Aaron Rodgers completed his first passes in 610 days on Monday night, and his first in a New York Jets jersey, but Gang Green moved the ball sporadically in a 32-19 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Miscues and inconsistency plagued the Jets offense in Rodgers' first sustained action. Allen Lazard dropped a would-be third-down conversion on the first drive, and running back Breece Hall fumbled on the Jets' fourth offensive snap. Gang Green went three-and-out three times and had two turnovers, including a ricocheted Rodgers interception.
The 40-year-old signal-caller, however, dismissed the idea that new pieces playing together and the lack of preseason action contributed to the herky-jerky affair.
"That's an excuse for sure. I'm not going to use that," he said after the game, via the official transcript. "I don't think we should. We expect greatness when we step on the field. There were moments that felt really good, but not sustained. We felt like if we could just get a first down, we'd be rolling. We had those three-and-outs, which really hurt us. I think a lot of stuff is correctable, which is great for coaches but frustrating for players. We know how close we were/are, but there's no time for that. We're going to move on to Tennessee quickly and then we've got a game four days after that. This is a tough opener for us, travel-wise and schedule-wise, but no excuses. We have to play better. I have to play better. We'll bounce back next week."
When things clicked, the Jets offense looked as good as it has in years. Rodgers zipped crisp passes to Garrett Wilson and Hall found space in the defense. The offensive line kept Rodgers pretty clean with just five of his 21 attempts coming under pressure, per Next Gen Stats. A 12-play, 70-yard touchdown drive on the Jets' third possession, which included several Rodgers-to-Wilson connections, showed just how efficient the unit can be when it clicks. The 7:07 TD drive was longer than any possession the Gang Green had in 2023.
Rodgers had a vintage movement in the third quarter, getting Niners edge Leonard Floyd to jump offside and finding Lazard deep for a touchdown.
However, the miscues and inconsistencies showed it's far from a finished product. The QB finished 13 of 21 for 167 pass yards, one TD and one INT.
"I can play better. I missed a couple of throws. I missed the one to Garrett," Rodgers said. "The last drive I was in, the pick. I missed slightly inside on that one. I felt overall I was getting the ball out pretty good. We had some opportunities I'd like back."
Unlike Kirk Cousins, who looked restricted in Atlanta while also coming off an Achilles tear, Rodgers didn't look immobile or affected by the injury. He also wasn't on the field a ton, as the Jets defense got steamrolled. New York lost the time of possession battle 38:40-21:20.
"We never really gave him a chance to get in the rhythm," Jets head coach Robert Saleh said of his defense. "Defensively, credit to San Francisco, they did a great job running the ball. They were very efficient in the pass game. Even in the second half when we felt like we made some adjustments in the run game and they, minus one explosive, thought we did good in the run game. But they were really good in the passing game too...They executed a heck of a lot better than we did, and we have to be better."
After Monday night's rough first game in San Francisco, the Jets hope to get back on track against Tennessee, New England, Denver and Minnesota over the next four weeks.
