GLENDALE, Ariz. — The New York Jets’ harbinger of doom came before the game even started. The Denver Broncos had just lost and, shortly after, the Indianapolis Colts too. In the press box at State Farm Stadium, Joe Douglas and other members of the Jets front office celebrated. They clapped. They smiled.
In their mind, the Jets’ day was off to a great start. Those two losses would help them in the AFC playoff race, much-needed developments as the team envisioned an improbable run to end the season and sneak into the playoffs.
That won’t be happening. Douglas left the press box with more than 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter and headed for the elevators, his team trailing the Arizona Cardinals, 31-6. It was the same score when owner Woody Johnson and his brother, Christopher, headed there with four minutes left, shaking their heads.
MURRAY MAGIC 🪄 pic.twitter.com/DKVUFxrwcJ
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 10, 2024
Maybe that result, for a franchise that came into the season with such high hopes, should be shocking. Instead, it feels routine, in many ways inevitable for a team that has done this all year — for many years. It’s not the first time the Jets followed up a surprising win with a humiliating loss, and it won’t be the last. On Nov. 10, the Jets’ 2024 season was declared dead. The optimism that coursed through the organization when training camp opened in July has been replaced with dread. And there’s an ominous feeling, a near certainty, that there are horrors still to come over the next seven games.
“Thinking back on the game, it’s not that shocking,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “Is it shocking given how we practice during the week, how we went about stuff during training camp, what we have in this locker room? Yeah, it’s shocking. But as far as being out there and just the vibes and how it felt? Yeah, that sounds about right.”
The Jets’ fate — misery — was predetermined. Now the players are resigned to it. That would be the only way to explain the effort of a team that arrived in the desert with their season on the line, and will leave on Monday morning feeling like it’s already over.
“After a long layoff there they were not prepared to play,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “We didn’t execute even close to our standard and that falls on my shoulders, 100 percent.”
The problems pre-date Ulbrich and they will probably post-date him too. Johnson fired Robert Saleh on Oct. 8, a band-aid on a gaping wound that probably should have been addressed in the offseason. A week later Johnson pushed to trade for Davante Adams, an owner who thought he was making clever chess moves, when in reality he was playing checkers.
“It’s frustrating, obviously,” Adams said. “It’s not our standard of football, it’s not my standard of football, so it’s frustrating. I don’t really know what to say. It was just a weird, weird day.”
The Jets defense had tackling issues throughout the day in Arizona. (Michael Chow / The Republic via Imagn Images)
The Jets were coming off an impressive 21-13 win against a Houston Texans team bound for the postseason. That win came on a Thursday night, granting them three extra days of rest before Sunday. The extra break served the purpose of a long nap, and the Jets forgot to set their alarm. Why? How?
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Aaron Rodgers said. “Good question. I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer for you, sorry.”
Added Wilson: “You go out and play like that and it’s going to be tough to find that energy. I don’t think we went into this with the wrong mentality … I just think at the end of the day it’s all about Sunday. When you play bad, you gotta fake it a little bit to make it seem real. But the energy is not there because we’re playing like trash. That’s how I see it.”
The Cardinals scored on their first drive, six plays for 70 yards in two minutes, capped by a 1-yard James Conner touchdown run and featuring a 44-yard reception that came up just short of the end zone when Conner landed on his butt cheek before crossing the plane. Arizona scored again on their next drive, another 70-yard drive ending with a 1-yard Kyler Murray touchdown run. They scored again on their third drive, going 70 yards again, ending with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Murray to Marvin Harrison.
During that drive, the Cardinals had a third-and-7 at their own 33-yard-line, and cornerback Sauce Gardner had Cardinals tight end Trey McBride squared up. He tried to wrap his arms around the 6-4, 250-pounder and bring him to the ground. Instead, McBride tossed him to aside, gained 17 yards and kept the drive going.
IT’S A BIRD. IT’S A PLANE. IT’S TREY MCBRIDE HURDLING FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/bBevRNvSnu
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 10, 2024
“I gotta make that tackle,” Gardner said. “I was holding him up, I ended up going to the ground, I tried to just pull him down, he stayed up.”
The Jets, meanwhile, stayed down. After Harrison scored, it was 21-6. The Cardinals added a field goal before halftime. With each successive drive, the Jets’ tackling effort somehow worsened. In total, per NextGen, the Jets missed 20 tackles — more than any team has missed in a game this season. Murray completed 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and one touchdown, and ran for two touchdowns.
“I’m going to take a hard look at myself and and really look inward and what I could have done better, you know, in the in the preparation for this game because something was was off,” Ulbrich said.
The Aaron Rodgers-Davante Adams connection has fallen short of saving the Jets’ season. (Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)
The offense wasn’t much better. The Jets opened the second half by driving to the Cardinals’ 3-yard line, before Rodgers threw two incompletions and was sacked on fourth down. Rodgers was off all game and rarely threw downfield — his longest completion, for 15 yards, went to running back Breece Hall. Rodgers was 22 of 35 for 151 yards and no touchdowns, only the second time in his career he’s thrown for fewer than 160 yards while attempting 30 or more passes.
It’s also the first time that Rodgers has started a season 3-7, and the first time he’s looked this miserable, with so many weeks to go.
“Listen, it’s, it’s been a lot of emotions this year for sure,” Rodgers said. “I thought after a big win Thursday night, a nice long week, we’re going to come out with a lot of energy and win the game. We didn’t come out with great energy on either side of the ball.”
What did he mean by “a lot of emotions”?
“Yeah, I’m not going to” elaborate, Rodgers said. “Seems like that’s a loaded answer, but it’s not the time or the place to get into any of that right now. At some point I’ll give you a better answer.”
The Jets are out of answers. They’re out of time.
In the third quarter, trailing by 25, Rodgers was sacked on third down for a loss of nine yards. As he and his teammates exited the field, Rodgers veered left as the rest of the offensive group veered right. He ripped off his helmet and handed it to a Jets staffer and replaced it with a white Jets hat. He sat on the bench, leaned back, exasperated, alone. A few feet away, Tyrod Taylor watched film on a tablet with play-caller Todd Downing as Rodgers stared off into space, perhaps wondering how he got here. And what happens next.
“There’s still a lot in front of us,” Rodgers said.
That’s the scary part.
(Top photo: Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)
