‘This a moment of darkness’: Amid a Patriots high point, it’s the flagging Jets who hit a new low on Sunday
“We talk about being at our best when our best is required, and that was not it.”
FOXBOROUGH — There wasn’t a ton of chatter in the visitors locker room at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, as the Jets sought to file out of Foxborough as quickly as they could. Some players were gone in minutes, while others sat at lockers in full uniforms, towels draped over heads.
A New York team that had Super Bowl aspirations before the season — with Aaron Rodgers coming back from injury, stars such as Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, and one of the NFL’s premier defenses — instead fell to 2-6 after a gut-wrenching 25-22 loss to the Patriots on Sunday.
The Jets had a late lead, the Patriots lost their primary bright spot with Drake Maye suffering a concussion in the first half, and it all fell apart for New York as Jacoby Brissett drove New England down the field and into the end zone in the final seconds.
“We talk about being at our best when our best is required, and that was not it,” said interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich, who took over for the fired Robert Saleh after Week 5. “That’s on coaching first of all, and then second, you’ve got to execute, and we did not execute in critical moments. We say that’s not who we are, but it’s who we are until we demonstrate otherwise.
“I’m pissed, they’re pissed, I’m hurt, they’re hurt. … We are not executing in critical moments. Especially down the stretch right there. We had opportunities to win this game, should’ve won this game, and didn’t. So give credit to the Patriots: they took advantage of a team that didn’t execute as well as they can.”
Sunday was the latest in a string of disappointing defeats for the Jets, who have lost five in a row since beating the Patriots in Week 3.
A visibly deflated Aaron Rodgers, his face partially hidden under a baseball cap at the postgame podium, was a man of few words after another loss.
“Frustration, for sure,” Rodgers said of his emotions after the game. Asked for his message to his team, Rodgers replied: “I’ll tell them.”
The four-time MVP was solid in his first trip to Gillette as a Jet, throwing for 233 yards and two touchdowns, but New York’s offense left some points on the field. Kicker Greg Zuerlein missed an early extra point and a 44-yard field goal, and the Jets settled for a 29-yard kick in the second half instead of going for it on fourth and 1 from the New England 11. After their last touchdown, Rodgers and the offense couldn’t complete a 2-point conversion after taking a delay of game penalty to move the try back to the 7-yard line.
“We’re not playing complementary football,” Rodgers said. “We haven’t put it together really since the last time we won a game, where all three phases played really well. Same thing today.
“Offensively, our goal’s just got to be to score 30. Doesn’t matter what the other two sides are doing. We have trust in our defense and teams, but if we’re not scoring 30, we’re underachieving. This offense can do that every single week.”
Instead, the Jets have yet to score more than 24 points in a game this season, with their 18.3 points per game ranking 24th in the NFL this season.
So as New England celebrated a win delivered by Brissett, Kayshon Boutte, and a banged-up defense, the star-studded Jets and their MVP quarterback, All-Pro defenders, and great expectations are back to the drawing board with the same 2-6 record as the Patriots.
“This is a moment of darkness,” Ulbrich said. “And we understand that the outside world is going to get really loud right now. But the only thing I know in life is that when it gets dark and it gets hard, you work. You point the finger at yourself and you look inward and you figure out, what can I do better. If we do that collectively, which I believe we will, that’s your only opportunity to dig yourself out of this.
“We all got to take a hard look at ourselves, starting with me.”
Rodgers, for his part, sounded comfortable in that environment.
“Yeah, I’ve been in the darkness,” he said. “You’ve got to go in there. Make peace with it.”
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