With little to no resistance in the second half, the New York Jets were soundly defeated 37-15 by the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. The Jets had a 15-6 lead at the end of the first half, but an Aaron Rodgers interception—the pass landed in Garrett Wilson’s hands and popped up to a Steelers defender—changed the game. The return yardage put Pittsburgh inside the five-yard line, where he punched it in for a touchdown, leaving the Jets trailing 15-13 at the half.
They were outscored 24-0 in the second half, and they never recovered. It shouldn’t have been that difficult for Rodgers to regain the momentum. “Shouldn’t be that difficult,” replied Rodgers. “For whatever reason, I felt like the energy was a touch flat during halftime, and I also thought that the energy was low before to the game. We all need to do better, but I need to examine myself and what I can do to improve the energy on Sunday Night Football.
That raises the question: did the Jets fold when things got hard? A case may be made for it. The Jets ran 29 plays to take a slim lead into the main break, generated 173 total yards in the first half compared to Pittsburgh’s 182, and converted just two third downs while the Steelers failed to convert any of their six opportunities. But it was a thumping second half.
In addition to scoring 24 consecutive points, Pittsburgh ran nine more plays, converted five of eight second-half third downs (Jets only converted one), and finished with 409 total yards. The Jets were also unable to halt the run because Najee Harris finished with 102 running yards despite only having 25 in the first half. To put it briefly, the Jets were unable to stop the momentum in the second half. Did they not fight back, especially because Rodgers claimed it shouldn’t have been that hard when things went tough? Answering the question in the locker room is difficult.
