During his press conference last week, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said, “The mark of a great team is can you handle the success.”
After winning two consecutive games against the Titans and the Patriots, the Jets still have a lot of work to do regarding handling prosperity.
The Jets were embarrassed after losing to the Broncos 10-9 in a game that was a throwback to when Zach Wilson, who was watching from the Broncos sidelines, was the team’s starting quarterback.
The same issues that plagued the Jets for years came back to haunt them in losing to the Broncos. There were offensive miscues, penalties and a failure to stop the run.
The Jets defense held the Broncos to 186 yards of total offense compared to Gang Green’s 248 yards. But despite that, Denver found a way to win a game that resembled the miserable weather at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
The Jets committed 15 penalties, 13 of which were accepted. Multiple flags were thrown on running back Breece Hall, Will McDonald and the Jets’ offensive line for false starts.
The Jets defense also allowed 126 rushing yards.
“A lot of pre-snap penalties, which is unacceptable,” head coach Robert Saleh said. “It’s the stuff that we have to get that cleaned up.
“We are always going to have in-play penalties, but the pre-snap and the post-snap penalties are the ones that are not acceptable.”
Two of the most significant penalties happened at critical junctures of the game. In the second quarter, on a 4th and goal play at the one-yard-line, left guard John Simpson was called for a false start, which moved the ball to the Jets’ five-yard-line. Because of that, the Jets had to settle for a Greg Zuerlein field goal.
In addition to Simpson’s penalty, Tyron Smith and Hall were also called for pre-snap penalties.
“We were kind of killing ourselves,” Rodgers said. “I can’t say I had a spectacular game. I missed some throws, the weather sucked, but so did some of my throws.
“We had some chances, but way too many mental mistakes, too many poor throws and we just missed some easy stuff, protection stuff that should have been easy and some route adjustment stuff that should have been easy.
“Our focus wasn’t as sharp as it has been the first three weeks.”
Rodgers is right about that, but the Jets’ problems with lack of focus and making mental mistakes started before this year. He didn’t have the best of days after completing 24-of-42 passes for 225 yards, but that should have been good enough to beat a Broncos team with a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix, who only threw for 60 yards and a touchdown.
Last season, the Jets were the most penalized team in the NFL, with 124 infractions. After three weeks of primarily clean football, the Jets reverted to their 2023 ways.
In the third quarter, when the Jets appeared to be generating rhythm running an uptempo offense, Rodgers completed a 12-yard pass to Allen Lazard, which would have put the Jets in the red zone. However, Lazard was called for unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when he celebrated with his hands in what seemed like a gun-like motion.
Because of that, the Jets were knocked back to the 33-yard line, and Zuerlein kicked a 40-yard field goal after they couldn’t convert on third down.
“I guess that’s a new thing with the NFL,” Lazard said. “Usually, they give warnings with unsportsmanlike conduct and stuff like that. Guys around the league do that every single week. It’s been a thing for a while now.
“They haven’t made it a point of emphasis in the offseason. I think they just threw it out there. It is what it is.
“Obviously, I regret doing that. I guess you can’t signal first down.”
In addition, the Jets’ offensive line couldn’t protect Rodgers, and he was sacked five times, including one by ex-Jet John Franklin-Myers.
“You can make excuses for anything,” Lazard said. “Maybe, I stopped at too many red lights to get here is the reason why we lost.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t execute, we didn’t perform to our standard and we didn’t play our style of football, especially offensively.”
Now, at 2-2 and with the calendar getting ready to flip to October, the Jets schedule will get much tougher. Next week, the Jets will travel to London to play a Vikings team that’s 4-0 and defeated a 49ers team that steamrolled the Jets in the season opener.
From there, the Jets will host the Bills on Monday Night Football on Oct. 14 and play at the Steelers six days later on Oct. 20 on a short week. And, oh yeah, the Jets also have a meeting with the Texans on Halloween.
Sunday might be a blip on the radar, or it could serve as a wake-up call. But many of the same issues that haunted the Jets in their loss to the Broncos have been a problem for years in games similar to this one.
No matter what the issue is with pre-snap penalties and miscues offensive for the Jets, they have to clean it up quickly with a challenging schedule ahead. A loss like this one against the Broncos could potentially come back to haunt the Jets in terms of possibly making the playoffs.
“We let them one get away and we have a couple of good opponents in a row,” Rodgers said.