Even in what shaped up as being a tough road test in Orchard Park, NY, there were some record-book numbers on the table for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets to accomplish Sunday.
But in the end, the only 500-ish metric that Rodgers addressed late in his news conference following the Jets' 40-14 loss to the Bills was not touchdown passes but sacks. Did he know he had passed Tom Brady's 565 sacks for the most times sacked in an NFL career (since 1982)?
"Yeah, I got Tom in that," Rodgers said with a small smile, not surprised by the stat because, he said, "I was told yesterday in the production meeting."
But the numbers that Rodgers, Davante Adams, IHC Jeff Ulbrich and all the Jets' players and coaches cared about were, yes, a fifth win in this struggle of a season, but also the 500th regular-season TD pass of Rodgers' illustrious NFL career. However, that didn't happen at Highmark Stadium as Rodgers, trailing, 40-0, gave way to Tyrod Taylor for the Jets' final two drives, both ending with Taylor TD passes.
"This game was kind of like our season. It just got away from us," Rodgers said somberly. "Too many games got away from us and this game got away from us. We were moving the ball well early, then we just hit a wall."
"I thought the effort was pretty good," he said in response to another question. "The execution wasn't very good."
Rodgers was a part of most of the afternoon, which didn't have the rain forecast for the Buffalo area but grew darker and more drab for the visiting team as the game wore on. Those first two drives held promise as the Jets drove 48 yards on 10 plays before losing a failed fourth-and-1 play at the Buffalo 24, then 62 yards on 7 plays before Rodgers threw the first of his two interceptions, from the Bills 12.
"We had it blocked up good," Rodgers said of the ball batted by DE Gregory Rousseau into the breadbasket of DL Jordan Phillips. "It would've been an explosive play. The guy just tipped the ball."
From a 12-0 halftime lead, the Bills broke it open with four TDs in a crazy span of 7:36 of clock time. And Rodgers, playing behind a line that played at times with its fifth and sixth tackles of the season, finished with 12-of-18 passing for 112 yards, no TDs, the 2 picks and 4 sacks and a 44.0 passer rating.
The one A-Rod statistic that did receive currency after the game was his major penalty for unnecessary roughness when he pushed Christian Benford after he had stepped out of bounds at the end of the return after Rodgers' second INT.
"I don't think I pushed him very hard," Rodgers said. "Yeah, I was just chasing down the play."
"I thought in his defense, he was going to try to erase a mistake," Ulbrich said of the penalty, one of 16 accepted against the Jets in the game. "He was bustin' his butt to get over there. I'll take a look at that one."
When a reporter said that was the first major penalty assessed against him in his 20 NFL seasons, Rodgers offered a correction.
"I had one other 15-yard penalty. In the playoffs," he said.
Fact check: True. Then-Packers QB Rodgers scrambled toward the goal line against Atlanta in the 2016 NFC Championship game and was called for a grab with which he took off the helmet of CB Robert Alford at the sideline and flung it farther out of bounds. Rodgers was flagged for a facemask penalty but not flagged for lightly bumping Alford going back onto the field, prompting Alford to take a dive at the official's feet. attempting to draw a second 15-yarder.
Rodgers admitted thinking that "at 33-0, we were sitting there and I said at some point, we might go to Tyrod here, huh?" He was correct.
Now all that remains for the QB and his offense and the Jets as a team is to try to end this tough test of a season back at MetLife against Miami. Ulbrich, asked if he thought Rodgers would start vs. the Dolphins, said, "I do, I do, barring an injury."
Rodgers could get No. 500 (as in TD passes), not No. 569-plus (as in sacks) against Miami. But whatever happens in that final game of the 2024 season, he said, "I'm going to enjoy next week, then take some mental and physical rest."
