The Jets were down just 12-0 to the Bills when they got the ball to start the third quarter. After failing to score on that first possession, Aaron Rodgers and the offense got another crack at a historic touchdown when they started in Buffalo territory. But a second interception of the day kicked off a four-touchdown flourish that sealed Gang Green’s most lopsided defeat of the season.
“They got after us in every way. Outcoached us, outplayed us from really the second half on,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said to begin his postgame news conference. “Not good enough.”
Looking at the scoreline it could be seen as an issue of effort from a team that is limping toward the finish line of another losing season – losing for the 11th time in the last 13 games – playing against a team wrapping up the No. 2 seed in the conference. But Ulbrich dismissed that notion saying he thought effort “wasn’t the issue.”
“The effort was fine, it was the execution, it was all of it,” the coach said. “We’re gonna take a good hard look at the film and asses what exactly happened, but we didn’t play well enough by any means in any facet in any of the three phases.”
“Effort I thought was pretty good,” Rodgers added later. “Execution wasn’t very good.”
The result was a 40-14 drubbing.
“It’s embarrassing,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “We went out there and laid an egg. I put the ball on the ground. We turned the ball over. We just didn’t play good, complementary football. We didn’t play good in one phase. It’s frustrating.”
Added Ulbrich: “It’s frustrating, it’s embarrassing, it’s maddening, it’s all of that.”
Cornerback Sauce Gardner, when asked if it was embarrassing to see his team down 40-0 in the third quarter, offered a critique of the team’s mental state.
“Embarrassing? I don’t even know if that’s the word,” Gardner said before asking reporters for the score of the team’s meeting earlier in the season, a 23-20 Buffalo win. “Exactly and you telling me now it’s 40-0, like, if you ask me, it’s the end of the season, obviously we not going to the playoffs, some people might be checked out.
“That’s just me going off speculation of what I’m getting at. We beat them my rookie year, right? We beat them before… last year, too. They had a similar roster, we quote-unquote enhanced our roster in all areas. So that just tells me, man, I don’t know, bro. You can’t be playing as a team, we probably just individuals.
“Cause I know last year and the year before we had a roster that wasn’t as talented as this roster but we found ways to beat the Bills, found ways to win. What’s stopping that now with a more talented roster?”
Davante Adams, who joined the Jets in midseason, offered a veteran’s perspective when asked about the 40-point deficit: “It’s a build-up. Before it was 40 it was 30 and that sucked, too.”
“It’s disappointing,” the wide receiver continued. “You go around this locker room and you go locker to locker and you go around their locker room and go locker to locker – which is not a slight at them at all, obviously one of the best teams in the league right now… – but on paper, it will look like it will be a shootout and it should be. It’s about execution, it doesn’t matter who you have on the roster.”
The third-quarter possessions that decided the game went as follows for the Jets: six plays resulting in a punt, four plays leading to an interception, three plays and a punt, one play and a fumble and three plays and a punt
“It’s kind of like the season. It just got away from us,” Rodgers said. “Too many games got away from us. This game got away from us. We were moving the ball well and then we just hit a wall. That’s kind of been the season.”
The 41-year-old quarterback watched the fourth quarter – that saw Tyrod Taylor find the end zone twice on garbage time – after throwing for 112 yards on 11-for-18 passing with two interceptions and a 1.2 QBR (out of 100).
With one game left to play, Ulbrich imparted to his team the need to “honor” each other with their best effort: “We gotta demonstrate exactly who we are next week.”
But before playing Miami next Sunday, turning toward the offseason and the future is only natural.
“This locker room not gonna look the same next year, in terms of players and coaches,” Gardner said. “I don’t even know what’s gonna happen…. I was just trying to give my all for them, bro. Trying to give my all for the organization, for my teammates, for my coaches.”
Gardner, the fourth overall pick in 2022, said he wants to be a part of changing the culture around the organization, but “we’ll just see what happens.”
With a new general manager and head coach to be hired, the one thing for certain is change is coming.
