Jets, Aaron Rodgers still trying to reach 'magic number' of 30 . . . points!
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers leaves the field at the end of an NFL game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday in Miami Gardens, Fla. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
Aaron Rodgers gave a little fist pump and a self-mocking smirk after Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins when he was informed that he’d just thrown for more than 300 yards for the first time with the Jets.
It was not as if he’d just crossed the sound barrier or anything, and it was something he used to do with regularity during his MVP era in Green Bay, but for the previous few weeks, his inability to reach that statistical milestone had become a discussion point and another illustration of how disappointing this season had been.
“We got that behind us,” he said. “What’s next?”
Glad you asked!
The new numeric hurdle for this quarterback, this offense, and this team to clear is 30, as in points in a game. The Jets are one of only four teams in the NFL who have yet to post that many this season (the Giants, Raiders and Patriots are the others). It is a realm they have not visited since Week 16 last year in a 30-28 victory over the Commanders.
In a league in which two teams average 30 or more points per game (Lions and Bills), not being able to reach 30 even once is a badge of disgrace. The other three teams stuck in this year’s club of twenty-something infamy all have much larger issues relating to their quarterbacks and rosters than these Jets have, and considering they thought they were going to be Super Bowl contenders this season, it should sting them the most.
They have a quarterback in his 40s running an offense that can’t get out of the 20s. “Thirty is kind of the magic number,” Rodgers said on Wednesday, “so still trying to get there.”
Even now, with four games remaining and the playoffs mathematically beyond their reach, it remains a goal.
“It feels like it’s getting further and further away every game,” passing game coordinator and offensive play-caller Todd Downing said on Thursday. “Every time I look up and think we’re going to get it, and we’re just short.”
That was the case on Sunday when the Jets scored 26 points but lost in OT. Their high is 27 in a one-point loss to the Colts.
“We’ve been close sometimes and missed some opportunities that would have put us over that mark,” Downing said. “It seems like cruel coincidence that there were so many times we were close to 30, and if you look back at the boxscore, you say if we would have gotten 30, we would have gotten a W.”
It doesn’t automatically translate, but teams that have scored at least 30 points this season are a combined 87-10.
Why aren’t the Jets able to break through this wall?
Rodgers said it comes down to “situational football” and added that “a lot has been little, minute details within the plays.”
There are other glaring reasons as well. The Jets’ offensive line has not been strong enough to allow those downfield passes to develop. The chemistry between Rodgers and his receivers — even the top ones such as Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams — has not always been on point. It took time for their play-calling to find a rhythm after Downing replaced Nathaniel Hackett in that role. And the Jets have not gotten any help from a defense that has created only 10 takeaways and not scored a single touchdown this season.
(Special teams finally got on the board two weeks ago with a kickoff return for a touchdown.)
“When you score 30 as an offense, you feel like you had a good day regardless of how you get there,” Downing said. “You put the team in a good position to win. Certainly there are games that are shootouts and you can lose scoring 30, but when you go home at night and you lay your head on the pillow, if you scored 30 points, you feel like you did your job to a winning level.”
So for the next month, the hunt for that level of satisfactory slumber is on.
Rodgers undoubtedly has another fist pump loaded up for if and when it happens.
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.