Jets offense being done in by slow starts, a big reason they're 3-8
Aaron Rodgers of the Jets reacts during the third quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Jets are in a worse position going into their bye week with Aaron Rodgers leading them than they were the past two seasons when Zach Wilson was the quarterback.
Their bye was earlier the past two years, but the Jets were .500 or better and in control of their playoff destiny. They’re 3-8 this season — with a much more talented offensive roster — and they have a less-than-3% chance of making the postseason, according to NFL.com.
Wilson and the quarterback play overall took most of the blame for the Jets missing the playoffs the previous two seasons. This year, the defense has taken a giant step backward, but the offense is still underperforming. Rodgers was supposed to change that.
The Jets did not record a first down during their first five series in Sunday’s 28-27 loss to Indianapolis. The Jets were down 13-0 before they got their initial first down — after the two-minute warning before halftime.
“Offensively, that first half was totally unacceptable,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said on Monday. “Too many mental errors, missed details here and there, not on the same page and not good enough.”
Ulbrich planned to do “a deep dive” into all three phases of the team on Monday and Tuesday. He said he would be honest and direct with the players about what they’re doing well, what they could be doing better and what they need to eliminate before they take off until next week.
“I’m hopeful that the players really come away from these next couple of days with a clear idea of the plan to get better and become the team we need to become,” Ulbrich said.
The defense took the heat for Sunday’s loss because they couldn’t get a stop at the end. The Jets allowed second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson, who had been benched for two games because of his performance, to engineer a six-play, 70-yard touchdown drive to win the game. Richardson scored on a 4-yard run with 46 seconds left.
The offense was a mess in the first half and put the pressure on the defense to keep them in the game. That’s reminiscent of the Wilson era. The Jets totaled nine yards on their first nine plays.
It’s almost unimaginable that a team with Rodgers, Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall is having this much difficulty moving the ball or scoring points. The Jets haven’t scored an opening-drive touchdown this season. This was the second consecutive game the Jets trailed by double figures in the first half.
“We’ve been preaching for a number of weeks about starting fast and when you come out there and flatline like that, there’s not much you can say about it,” right tackle Morgan Moses said. “You don’t want to go out there and drop an egg like that and that’s probably one of the biggest eggs you can drop, just being totally honest.”
Moses added that everyone, coaches included, have to “figure out how to start this thing a lot faster and stop waiting until our backs are against the wall to answer and put other teams' backs against the wall.”
Although Rodgers threw just seven incompletions on 29 pass attempts, he wasn’t particularly sharp and hasn’t been. He totaled 184 passing yards. He opened the game 4-for-7 for 3 total yards. He’s not taking shots down the field, has lost a lot mobility wise and isn’t leading game-ending touchdown drives like he did in Green Bay.
This was the Jets’ fifth loss by fewer than six points. Two of them ended for the Jets with Rodgers throwing an interception with a chance to lead them to the win. On Sunday, he was sacked on first down and fumbled. Tyler Conklin recovered it. Rodgers was then sacked on third down and time ran out.
“You’ve got to create explosives,” Ulbrich said. “It’s one of the biggest indicators for winning games . . . We’re always searching for ways to get the ball down the field. Sometimes it doesn’t happen because of the coverage, sometimes it doesn’t happen because of the protection. A lot of things go into it. We need to get ball going down the field more often.”
Notes & quotes: Safety Tony Adams, a starter when healthy the past two seasons, did not play any defensive snaps on Sunday. Ulbrich said there were “a lot of different things that went into” Adams’ benching, but it wasn’t “disciplinary by any means.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
