Patriots
“This is a moment of darkness, and we understand that the outside world is going to get really loud right now.”
FOXBOROUGH — As jarring as the Patriots’ 2-6 record might be so far this fall, the case can be made that expectations for a rebuilding roster weren’t all that high to begin with in Foxborough.
The same can’t be said for the New York Jets. Despite opening the year with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, New York now sits in the same miserable 2-6 record as New England after the Patriots’ dramatic 25-22 win at Gillette Stadium.
Beyond the expected return of future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers from a season-ending Achilles injury, New York was set to roll out a stacked roster filled with young playmakers on both sides of the ball, like Garrett Wilson, Sauce Gardner, and Quinnen Williams.
But things have quickly imploded for Rodgers and the Jets, culminating in Sunday’s last-minute loss to a Patriots team playing most of the game without their most dynamic player in Drake Maye (concussion).
And with New York now staring at yet another season on the outside looking in at the playoffs, Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich pulled no punches in his postgame address.
“I’m pissed. They’re pissed. I’m hurt. They’re hurt,” Ulbrich said. “We are not executing in critical moments, especially down the stretch right there. We had opportunities to win this game, should have won this game, and we didn’t. … This is a moment of darkness, and we understand that the outside world is going to get really loud right now.
“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.”
Despite Ulbrich’s rather dour outlook, Rodgers concurred with his coach’s sentiment about the state of an imploding Jets organization.
“I’ve been in the darkness,” Rodgers said. “You’ve got to go in there, make peace with it. Offensively, our goal has just got to be to score 30. 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.”
Once viewed as one of the pillars of the Jets’ supposed success, the 40-year-old Rodgers has underwhelmed in his first full season with New York.
Rodgers finished Sunday’s loss completing 17 of his 28 passes for 233 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But he’s still fallen short of the high standards he set for himself in Green Bay — tossing 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions over eight games this season.
Even though Rodgers has never been a legitimate dual-threat QB, his mobility and knack for operating out of the pocket made him one of the most dangerous playmakers in NFL history. But the veteran QB might be showing his age, especially after being limited this week with both knee and hamstring injuries.
Rodgers’ struggles with escaping pressure was noted by several Patriots players following Sunday’s 25-22 win.
“Yeah, I think he’s struggling right now,” Davon Godchaux said of Rodgers. “That’s a Hall-of-Fame quarterback right there. You hate to see him go out that way, but you’ll always take a win against him on your resume.
“But, he definitely don’t look the same. He kept moving back there — I could run him down and catch him. He don’t look mobile at all. It was good for us. We know we can get out there and attack them in the pass game, too.”
At this stage of the season, New York has already exhausted several options in hopes of turning its season around. The Jets already fired head coach Robert Saleh earlier this month, and then traded for Rodgers’ longtime Packers teammate, Davante Adams, two weeks ago.
The Jets are now 0-3 under Ulbrich, while Adams (seven catches, 84 yards, zero touchdowns) has yet to be a game-changer on offense over two games.
At this point, the Jets are what they are under Rodgers and Co. And it’s not all that much different from previous iterations of this franchise.
“Yeah, I imagine it could be, yeah. Not for me, but I imagine it could be,” Rodgers said when asked if it’s hard for Jets players who haven’t seen success to buy in. “That’s why the guys that have had success got to lead to pull us out of this.”
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