For the better part of 15 years, we’ve become accustomed to Aaron Rodgers pulling off all sorts of incredible sorcery at the expense of hapless defenses. Whenever the Packers were in a bind, Rodgers would execute some sleight-of-hand trick to rescue them. He’d pull an inexplicable win out of the jaws of victory and, in the process, make us reconsider what was possible from the quarterback position.
Those fateful days seem like they’re finally coming to an end. And a quiet, hapless end at that.
After Sunday’s embarrassing 27-10 beatdown at the hands of the upstart Jets — where the Packers had virtually no answers in any phase — you never truly felt like Rodgers would be up to his usual tricks. In a game that was tied 3-3 at the end of the first half, for one of the rare instances in his entire career, it was as if Rodgers had nothing but his sleeve. You know, that trademark moment from the man wearing a gold and green No. 12, like when he takes off on a third-and-long in man coverage; or when he launches a backbreaking throw between into the bucket; or those instances he makes a devastating toss along the sideline that no defender in their right mind has a chance of defending — never appeared to be just on the horizon.
Tosses like this to a frustrated Allen Lazard were few and far between, and they also hardly had the usual weight or consequence of the moment:
Dropping it in the bucket 🎯@AaronRodgers12 ➡️ @AllenLazard #NYJvsGB | #GoPackGo
📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/zePNt1Mfoe
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) October 16, 2022
In total, the quarterback threw for 246 yards and a score. A solid effort for many, many other non-Rodgers, non-four-time MVP quarterbacks. But not when it comes over 41 attempts (a paltry six yards per attempt), and not for Rodgers. Especially when he repeatedly seemed to be missing that extra oomph on his passes for “gimme” plays when the Packers needed to keep the sticks moving.
For example, the Green Bay offense, when led by Rodgers anyway, faced 15 third downs against the Jets. That’s 15 third downs that you would’ve thought a dialed-in Rodgers would find a way to make a young defense pay for being too aggressive, too undisciplined, or both.
After accounting for sacks (of which he was brought to the ground four times on the money down), Rodgers officially went 6-of-8 for 46 yards. Overall, the Packers converted just four third downs with Rodgers in the game. That means, with two unsportsmanlike/unnecessary roughness penalties on third down from the Jets, the typical Rodgers offense wasn’t much more effective than a customary yellow flag penalizing defensive hostility.
This isn’t to say that third down plays were the end-all, be-all for Rodgers — who wasn’t healthy with an injury to his thumb on his throwing hand, nor did he have much help up front and on the outside. But this epitomized the sort of experience it was like watching Rodgers play, and fail, where he has usually never failed. This was not the performance we’ve come to expect from Rodgers in dire straits. Rodgers, almost always, has been a player who has elevated the Packers even when they’ve been the worse team, as they were Sunday.
Instead, against the Jets, he was an outright liability.
You’d have hopes Rodgers could turn it around, but he’s 38, and Father Time generally isn’t kind to quarterbacks in their late 30s — unless they have access to the Lazarus Pits in Tampa Bay. And even if Rodgers got healthier and picked up his individual play in the coming weeks, the current supporting cast in Green Bay might be the worst of his entire Hall of Fame career. He’s going to have to do it all on his own — again — and it might not be possible.
In 2014, after the Packers started 1-2, Rodgers famously told the greater Packers sphere to R-E-L-A-X. He lived up to that proclamation when Green Bay eventually made a run to the NFC title game. At 3-3, in 2022, with Rodgers unhealthy and the Packers’ general offensive talent around him in shambles, if the legendary quarterback made a similar proclamation, it would reek of sheer delusion.
Rodgers may well “save” the Packers this year, and they might make it interesting in an abysmally weak NFC. But this beatdown at the hands of a hungrier, deeper, and better Jets team felt different. This did not feel like a game from a quarterback who would eventually carry his team to January on his back. Just like he has so many times before.
It felt like one of the first few instances where Rodgers, finally, became a mere mortal like the rest of us.