GLENDALE — Only the Jets could promise their tortured and tormented faithful a season of hope and great expectations and turn it into a Butt Fumble.
Only the Jets could turn a planned Desert Storm operation into a regular-season Mud Bowl.
So there was Aaron Rodgers, face down on the ground early in the third quarter at the Arizona 9-yard line as State Farm Stadium roared after failing twice on second-and-goal from the 3 and losing a fumble on a sack and enough of his brain to require a visit to the tent for an examination.
By then, it was Cardinals 24, Jets 6 and well on the way to Cardinals 31, Jets 6.
Rodgers was brought here to so much Savior fanfare to win these games, to laugh in the face of adversity, to lift all Jets in their desperate hour and instill belief in his huddle and throughout his team.
And so, the long, agonizing flight back home carried a future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback and a season he has not saved and a team and a franchise he has been powerless to save from itself.
Same Older Rodgers, quarterback of Dead Team Walking.
Team Dysfunction, take a bow.
Woody Johnson, take a bow. Firing Robert Saleh hasn’t worked. Acquiring Davante Adams and Haason Reddick hasn’t worked.
And Aaron Rodgers hasn’t worked.
The Pass-Fail grade: Fail.
Visions of Super grandeur were an illusion and a delusion.
And so, the long, agonizing flight back home carried a future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback and a season he has not saved and a team and a franchise he has been powerless to save from itself.
The 3-7 Jets are still mathematically alive.
But not mentally, emotionally or spiritually.
Dead Team Walking — limping, crawling — towards a 14th consecutive season without a playoff berth.
A 40-year-old quarterback no longer the Same Old Rodgers and a failed season left stranded in the desert.
The Cardinals were the more desperate team. That is disgraceful. The Cardinals wanted it more. That is shameful. The Cardinals were the more physical team. The Jets were the softer team.
This so-called Dream Team is a nightmare to all Jets fans.
There was no oasis in the desert for Rodgers, no fountain of youth for him to look and feel Forever Young.
He has lifted teams in their most desperate hour, but not this one, not now.
His 40-year-old body had been energized by the 10-day rest, and there was optimism among the Jets that this would be the start of a long shot playoff run.
The offensive line, depleted against the Texans, had returned intact.
Adams and Garrett Wilson were again primed to catch fire.
Same Older Rodgers, quarterback of Dead Team Walking.
Rodgers futilely targeted Adams twice in the first half, once throwing nowhere near him on an obvious miscommunication, and twice more in the end zone in the third quarter.
Kyler Murray toyed with the Jets defense, appropriately known as Gang Green, which was undisciplined and often incapable of professional tackling. Murray threw for 199 yards in the first half. Rodgers, attempting to establish the running game, threw for 40 yards.
The Jets showed no fight even after Quincy Williams sent Murray’s helmet flying with a violent sack midway through the second quarter.
Here’s how the Jets defense responded: Murray, third-and-10, hit TE Trey McBride for 13 yards, and Murray found Marvin Harrison Jr. against D.J. Reed with the 9-yard TD and it was 21-6.
There had already been a Reed pass interference in the end zone to set up Murray’s 1-yard TD jog around left end, Sauce Gardner getting shrugged off on a 17-yard gain on third-and-7 by McBride, a missed tackle by Jalen Mills on a 44-yard reception by James Conner.
And the Jets knew who Murray was.
“For one, he can make every throw on the field,” safety Jalen Mills said. “For two, once he gets out of the pocket, he’s not a quarterback anymore, he’s a running back who has 4.3 speed, which makes him very, very dangerous when you don’t have contain on him. So us as a whole defense, it’s gonna take all 11 to contain this guy and keep him in the pocket, which is gonna be hard.”
Murray finished 22-24-1 TD with a pair of rushing TDs.
“He does some crazy things when he gets outside that pocket, man,” Javon Kinlaw said.
And they knew who Conner was.
“A guy who one-arm tackle is not gonna get him down,” Mills said. “It’s gonna take all 11. It has to be a gang-tackle game, all three levels have to get him down, don’t just depend on one guy getting him down.”
Conner caught five passes for 80 yards with a rushing TD.
“I’m very familiar with James Conner,” Kinlaw said. “He’s definitely one of the most physical running backs in the league for sure.
“You just gotta put bodies on him at all times. When you gang-tackle him, you just gotta do it over and over and over and I feel like that’ll wear him down a little bit, but ain’t too much you can do, man, he’s just a great football player.”
Same Older Rodgers, quarterback of Dead Team Walking.
