Jets eliminated from playoff contention with overtime loss  in Miami

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — On the day Aaron Rodgers ended a long personal streak he wished would go away, the Jets extended one that seems as if it never will.

The Jets were eliminated from playoff contention for the 14th consecutive year — the longest current streak in the four major professional sports — with a 32-26 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.

Tua Tagovailoa threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jonnu Smith with 6:05 left in overtime to give the Dolphins the victory and send the Jets to another low.

After the season started with Super Bowl dreams and a 2-1 start, the Jets have fallen flat on their face. They have lost four in a row and nine of their last 10 and are 3-10.

“The expectations were high, and we didn’t reach them. Not anywhere close,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers completed 27 of 39 passes for 339 yards and a touchdown. He ended his streak of consecutive games without reaching 300 passing yards at 34 — he had last done it on Dec. 12, 2021 — but it was in vain.

Rodgers sarcastically pumped his fist when he was asked about that streak ending. “Got that behind us,” he said.

Collectively, the Jets were frustrated about how this game ended and how this season has gone. They were up 23-15 in the fourth quarter and made several mistakes that led to this latest gut-wrenching defeat.

It was the third straight game in which the Jets were beaten by six or fewer points. They’ve lost five games this season when leading in the fourth quarter.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to stop being losers,” Garrett Wilson said.

Wilson and other Jets who have been here for a few seasons expressed disgust about being officially knocked out.

“It’s something this team was built to do, so not doing it is really frustrating,” tight end Tyler Conklin said. “It sucks that mathematically there is not even a chance anymore. Overall it’s just frustrating. Nothing we can do about it at this point, but it’s frustrating as hell.”

Wilson said he “would have been shocked” if someone had told him in training camp that the Jets would not make the playoffs and would have 10 losses. Because of how the season has gone, though, he “ain’t that shocked.”

“I would have been like, ‘You lying,’ ” Wilson said. “But one of my takeaways from this is we got to be better when the season comes. Winning the offseason is winning the offseason. Winning training camp is winning training camp. Let’s win when it matters.”

That’s why the Jets will undergo massive changes in the offseason — from the football department to the locker room.

This was a game in which things finally clicked offensively as the Jets scored on their first five possessions. They didn’t punt until the fourth quarter.

Rodgers had one of his best games as a Jet. Wilson caught seven passes for 114 yards. Davante Adams had nine catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Rookie back Isaiah Davis rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown.

Tagovailoa finished 33-for-47 for 331 yards and two touchdowns. Tyreek Hill had 10 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. Jaylen Waddle had nine receptions for 99 yards.

The Jets were without All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner (hamstring) and starting running back Breece Hall (knee). They still were in position to win after allowing a 4-yard touchdown catch by Hill on fourth down and a two-point conversion (Tagovailoa to Waddle) that tied it at 23-23 with 9:04 left in regulation.

Rodgers led a four-minute drive that ended with Anders Carlson kicking a 42-yard field goal with 52 seconds left that gave the Jets a 26-23 lead. Before the kick, though, Adams was pushed out of bounds, which stopped the clock with less than a minute left. It proved huge. The Dolphins were out of timeouts and the Jets’ plan was to let the clock run down as much as possible.

After Carlson’s go-ahead field goal, he was supposed to kick the ball out of the end zone but didn’t. Malik Washington fielded it at the 1 and returned it 45 yards to Miami’s 46 with 44 seconds to go. It led to Jason Sanders’ tying 52-yard field goal with seven seconds left.

“The call was to hit it out. I just got too aggressive with it,” Carlson said. “I just need to be under control better and hit the right ball.”

The Dolphins won the coin toss in overtime and never gave the Jets the ball back.

They started their drive at the 30. On second down, Tagovailoa completed a 20-yard pass to Smith, who also caught the next pass for 14 yards, giving Miami the ball at the Jets’ 36. Three plays later, the Dolphins had a first down at the 13.

After running it on first down, Tagovailoa threw it on second down. He hit Smith cutting across the middle of the end zone in stride for the game-winning score.

“We felt good three weeks in,” Rodgers said. “Everybody felt real good. Since then it’s been a lot of difficult games with opportunities to win. We just didn’t figure out how to win enough games.”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.