Patriots
FOXBOROUGH – As shocking because the Patriots' 2-6 record could also be to this point this fall, it's fair to say that expectations for a rebuilding squad in Foxborough weren't all that prime to start with.
The same can’t be said for the New York Jets. Although New York opened the 12 months with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, after the Patriots' dramatic 25-22 win at Gillette Stadium, it now sits at the identical miserable 2-6 record as New England.
Beyond the expected return of future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers from a season-ending Achilles tendon injury, New York was poised to field a stacked roster with young playmakers on each side of the ball, similar to Garrett Wilson, Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams.
But things have quickly gone downhill for Rodgers and the Jets, culminating in Sunday's last-minute loss to a Patriots team that was without its most dynamic player in Drake Maye (concussion) for a lot of the game.
And with New York now observing one other season with an eye fixed on the playoffs, Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich pulled no punches in his postgame address.
“I'm pissed off. They are angry. I'm hurt. They’re hurt,” Ulbrich said. “We are not performing well in critical moments, especially not on the home stretch. We had the opportunity to win that game, should have won it, but we didn't. …This is a moment of darkness and we understand that the outside world will now become very loud.
“But the one thing I know in life is that when things get dark and hard, you work and point the finger at yourself and look within and figure out what I can do better from an individual perspective.”
Despite Ulbrich's rather gloomy attitude, Rodgers agreed with his coach's opinion about the state of an imploding Jets organization.
“I was in the dark,” Rodgers said. “You have to go in there and make peace with it. Offensively, our goal simply has to be to score 30 points. No matter what the other two teams do. We have confidence in our defense and our teams, but if we don't score 30 points we are underperforming. This offense can do that every week.”
The 40-year-old Rodgers, once considered one in every of the pillars of the Jets' supposed success, was underwhelming in his first full season with New York.
Rodgers finished Sunday's loss completing 17 of his 28 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns. But he still falls in need of the high standards he set for himself in Green Bay — throwing 12 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in eight games this season.
While Rodgers was never a real dual-threat QB, his agility and talent to operate from his own pocket made him one of the dangerous playmakers in NFL history. But the veteran QB might be showing his age, especially after being limited this week with knee and hamstring injuries.
Several Patriots players noted after Sunday's 25-22 win that Rodgers had trouble escaping pressure.
“Yeah, I think he’s struggling right now,” Davon Godchaux said of Rodgers. “That’s a Hall of Fame quarterback right there. You hate to see him perform like that, but you'll always win against him on your resume.
“But he definitely doesn’t look the same. He kept moving back there – I was able to overrun him and catch him. He doesn't look mobile at all. It was good for us. We know we can come out and attack them in the passing game too.”
At this point within the season, New York has already exhausted several options in hopes of turning the season around. The Jets already fired head coach Robert Saleh earlier this month and traded for Rodgers' longtime Packers teammate Davante Adams two weeks ago.
The Jets at the moment are 0-3 under Ulbrich, while Adams (seven catches, 84 yards, zero touchdowns) has yet to be a game-changer on offense in two games.
At this point, the Jets are what they’re under Rodgers and company. And it's not all that different from previous iterations of this franchise.
“Yes, I imagine it could be, yes. Not for me, but I imagine it could be,” Rodgers said when asked if Jets players who haven’t had success are hard to purchase into. “That's why the guys who were having success had to take the lead to get us out of this.”
image credit : www.boston.com