Aaron Rodgers knows darkness well. But can he lead the Jets out of their latest spell? (Video)

Jeff Ulbrich knew his audience.

The interim head coach of the New York Jets knew that darkness was more than just a metaphor for the quarterback on whose shoulders the franchise rested.

So, on the heels of the Jets’ fifth straight loss, Ulbrich turned to those images.

His message to a team that blew a hugely winning division game against the New England Patriots?

“This is a moment of darkness,” Ulbrich said in his locker room after the rebuilding Patriots beat them 25-22. “And we understand that the outside world will now become very noisy. But the only thing I know in life is that when it gets dark and the going gets tough, you work. And you point the finger at yourself, look inside yourself and realize that I can do better.”

Rodgers is as familiar with darkness as perhaps anyone else in the league.

The four-time MVP famously spent four nights in complete darkness in 2023 as he prepared to retire. Instead of hanging up, Rodgers came out of his meditative retreat to ease his transition from the Green Bay Packers to the Jets.

Rodgers’ latest emergence from literal darkness gave the Jets a powerful dose of hope. But after the Jets fell to last place in the AFC East on Sunday, can he find his groove again?

But with New York’s offense struggling to line up without penalties and delay of game, and the Jets’ defense struggling to stop the run while special teams miss punts every week, will Rodgers be able to find his the strength to reignite the Jets?

Rodgers believed so, as the shadow of his hat adequately hid his eyes in the darkness during the postgame press conference.

“I was in darkness,” he said. “You have to go there. Make peace with it.”

Jets loss to struggling Patriots spells trouble for week ahead

What would a world in darkness look like for Rogers?

The defense attorney seized on Ulbrich’s command to point the finger at himself more than at others.

“Offensively, our goal should be just to score 30 points,” Rodgers said after playing 17 of 28 times for 233 yards on the day, including two touchdowns. “It doesn’t matter what other parties do. We trust our defense and (special) teams, but if we don’t score 30 points, we’re not successful.

“This crime can do this every week.”

Rodgers’ words echoed what team owner Woody Johnson said when he fired head coach Robert Saleh on Oct. 8, insisting this was the best Jets roster he had assembled and therefore should be better than 2-3.

Since then, the Jets have further strengthened both sides of the ball by trading for wide receiver Davante Adams and signing tight end Hasan Reddick.

No matter – they’ve now lost five in a row, including three after Saleh was fired, two to Adams and one to Reddick.

And the Jets never reached Rodgers’ 30-point threshold in eight attempts.

Their 22 points on Sunday were their highest since scoring 24 points against the Patriots five weeks earlier, still lower than the 25 points the Patriots are allowed per game.

And while a missed 44-yard field goal and missed extra point attempt hurt the Jets in this loss, so did the ongoing turmoil. The Jets used timeouts in the first half before the second quarter began and also committed five of eight penalties in the first half.

“One of them we were late coming out of a huddle, one of them I was trying to get the defense right, one of them I felt like we could have come out but it was okay to call (a timeout) there,” Rodgers said. . “Sometimes our work was a little slow.”

Operational lethargy struck the Jets again in the fourth quarter when they suffered another delay of game on a two-point conversion attempt after the go-ahead touchdown with 2:57 to play. The 5-yard penalty more than tripled the required 2 yards for the play. The poor play meant the Patriots needed a touchdown to win rather than an extra point attempt.

Ultimately, the Patriots got it both ways as the Jets defense followed the offense’s lead but struggled.

Rogers defended the decision while accepting its consequences.

“They started the clock at 20 and we had a shift and movement,” Rogers said. “By the time it came down to it, the defense they were playing was not suitable for the play that was called. So I decided let’s just change it back to 7, the difference isn’t that big. I like the game we called, but they didn’t apply any pressure.

“And I guessed wrong, they guessed right.”

The planes quickly turn around before the Texans arrive

The Jets will have a chance to cleanse their palate as early as Thursday. But they’ll have to do it against the 6-2 Houston Texans, whose quarterback is 18 years younger than the NFL but currently more productive.

The Texans’ offense has been more shaky than last season, when C.J. Stroud won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. But Houston’s defense ranked second in yards allowed this week and 11th in points allowed.

Against the same Patriots team that just beat the Jets, the Texans won 41-21 two weeks ago. This Patriots team had starting quarterback Drake May for four quarters; The Jets faced him for just 16 minutes before he was evaluated and then ruled out with a concussion.

Ulbrich, who called himself and the team “angry” and “hurt,” emphasized the importance of cleaning up game operations and being more consistent in execution.

“We don’t act at critical moments, especially down the stretch,” Ulbrich said. “We say that this is not us. But that’s who we are until we demonstrate otherwise.”

Ulbrich expressed confidence in the Jets’ ability to turn the corner, as well as the team’s ability to emerge from darkness as they and Rodgers have done before.

The team will lean on highlights like Rodgers and Garrett Wilson’s best play of the season, while the defense will focus on Adams. The Jets defense allowed fewer yards than it had in six weeks, but New York also allowed the short-handed unit to convert 7 of 15 third-down attempts and three of four red zone trips.

Ulbrich said he would “take a hard look at everything,” including the offense’s best plan after Greg Zuerlein’s sixth missed field goal of the season.

Hard work and responsibility are the Jets’ ticket out of darkness, Ulbrich said.

“If we do this collectively, and I believe we will, this will be your only opportunity to get out of this situation,” Ulbrich said. “This is your only opportunity to improve and correct some of these mistakes. This is where we got lucky.

“The character of this locker room will show who we are.”