Actually, as Rodgers said, he has been four games under .500 before. The trick is in translating all of the good intentions, firm talk and talent in the locker room into a consistent bloc of play. The Jets haven’t been able to do that consistently. One glitch might have been overlooking the effect that their two Thursday night victories followed by mini-bye-weekends would have on their following games, the one-point home loss to Denver in Week 3 and last Sunday’s disappointment at Arizona.
But if those losses were process issues, they weren’t the only ones that impacted the Jets. That led Rodgers to examine what the answers could be beginning this week.
“I think it’s a return to fundamentals, a return to basics,” he said. “It’s a wakeup call for all of us. When you lose the way we’ve lost this year, you’ve kind of got to check the process. What is your process during the week? And if it’s not resulting in the performance you want, then you’ve got to make alterations. That’s how you win Monday through Saturday doing all the extra things so that when it comes to Sunday, you can play free.”
The alterations for the Colts are well-known. The defense wants to cut way back on missed tackles, and some takeaways would be welcomed. Offensively, the Jets went 0-for-3 on red zone TD drives vs. the Cardinals, dropping their NFL ranking to 26th (51.6%).
And while they did generate long drives in the desert to at least reach the red zone, the Green & White, after generating 31 explosive plays (20-plus yards) in the first nine games, had none at Arizona for the first time in 16 games dating to last season.
“If we want to take shots downfield, we’ve got block it up up front. We do that, we have a chance,” Rodgers said. “We have to keep the quarterback clean, run the ball a little more effectively and maybe a little more, so we can get some of those action passes.”