Aaron Rodgers' Hail Mary vs. Bills becomes just a footnote in Jets' sloppy loss
Jets wide receiver Allen Lazard celebrates scoring on a Hail Mary pass with guard John Simpson against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium on Monday. Credit: Ed Murray
Of all the things that had to change for the Jets since they last took the field, all the decisions and role adjustments and new responsibilities that were meted out, the most important one was this: Aaron Rodgers needed to get back to playing like Aaron Rodgers.
And at the end of the first half Monday night, he sure seemed to be doing that with a play no one in the league makes as regularly as he does.
With eight seconds left, Rodgers took a shotgun snap, shuffled around the pocket and launched a deep desperation pass into the end zone that Allen Lazard somehow managed to leap up for, catch and bring to the ground despite having three Buffalo defenders draped on him. The 52-yard touchdown as time expired sent the Jets and their fans at MetLife Stadium into a tizzy.
Hail Rodgers, indeed.
But the euphoria didn’t last. The Jets didn’t reach the end zone again in a 23-20 loss to the Bills that ultimately was defined by the obnoxious glut of penalties against both teams, three combined missed field-goal attempts and a blocked extra point, and a late fourth-quarter interception thrown by Rodgers.
The biggest mystery wasn’t how Rodgers makes Hail Mary plays look so effortless, but why these Jets were unable to seize any prolonged spark from this one.
“Those are the moments when you want to grab that momentum and just run with it,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “We are fortunate that we have the best Hail Mary thrower in the history of this game. He made somebody pay again. When you catch those waves of momentum, you have to ride it and you have to finish a team, which we didn’t do.”
As Garrett Wilson noted: “It was lit. Then we came in for halftime. I wish we could have just kept playing after that. But then we wouldn’t have thrown a Hail Mary, you know?”
Yeah. We know.
It was the fourth time in his storied career that Rodgers completed such a pass, chucking it up as time expired either to end the half or regulation. Since Rodgers became a full-time starter in 2008, no other quarterback has had more than two.
He said he put this one just where he wanted to and “credited” Buffalo’s decision to rush only two at him for allowing him the time to scramble and let the play develop before he launched his throw.
It has become such a magical staple of Rodgers’ toolbox that just before the play, the ESPN broadcast showed a montage of his previous successful passes under those circumstances. All of them, obviously, were in a Packers uniform.
Then the cameras came back to the live action . . . and he did it again.
This was his first time doing it as a Jet, which made the prayerful play all the more miraculous yet all the more doomed. This is a team that last November, at the end of a half against the Dolphins with Tim Boyle throwing into the very same end zone Rodgers aimed for, had a desperation heave intercepted and returned 99 yards for a touchdown against them. Rodgers’ pass seemed to exorcise that play, at least.
You might think that the last guy to complete a Hail Mary and still lose was Fredo Corleone. It actually happens somewhat often. Just last year, Russell Wilson hit one for the Broncos as time expired in regulation, but Denver failed on the two-point conversion and lost to the Commanders, 35-33. Even Rodgers himself has been on the short end of the play. In 2016, when he hit Jeff Janis for one against the Cardinals, it tied the score at 20, and on the first play of overtime, Larry Fitzgerald scored the winning 75-yard touchdown.
Rodgers completed 23 of 35 passes for 294 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of 99.0. After three interceptions in last week’s London loss to the Vikings, he played most of this game without one and his rating was hovering in the 130s deep into the fourth quarter. But with 1:52 remaining, his long third-and-16 pass was underthrown and intercepted by Taron Johnson after receiver Mike Williams slipped while coming back for the ball.
There also was the matter of the rest of the Jets doing their part to ruin the night. A would-be touchdown run by Braelon Allen in the third quarter was negated by a holding penalty against Tyron Smith. Greg Zuerlein hit the left upright on the field-goal attempt the Jets thought they were settling for at the end of that drive, then hit the left upright again in the fourth quarter to keep the score knotted at 20. Wilson dropped a pass in the end zone after taking a big hit from safety Taylor Rapp. The sloppy Jets were penalized 11 times for 110 yards, some of them even warranted.
Eventually the Bills won on the small plays the Jets couldn’t make: a 22-yard field goal with 3:43 left, just before Rodgers was intercepted, and Josh Allen’s keeper and slide for 6 yards that converted a third-and-4 with a little more than a minute remaining and allowed the Bills to run out the clock.
The big memorable play belonged to Rodgers and the Jets, but that wasn’t worth much in the end. Until the Jets learn how to take advantage of those little details, none of their big grand changes or flashy dramatic plays will mean anything.
Amen.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.