Justice wasn’t served in New York on Sunday afternoon.
The Jets have experienced numerous humiliating losses throughout their unfortunate history, including Dan Marino’s Fake Spike game, the Buttfumble, Richard Todd’s disappointing performance in the AFC Championship Game, and Marcus Jones’ late 84-yard punt return. Now you can add Aaron Rodgers to that list. He engineered a 34-32 victory over the Jets on Sunday in his return to MetLife Stadium.
Rodgers wanted this game badly, unceremoniously dumped as he was by Jets general manager Darren Mougey and Jets head coach Aaron Glenn. The NFL knew it would attract eyeballs to watch his return to East Rutherford, where he played for two forgettable seasons. The NFL, as always, was right.
Rodgers had answers for everything on a 22-for-30 day for 244 yards with four touchdown passes and zero interceptions. That was good to register a stellar 136.7 quarterback passer rating. That’s the type of performance the Jets had envisioned from Rodgers when they acquired him from the Packers. Ironically, they got it on the receiving end after Rodgers underperformed for two years behind center for the Jets.
It was easy to find fault with Rodgers when he played here, and it’s also easy to wonder if his heart was into playing for the Jets. Nobody could carp about Year 1 because he went down in Game 1 with a season-ending injury. But in his second season, he often looked disinterested and disengaged. That’s not the way he looked Sunday afternoon. Rodgers connected early and frequently with DK Metcalf (four passes for 83 yards), and distributed touchdown passes to Calvin Austin III, Jaylen Warren, Jonnu Smith, and Ben Skowronek.
Rodgers’ best moments came in the fourth quarter, starting with a nine-play, 68-yard drive that cut the Jets’ lead to 26-24. Then, after Xavier Gipson inexplicably fumbled the ball, the Steelers scored on an 18-yard pass to Austin to take a 31-26 lead. Finally, after the Jets regained the lead 32-31, Rodgers engineered a game-winning six-play, 39-yard drive that ended when Chris Boswell’s kick from 60 yards went through the uprights. That score gave the Steelers a 34-32 win.
Here’s what was most damning: Rodgers did things he NEVER did with the Jets, including sharp decision making with a quick release, and getting his running backs involved in the game (20 carries on the day).
The game outcome was a bitter pill to swallow for Jets fans. Not only did Rodgers underperform on the field, but he also sucked the life out of the locker room. The Jets thought he would help change a losing culture around. But, instead, he made it worse. Rodgers can talk all he wants about putting his heart and soul into being a Jets quarterback, but his play spoke otherwise. It was Brett Favre all over again.
After the game, Rodgers did what he does best—play the victim role. He whined about the Jets thinking he was washed up, and said he was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets.
Losing to Rodgers has to hurt the new Jets head coach, while Jets fans endured another heartbreaking loss, this time by a guy who had a forgettable tenure in New York. Justice wasn’t served in New York on Sunday afternoon.
