Many of the details were right. Aaron Rodgers threw for more than 300 yards for the first time in almost three full years. The Jets cleared 300 yards for the first time in five games, then kept going to 400 — 402 all told — for only the second time all season. They scored on their first five possessions and held leads in both halves, especially in the second half with advantages of 23-15 and 26-23.
But the big detail on the big scoreboard at the end of the game remained the same. The Jets lost Sunday to the Dolphins, 32-26, this time on the opening drive of overtime at Hard Rock Stadium.
"We had chances, a lot of chances," Rodgers said after posting his best game as the Jets QB, completing 27 of 39 passes for 339 yards and a TD to Davante Adams. "We've just got to look at the offense. That's what we can control. ... We had our chances to get to 30 today, didn't do it, and that's why we lost."
"I thought he played well, thought we moved the ball efficiently up and down the field," interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said of his offense's first 400-yard game since their Week 3 home-opening win over New England.. "He had a good game."
Not good enough, especially since the defense, missing CB Sauce Gardner and going up against the equally efficient, quick and accurate passing of Tua Tagovailoa, yielded another game-deciding late drive to the opposition. This one, a 70-yard march to Tagovailoa's 10-yard strike to TE Jonnu Smith in OT, joins the line of fourth-quarter blown-lead losses — after taking leads of 2 points against Denver, 5 at New England, 8 against Indianapolis, 5 vs. Seattle and 8 again against the Dolphins.
Rodgers rightly reminded that the blame for these losses and the others in their now 3-10 season, can be spread around.
"There's a lot of different reasons we've lost these games," he said. "Everybody has some skin on that. But we had opportunities on offense. Whatever happens on defense doesn't matter. We've got to get to 30, we didn't do it. We were efficient, pretty good on third down, but in the red zone we stalled out too many times."
Thirty meaning points, the goal for A-Rod and his O all season. But the Jets haven't been able to reach that threshold. Their best: 27 points in the one-point loss to the Colts and Sunday's 26, good enough only to force a free extra period of NFL football.
The drought led to an expected question on expectations, which Rodgers didn't duck.
"The expectations were high. We didn't reach 'em, not anywhere close," he said. "It felt good three weeks in. That weekend off we had [after the Thursday night home opener], everybody felt real good. Since then, it's been a lot of difficult games with opportunities to win. We just didn't figure out how to win enough games, I didn't play good enough in some crunch times, and that's why we're sitting here with the record we've got."
Rodgers concluded his media availability with the topic of 300 passing yards. He said during the week, "There's a lot of stats I've been on the right side of. That's not one of them."
After 77 300-yarders in his career, after the longest stretch of his career without one until Sunday in Miami Gardens, FL, Rodgers smiled when the topic came up again. How did it feel to get the first 300-yard game of his Jets career, his first since beating the Bears at Lambeau Field on Dec. 12, 2021, the first by a Jet on the road since Mike White at Minnesota in '22, the first at Miami since Geno Smith in that 2014 finale?
"We got that behind us, we got that behind us," Rodgers repeated with a smile. "What's next?"
What's next for him and the Jets are now four remaining games to try to get all the details, including the big-board numbers at the end of the game, to all align. To get to 30. To get that Week 3 around-midnight feeling a few more times before this season draws to a close.
