the heat for his players.
“We didn’t execute even close to our standard, and that falls on my shoulders 100 percent,” he said. “I didn’t do a good enough job of getting these guys ready.”
Ulbrich said he’d look inward for answers because “something was off.” He didn’t question the effort or the physicality, only the execution. In fact, the Jets were outgained by a 2-to-1 margin — 406 to 207.
Afterward, Rodgers didn’t want to get into a state-of-the-franchise discussion. He attributed the poor performance to poor situational football.
“We were just really bad,” he said.
