Rest up, Aaron.
Any hope of the Jets making a run at the playoffs and allowing Aaron Rodgers to return ended Sunday on a soggy day at MetLife Stadium with the Jets losing 13-8 to the Falcons in another dismal performance.
The Jets’ fifth straight loss drops the Jets to 4-8, meaning they are mathematically still alive for the playoffs but realistically they are staring at a 13th straight season of missing the playoffs.
“Whether you’re in it, out of it, it doesn’t matter,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “You’ve got to show up. You’ve got to work. You’ve got to find ways to get better.”
That is something the Jets have been unable to do. They have failed to score a touchdown in three of their last five games.
They have 10 offensive touchdowns in 12 games this season.
It was more of the same Sunday. They went 2-for-15 on third down and 0-for-1 in the red zone, staples of this season.
The Jets went to their fourth quarterback of the season with Saleh benching Tim Boyle at the end of the third quarter and replacing him with Trevor Siemian.
Like everything else the Jets have tried on offense this season, the move did not work and Siemian fumbled the ball with 2:45 left in the game at midfield, ending any realistic hope the Jets had at winning.
“Just trying to spark the offense,” Saleh said of the quarterback switch.
Saleh said he is unsure which quarterback will start next week against the Texans, but Rodgers’ return has been tied to the Jets still being in the playoff hunt.
He also is not expected to be ready to play by next week.
They could go back to Zach Wilson, who was benched for Boyle two weeks ago or give Siemian his first chance. None of the options seems appealing.
Against the Falcons, there were several plays when Garrett Wilson was running wide open and Boyle just failed to get him the ball.
“We’re searching,” Saleh said. “I felt like there was a lot of missed opportunity with potential explosives, possible touchdowns on the field today. We’ve got to find a way to take advantage when we have those opportunities.”
The Falcons (6-6) were not much better than the Jets on offense but they did manage to score one touchdown. Second-year quarterback Desmond Ridder went 12 of 27 for 121 yards and one touchdown.
The Jets’ defense stymied the Falcons for most of the day, including in the fourth quarter when they stopped Atlanta and gave the Jets the ball back with 5:23 left and a chance to win the game with a touchdown.
Siemian moved the ball, hitting Jeremy Ruckert for a 12-yard pass and then running for 8 yards, but Richie Grant hit him as he was throwing and the ball popped out with Andre Smith recovering.
It was initially ruled an incomplete pass on the field and that saved the Jets from Smith returning it for a touchdown.
Falcons coach Arthur Smith challenged the call and it was ruled a fumble upon review, giving the Falcons the ball at midfield.
“We need to expect more from ourselves when we’re in those positions to go score,” Saleh said.
The Jets would get the ball back one more time with less than two minutes to play at their own 7.
They managed to get to their own 37-yard line but no further.
Saleh benched Boyle after he threw an interception to Falcons safety Jessie Bates near the end of the third quarter.
Boyle had been unable to get anything going all day, going 14 of 25 passing for 148 yards and the interception.
“We need to score seven instead of three moving forward,” Boyle said. “That’s kind of been our Achilles’ heel, just kind of we get stoned in the red zone and we have to continue to just work on that and make sure that we’re finding opportunities.”
Siemian entered the game with 13:06 left in the game to try to spark something.
His first pass was a 16-yard completion to Tyler Conklin and the small MetLife Stadium crowd went wild. But the drive ended up like most Jets’ drives these days — with a punt.
The Jets punted seven times. Their only scores came from a safety and two Greg Zuerlein field goals.
The Jets committed 11 penalties in the game, eight in the first half.
With the offense struggling as usual, the defense scored first for the Jets. Quinnen Williams and Ashtyn Davis combined to stuff Falcons running back Bijan Robinson in the end zone for a safety, the Jets’ third of the season, for a 2-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Dalvin Cook, who had some strong runs early, set up the Falcons’ first score when he fumbled and the Falcons recovered it at the Jets’ 47.
Six plays later, Ridder connected with tight end MyCole Pruitt for a 20-yard touchdown.
Pruitt got behind Jets safety Jordan Whitehead for the score and the 7-2 second-quarter lead.
The teams traded field goals before halftime to make it a 10-5 Falcons lead at the break and then traded more field goals in the third quarter to make it 13-8.
The Jets have gone from a team that beat the Eagles in October to a team that can’t score a touchdown. What happened?
“Football’s happened,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “It’s unpredictable. We’ve seen what we can look like when we’re clicking, playing great ball, playing with the field position, defense getting turnovers, the offense capitalizing, special teams making plays, and we’ve seen the ugly about it. We have to find a way to be consistent.”
