GREEN BAY, Wis. - It happened so slowly for the Jets on Sunday, their self-destruction. How they blew an 18-point first-half lead could not be whittled into a particular play, a defining moment, but rather a series of events that they will simmer about for days, if not longer, should their 31-24 missed opportunity of a loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field go on to symbolize what could have been.
For the Jets to topple the so-called mighty Packers, a few things had to happen, it was presumed. They needed to limit their mistakes. They needed to pressure quarterback Aaron Rodgers. They needed to force turnovers. They did all this - for about a half.
Until the Jets did what the Jets did not want to do, which was undermine themselves. There was the lack of discipline showed by Muhammad Wilkerson, who was ejected when he threw punches after a skirmish in the end zone. There was the penalty, for too many men on the field, that negated David Harris's interception deep in Green Bay territory. And most crucial, there was the timeout, appeared to have been called by the offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, that negated what would have been a game-tying touchdown pass from Geno Smith to Jeremy Kerley late in the fourth quarter.
Rodgers exposed the Jets' secondary for 346 yards and 3 touchdowns, completing 25 of 42 passes.
At halftime the Jets led by 21-3, and after each big first-half play, Ryan jumped around and pumped his fist, his prophecy coming true, or so he thought. All week the rhetoric he propagated lacked its usual snarl. The turn from defiance to deference seemed calculated, to prove a point.
Ryan claimed that the Jets would rather play a bad team, a high school team, and that he would have no time to sleep. Lest, after all, he waste an hour otherwise spent scheming for Rodgers - and Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb and Eddie Lacy.
Those schemes produced disorienting results: the Packers and not the Jets trading field goals for touchdowns, Smith doing what Rodgers could not. This went on for about 28 minutes until all those good feelings dissipated with a missed block by Brian Winters.
Mike Daniels pummeled Smith as he threw, and the fluttering pass was picked off by Tramon Williams at the Green Bay 3-yard line. Rodgers engineered a 97-yard drive, dissecting the Jets with short passes. He finished it with his first touchdown pass against the Jets in 19 series, dating to October 2010, with a 6-yard toss to Cobb with 8 seconds left that sliced the Packers' deficit to 21-16.
The Jets had their chance to deflate the Packers heading into halftime, and it vanished. As did their lead, soon enough. Ryan experimented with different defenses, different cornerback combinations, but none seemed to trouble Rodgers.
On one play, he appeared to look off safety Calvin Pryor, moving him toward the middle of the field, and found Nelson, who slipped behind Dee Milliner, for 33 yards. That set up a 1-yard touchdown pass to Cobb. On the first play after the Jets evened the score at 24-24 with a 52-yard field goal by Nick Folk, Rodgers picked on Milliner again. Nelson torched Milliner on a double-move, cut inside past Pryor and zipped 80 yards for the touchdown.
The Packers had 10 days to stew and prepare after being trounced by Seattle, and the Jets expected a noisy home crowd, a team ready to play and a quick start. What the Jets could not predict was that, on the Packers' first offensive play, Rodgers would drop the snap. Sheldon Richardson pounced on the ball at the Green Bay 16-yard line and five plays later lined up at fullback when Smith dashed into the end zone on a 1-yard bootleg play.
All the Jets had to do over the final 58 minutes 1 second, then, was contain one of the N.F.L. 's most productive passers. Masterly tactician that he is, Ryan concocted a clever strategy. And it worked, at first. It ran counter to Ryan's ethos, but the Jets' best defense for the first 20 minutes was a superlative offense.
Three series, three touchdowns. The final two came on drives of 84 and 80 yards, comprising five and 17 plays, and featured Smith at his dynamic best. There were option pitches and scrambles, draw plays and deep passes. Smith and his teammates executed them to perfection. He finished the game with 16 completions in 32 attempts with a touchdown and an interception.
Smith's finest moment put the Jets ahead, 14-3. On third down, with pressure coming from his left, Smith saw that Eric Decker had beaten Sam Shields down the far sideline and lofted an inch-perfect 29-yard touchdown pass. Of the Jets' first seven third-down chances, Smith converted six, the only failure being an 11-yard gain on third and 13 that set up, on the next play, a 5-yard pass to Decker, who later left with a hamstring injury. Chris Ivory finished that drive by rumbling in from 4 yards.
It was 21-3. The Jets were in control and having fun, until they were not.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, September 14, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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