Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets had a chance to pull off a wild comeback with less than a minute remaining, but it all slipped away, much like their season.
“There’s no more time for making excuses,” said running back Breece Hall. “You’ve got to win football games at the end of the day.”
Rodgers was sacked twice on the Jets’ final drive, and they couldn’t get into position for a potential game-winning score in their 28-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
“Angry, frustrated, not in a good place, from that standpoint,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said about the team’s mindset after the Jets (3-8) lost for the seventh time in eight games. “Obviously, guys are working their butts off and, obviously, there’s an element that something’s missing.”
Rodgers and the Jets entered the season with hopes of reaching the Super Bowl, but now, it looks like they’ll extend their playoff drought to 14 years, the longest active streak in the NFL.
Ulbrich, who replaced the fired Robert Saleh on October 8, is now 1-5 as the head coach. The Jets will likely be looking for a new head coach, and general manager Joe Douglas’ future is uncertain since his contract expires after this season.
Rodgers, who will turn 41 on December 6, has said he plans to continue playing next year, but it’s unclear if that will still be the case as he deals with the frustration of losing — something he’s not used to.
“I’m in my 20th year,” Rodgers said, after passing Dan Marino for eighth place on the NFL’s career passing yards list. “I’ve figured out a way to do this for a long time, so you’ve just got to remember why you fell in love with this game. This will definitely be a week for us to clear all of our heads and come back and stick together.”
Instead of going into their bye week with a win and some optimism, the Jets now have extra time to reflect on their loss.
“What we say is, don’t point the fingers,” said cornerback Sauce Gardner. “The outside world is going to do that anyway, no matter what’s going on.”
Rodgers completed 22 of 29 passes for 184 yards, with two touchdown passes. Hall had both a touchdown catch and a rushing score, but the offense started slowly, as it often has this season. The Jets didn’t get a first down until their sixth possession, but then they managed to score a touchdown and then another one. However, they couldn’t sustain any consistent offense.
Rodgers also thought the Jets would go for a 2-point conversion rather than kicking the extra point after his 11-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Yeboah early in the fourth quarter, which gave New York a 24-16 lead.
“The reason I was thinking was we had had a conversation on the sideline about it and I was under the impression that the decision was before the drive we were going to go for 2,” Rodgers said. “Now, something changed in the meantime.”
Still, the Jets led 27-22 with 2:41 left after Anders Carlson — New York’s fourth kicker in four games — kicked a 35-yard field goal. This came after Ulbrich chose not to go for it on fourth-and-2.
“Brick felt good about Anders kicking it and the defense stopping it,” Rodgers said when asked if he would’ve preferred to try for the first down on fourth. “But yeah, of course. I felt like we needed to get to 30 just to be in the game. Now, obviously, the way we played, we still needed to get to 30 to win.
“But yeah, if we were a great team, we would have scored seven (points) there.”
With 46 seconds left, Anthony Richardson led the Colts down the field and ran for a 4-yard touchdown to give them the lead. After Jonathan Taylor was stopped on the 2-point conversion attempt, Rodgers and the Jets had one last chance to get Carlson in range for a potential game-winning field goal.
However, the Jets had no timeouts left, and things quickly went wrong. Rodgers was sacked by Kwity Paye and fumbled on the first play. Tyler Conklin recovered the fumble, but time was running out.
“Yeah, not a very good play,” Rodgers said, adding that he was trying to throw an incompletion.
Hall then caught an 11-yard pass, and a delay-of-game penalty was called on the Colts’ E.J. Speed, but Rodgers was sacked again by Paye as time expired, sealing another painful loss for the Jets.
“It’s been tough,” said wide receiver Garrett Wilson. “I ain’t going to fake it.”
