After a blowout loss in Arizona, the Jets are out of time and Aaron Rodgers has no answers

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The New York Jets’ doomsday came before the game even started. The Denver Broncos had just lost, and soon after, so did the Indianapolis Colts. In the press box at State Farm Stadium, GM Joe Douglas and other members of the Jets front office celebrated. They clapped. They smiled.

In their minds, the day started well. Those two losses would help the Jets in the AFC playoff race, a much-needed development as the team envisioned an improbable run to end the season.

It’s not going to happen. Douglas left the press box with more than 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter and headed for the elevators with his team trailing the Arizona Cardinals, 31-6. It was the same score when owner Woody Johnson and his brother, Christopher, headed there with four minutes remaining, shaking their heads.

MURRAY MAGIC pic.twitter.com/DKVUFxrwcJ

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) 10 November 2024

Perhaps that result, for a franchise that entered the season with such high hopes, should be shocking. Instead, it feels routine, in many ways inevitable for a team that has done this all year – for many years. It’s not the first time the Jets have followed up a surprising win with a humiliating loss, and it won’t be the last. On November 10, the Jets’ 2024 season was declared dead. The optimism that flowed through the organization when training camp opened in July has been replaced with fear. And there is an ominous feeling, an almost certainty, that there are still horrors to come over the next seven games.

“When you think back on the game, it’s not that shocking,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “Is it shocking given how we practice during the week, how we went about things during training camp, what we have in this locker room? Yeah, it’s shocking. But as far as being out there and just the vibes and how it felt ? Yes, that sounds about right.”

The Jets’ fate – misery – was predetermined. Now the players are resigned to it. That would be the only way to explain the effort of a team that arrived in the desert with their season on the line and will leave Monday morning feeling like the year is already over.

“After a long layoff, they weren’t ready to play,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “We didn’t execute even close to our standard and that falls 100 percent on my shoulders.”

The problems predate Ulbrich and will likely postdate him as well. Johnson fired Robert Saleh on Oct. 8, a Band-Aid on a gaping wound that probably should have been addressed in the offseason. A week later, Johnson pushed for a trade for Davante Adams, an owner who thought he was making smart moves on a chessboard when in reality he was playing checkers.

“Obviously it’s frustrating,” Adams said. “It’s not our standard of football, it’s not my standard of football, so it’s frustrating. I don’t really know what to say. It was just a weird, weird day.”

The Jets were coming off an impressive Halloween win against a Houston Texans team headed for the postseason. That win came on a Thursday, giving them three extra days of rest before Sunday. The extra break essentially served as a long nap, and the Jets forgot to set their alarm. Why? How?

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Aaron Rodgers said. “Good question. I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer for you, sorry.”

Added Wilson: “You go out and play like that and it’s going to be hard to find that energy. I don’t think we went into this with the wrong mentality … I just think at the end of the day it’s all about Sunday. When you plays badly, you have to fake it a little bit to make it seem real. But the energy isn’t there because we’re playing like garbage.”

The Cardinals scored on their first drive, six plays for 70 yards in two minutes, capped by a 1-yard James Conner touchdown run and featuring a 44-yard reception that came just short of the end zone when Conner landed on his bum . before crossing the plane. Arizona scored again on the next possession, another 70-yard drive, this one ending with a 1-yard Kyler Murray touchdown run. They scored on their third drive, went 70 yards again, and ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Murray to Marvin Harrison.

During that drive, the Cardinals had a third-and-7 at their own 33-yard line, and cornerback Sauce Gardner made Cardinals tight end Trey McBride break up after a short catch. Gardner tried to wrap his arms around the 6-4, 250-pounder and bring him to the ground. Instead, McBride tossed him aside, gained 17 yards and kept the drive going.

IT’S A BIRD. IT’S A PLANE. IT’S TREY MCBRIDE HURDING FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/bBevRNvSnu

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) 10 November 2024

“I’ve got to make that tackle,” Gardner said. “I was holding him up, I ended up going to the ground, I was just trying to pull him down, he stayed up.”

The Jets, meanwhile, stayed down. After Harrison scored it was 21-6. The Cardinals added a field goal before halftime. With each successive drive, the Jets’ tackling effort somehow worsened. In all, according to NextGen Stats, the Jets missed 20 tackles, more than any team has missed in a game this season. Murray completed 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown and ran for two touchdowns.

“I’m going to take a hard look at myself and really look inward and what I could have done better, you know, in the preparation for this fight because something was wrong,” Ulbrich said.

The offense wasn’t much better. The Jets opened the second half by driving to the Cardinals’ 3-yard line before Rodgers threw two incompletions and was sacked on fourth down. Rodgers was out the entire game and rarely threw downfield — his longest completion, for 15 yards, went to running back Breece Hall. Rodgers was 22 of 35 for 151 yards and no touchdowns, just the second time in his career he has thrown for fewer than 160 yards while attempting 30 or more passes.

It’s also the first time Rodgers has started a season 3-7, and the first time he’s looked this miserable with so many weeks to go.

“Listen, it’s definitely been a lot of emotions this year,” Rodgers said. “I thought after a big win Thursday night, a nice long week, we were going to come out with a lot of energy and win the game. We didn’t come out with a lot of energy on both sides of the ball.”

What did he mean by “a lot of emotions”?

“Yeah, I don’t want to” elaborate, Rodgers said. “It appears to be a loaded answer, but this is not the time or place to get into any of that right now. At some point I will give you a better answer.”

The Jets are out of answers. They are out of time.

In the third quarter, trailing by 25, Rodgers was sacked on third down for a loss of nine yards. As he and his teammates left the field, Rodgers swung left while the rest of the offense swung right. He ripped off his helmet and gave it to a Jets employee, replacing it with a white Jets hat. He sat on the bench and leaned back, annoyed, alone. A few feet away, Tyrod Taylor was watching film on a tablet with caller Todd Downing as Rodgers stared off into space, perhaps wondering how he got here. And what happens then.

“There’s still a lot ahead of us,” Rodgers said.

That’s the scary part.

(Top photo: Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)