After the tough loss in Arizona, the Jets are out of time and Aaron Rodgers is out of answers

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The harbinger of the New York Jets’ demise came before the game even began. The Denver Broncos had just lost and shortly afterwards the Indianapolis Colts had also lost. In the press box at State Farm Stadium, GM Joe Douglas and other members of the Jets’ front office celebrated. They clapped. They smiled.

According to her, the day got off to a great start. These two losses would help the Jets in the AFC playoff race, a much-needed development as the team envisioned an unlikely run to end the season.

That won’t happen. With more than 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Douglas left the press box and headed for the elevators, his team trailing the Arizona Cardinals 31-6. It was the same result when owner Woody Johnson and his brother Christopher went there shaking their heads with four minutes left.

MURRAY MAGIC 🪄 pic.twitter.com/DKVUFxrwcJ

– Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 10, 2024

Perhaps this result should be shocking for a franchise that entered the season with such high hopes. Instead, it feels routine, in many ways inevitable for a team that has done this all year long — for many years. It’s not the first time the Jets have followed a surprising win with a humiliating loss, nor will it be the last. On November 10, the Jets’ 2024 season was declared dead. The optimism that permeated the organization when training camp opened in July has been replaced with fear. And there is an ominous feeling, almost certainty, that there will be more horror to come in the next seven games.

“When I think back on the game, it’s not that shocking,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “Is it shocking considering how we train during the week, how we did in training camp and what we have in this locker room? Yes, it’s shocking. But as far as being outside and the mood and how it felt? Yeah, that sounds about right.”

The Jets’ fate – misery – was preordained. Now the players have come to terms with it. This is the only way to explain the performance of a team that arrived in the desert with the season looming and left on Monday morning with the feeling that the year was already over.

“After a long layoff there, they weren’t ready to play,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “We haven’t even come close to our standard and that’s 100 percent on me.”

The problems existed before Ulbrich and they will probably also occur after him. Johnson fired Robert Saleh on Oct. 8, a Band-Aid for a gaping wound that probably should have been addressed in the offseason. A week later, Johnson pushed to trade for Davante Adams, an owner who thought he was making smart moves on a chessboard when in reality he was playing checkers.

“It’s obviously frustrating,” Adams said. “It’s not our standard of football, it’s not my standard of football, so it’s frustrating. I don’t really know what to say. It was just a strange, strange day.”

The Jets earned an impressive win on Halloween night against a Houston Texans team headed to the postseason. This win came on a Thursday and gave them three additional days of rest until Sunday. The extra break was essentially a long nap and the Jets forgot to set their alarm. Why? How?

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Aaron Rodgers said. “Good question. I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer for you, I’m sorry.”

Wilson added: “You go out and play like that and it’s going to be hard to find that energy. I don’t think we went into it with the wrong mentality… I just think at the end of the day it’s all about Sunday. When you play badly, you have to fake it a little to make it seem real. But the energy isn’t there because we play like trash. That’s how I see it.”

The Cardinals scored on their first drive, six plays for 70 yards in two minutes, capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by James Conner and a 44-yard reception that ended just short of the end zone as Conner was up his butt cheek landed before crossing the plane. Arizona scored again on the next possession, another 70-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Kyler Murray. They scored on their third drive, went 70 yards again and ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Murray to Marvin Harrison.

During that drive, the Cardinals had a third-and-7 at their own 33-yard line, and cornerback Sauce Gardner brought in Cardinals tight end Trey McBride after a short catch. Gardner tried to wrap his arms around the 6-4, 250-pounder and take him to the ground. Instead, McBride threw it aside, gained 17 yards and continued the drive.

IT’S A BIRD. It’s an airplane. TREY MCBRIDE HURDLES FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/bBevRNvSnu

– Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 10, 2024

“I have to make that tackle,” Gardner said. “I was holding him up, I ended up falling to the ground, I tried to just pull him down, he stayed up.”

The Jets, meanwhile, stayed down. After Harrison scored, the score was 21-6. The Cardinals added a field goal before halftime. With each subsequent drive, the Jets’ tackling performance somehow deteriorated. In total, the Jets missed 20 tackles, according to NextGen Stats, more than any other team has missed in a game this season. Murray completed 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown and ran for two touchdowns.

“I’m going to take a hard look at myself and really look inward at what I could have done better in preparation for this game because something wasn’t right,” Ulbrich said.

The connection between Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams couldn’t save the Jets’ season. (Joe Camporeale/Imagn Images)

The offense wasn’t much better. The Jets opened the second half by driving to the Cardinals’ 3-yard line before Rodgers threw two incompletions and was sacked on fourth down. Rodgers had nothing to do the entire game and rarely threw downfield – his longest completion of 15 yards went to running back Breece Hall. Rodgers was 22 of 35 for 151 yards and no touchdowns, only the second time in his career he threw for fewer than 160 yards while attempting 30 or more passes.

It’s also the first time Rodgers is off to a 3-7 season, and the first time he’s looked this miserable with so many weeks to go.

“Listen, there have definitely been a lot of emotions this year,” Rodgers said. “I thought after a big win on Thursday night, a nice long week, we’ll come out with a lot of energy and win the game. We didn’t come out with great energy on either side of the ball.”

What did he mean by “a lot of emotions”?

“Yeah, I’m not going to elaborate,” Rodgers said. “This seems like a complex answer, but it is neither the right time nor the right place to address it at this time. I’ll give you a better answer sometime.”

The Jets are out of answers. You’re out of time.

In the third quarter, down 25 yards, Rodgers was sacked on third down for a loss of nine yards. As he and his teammates left the field, Rodgers pivoted left while the rest of the offense pivoted right. He ripped off his helmet, handed it to a Jets employee and replaced it with a white Jets cap. He sat on the bench and leaned back, annoyed and alone. A few feet away, Tyrod Taylor was watching a movie with play-caller Todd Downing on a tablet while Rodgers stared into space, perhaps wondering how he got here. And what happens next.

“There’s still a lot ahead of us,” Rodgers said.

That’s the scary part.

(Top photo: Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)