Typically, an interception is always the quarterback’s fault. Even when it’s not the quarterback’s fault.
After Monday night’s loss to the Bills, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers placed the blame on receiver Mike Williams. Even though it arguably was the quarterback’s fault, at least partially.
Rodgers flashed a little feistiness when first asked about the play by reporters, saying: “What about it?”
He then was asked to take them through it.
“It was two verticals,” Rodgers said. “Allen [Lazard is] down the seam, Mike’s down the red line. So I’m looking at Allen, he puts his hand up, three guys go with him. So I’m throwing a no-look to the red line. And when I just peek my eyes back there, he’s running an in-breaker. So. Um, it’s gotta be down the red line.”
Rodgers next was asked whether Rodgers threw the ball with the thinking that Williams would come back for it
“No, I was throwing to the red line,” Rodgers said. “But when I got to about here [gesturing with his arm], I realized he was running an in-breaker. So I had to kind of adjust it a little bit. But the play is two guys vertical, one guy down the seam, one guy in the red line.”
As Devin McCourty (who called the game for Westwood One) said on Tuesday’s PFT Live, Rodgers shouldn’t have thrown it where he threw it. Running back Breece Hall was open in the flat. Even if Rodgers didn’t see Hall, Rodgers should have just thrown the ball away.
Devin noted that the red line is the area 4-5 yards from the sideline. It’s actually painted on practice fields, in red, as a guidepost for receivers.
So Williams took it on himself to alter his route. And Rodgers decided, instead of throwing it away, to adjust the pass while his arm was in mid-delivery.
