Aaron Rodgers is back, but loss to 49ers is a reminder Jets still have a long way to go

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — This time, Aaron Rodgers didn’t lead the New York Jets out of the tunnel waving an American flag. Instead, he blended into the crowd of teammates, stood on the sideline for the national anthem flanked by his two top receivers, pulled on a Jets cap and soaked it all in. When Boyz II Men finished “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Rodgers hugged Allen Lazard, hugged Garrett Wilson, chatted briefly with special teams coordinator Brant Boyer and then walked to midfield for the coin toss.

The 49ers won the coin toss and delayed the game, allowing the Jets to take the lead first. Rodgers went through the first series without a hitch. He passed on the fourth snap, then the fifth.

Last year, he tore his Achilles tendon on the fourth play of the season, on a sack by Buffalo Bills pass rusher Leonard Floyd. On Monday, the first big hit Rodgers took was on a sack by San Francisco 49ers pass rusher Leonard Floyd. Rodgers got back up, no problem.

He led an efficient passing streak in the first quarter. In the third quarter, he threw a vintage touchdown pass. It was a dime pass on a free play—a Rodgers classic, as he may be the best player in the NFL at capitalizing when the defense jumps offside. The pass was intended for Lazard, a fitting target for his first touchdown as a Jet, a 36-yarder for a touchdown.

.@AaronRodgers12 deep ball to @AllenLazard TD❕

📺 #NYJvsSF on ESPN pic.twitter.com/5YA7S4kM8p

— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 10, 2024

Those moments were encouraging. He survived a game. But there will be no celebration of his survival. In between all those moments — the tunnel exit, the anthem, the coin toss, the first snaps, the fourth snaps, the fifth snaps, the touchdown — Rodgers and the Jets got a rude awakening against the 49ers. San Francisco is a Super Bowl contender; that’s what the Jets imagine themselves to be — Rodgers said. Instead, the chasm between the two teams Monday night was as wide as an Egyptian pyramid. One team seemed ready for another Super Bowl; the other didn’t. The Jets led 7-3 in the first quarter. They trailed 26-7 at one point in the third, and waved the white flag with 3:06 left in the fourth, down 32-13. They lost 32-19.

“We have to play better,” Rodgers said. “I have to play better.”

The offense was inconsistent. The defense was completely dominated by a Christian McCaffrey-less 49ers rushing attack. Before Monday, third-year guard Jordan Mason had never had more than 11 carries or 69 yards in a game; he ran for 147 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries against the Jets. Mason averaged 1.82 yards before contact per carry, which would have been fifth among running backs last season. The defensive line barely generated any pressure — the defensive line combined for two QB hits and a sack (Haason Reddick, anyone?) and struggled to break free of blocks in the run game.

“They beat us offensively,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “It’s as simple as that.”

It was worrisome for a defense that has been a top-five unit each of the last two years and was supposed to do so again in 2024.

“They introduced us to league football,” Saleh said. “We’re going to fix this.”

As for Rodgers and the offense: The Jets may have breathed a sigh of relief when he went over on the fourth snap, but they certainly didn’t have much to celebrate because running back Breece Hall fumbled the ball after a reception. It was an unfortunate follow-up to the previous sequence, when Lazard’s third down capped a season-opening three-and-out.

As for Hall, it was just the second fumble of his NFL career. He also took a bad fall later in the game.

“Aaron said he had to play better and everybody in our offense had to play better, but personally, I had a couple of misreads, a drop and a fumble,” said Hall, who finished with 54 yards on 16 carries. “I took credit for that. I’m going to get better.”

Hall scored a touchdown on the drive after the fumble — the Jets’ best possession of the game, a glimmer of hope that maybe the offense can get back on track and not look like the boring, bland, three-and-out offense it was in 2023. That drive started with two short runs from Hall — offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has yet to shed his ineffective run-run-pass tendencies — then Rodgers hit Wilson on a 16-yard pass, and another 14-yard pass a few plays later. At that point, Rodgers was distributing; he hit Hall for 13 yards, then Wilson again after a few plays for eight. Hall capped it off with a three-yard touchdown run, giving the Jets a 7-3 lead.

The 49ers then scored on the next seven possessions. After a three-and-out to start the game, San Francisco scored on all eight drives until they knelt the clock in the final seconds. Rodgers calmed down and made a few errant throws — he tried to force a pass to Wilson in the third quarter that was deflected and intercepted by linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles. And then on a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter, he threw it behind Wilson on a slant for a turnover on downs. It was his last pass of the game — backup Tyrod Taylor finished things off with a touchdown pass to Lazard in a timeout, his second of the day, doubling his total from a year ago in a single day.

But that first-quarter drive, which ended with a Hall touchdown, was a sign of what the Jets can be when everything works. It included three third-down conversions. It was also a red-zone drive that ended with a touchdown. Those kinds of drives have been rare the last two years with Zach Wilson (and others) leading the way. The Jets never had more than two third-down conversions in a first quarter all last season.

“I think when we’re healthy, I know what it can look like,” Garrett Wilson said. “We weren’t healthy the whole game, but we found it in spurts and we’ve got to find a way to hold on and capitalize on it every attack. But yeah, maybe that’s what it can look like … it felt good in the moment and we’ve got to get back to that.”

Hall added: “We showed we could move the ball when we wanted to and we were a potent attack, but we didn’t get it together like we should have today and that’s what cost us. We just have to be better.”

It would have helped if they had more opportunities. The 49ers had 70 offensive plays. The Jets had 49, and their time of possession, 21:20, was the lowest of any start in Rodgers’ career. Wilson had four receptions on the first-quarter scoring drive, and then received just five targets (only one of which he caught) from Rodgers the rest of the way.

“They kept the ball,” Saleh said. “Our offense never had a chance to find a rhythm.”

Rodgers stressed that the Jets were “just bad on first and second downs,” while admitting that “we just didn’t have a lot of opportunities.”

The Jets will have two more chances to play in the next 10 days, against two opponents who are unlikely to be playoff contenders. They play the Titans in Tennessee on Sunday, then a few days later they host the New England Patriots for their home opener on a Thursday night.

The Jets are supposed to be contending for the Super Bowl. On Monday night, they saw what a team that has reached that level looks like, and they weren’t ready for it.

“They just played harder than us,” Hall said.

Wilson said: “We realize all of a sudden that we’re not there yet. We have to prepare, get better every week, every day, every rep, because we’re not there yet. They kicked our butts today and that’s the reality, and we have to find a way to get better. Great teams bounce back from that and that’s what we intend to do.”

Rodgers’ final totals weren’t particularly impressive — 13 of 21 for 167 yards, a touchdown and an interception — but he showed signs that he’s still good enough to lead a contending team. For once, the quarterback wasn’t the Jets’ biggest problem. But if they don’t fix the rest of the issues that arose Monday, especially on defense, Rodgers’ dreams of returning to the Super Bowl won’t come true.

Asked if he thought the 49ers were a championship-caliber team, Rodgers nodded, then added, “I hope we see them there.”

(Top photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)