Down six points with three minutes remaining, it was a perfect opportunity for Aaron Rodgers to come up with his first big Jets moment.
Instead, it ended with his third interception of the afternoon and a second straight Jets loss.
From the Vikings’ 26-yard line, Rodgers was picked off by a falling Stephon Gilmore down the right sideline while looking for veteran receiver Mike Williams with 49 seconds remaining, allowing Minnesota to escape with a 23-17 victory on Sunday afternoon at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Led by former Jets draft pick Sam Darnold, the Vikings improved to 5-0 on the season after nearly squandering a 17-0 first-half lead.
Trailing 20-10 with 9:54 to go, cornerback Brandin Echols, filling in for the injured Sauce Gardner, picked Darnold off on the Minnesota 42-yard line to give the Jets (2-3) the ball in plus territory. It took nearly four minutes, but the Jets found the end zone to make it a three-point game with 6:04 to go after Rodgers hit wide receiver Garrett Wilson for a one-yard score.
Wilson accounted for most of the Jets’ passing offense, reeling in 13 catches for 101 yards and that score.
“We go into every game trying to get Garrett the ball,” head coach Robert Saleh said. “He’s our No. 1 receiver, and every play is designed for him to be No. 1 in progression. I felt like we had more opportunities to get it to him.”
Darnold and the Vikings’ attempt to run out the clock came up short, stalling on the Jets’ 23-yard line with 3:07 to go, but re-opened a six-point lead thanks to a 43-yard field goal from Will Reichard. The former Jet completed 14 of 31 passes for 179 yards with that one interception.
While it was a muted afternoon, he managed the game far better than Rodgers, who completed just 29 of 54 attempts for 244 yards with two touchdowns and three picks.
“You have to be honest with yourself every single week and hold yourself to a certain standard,” Rodgers began. “Obviously, that was below my standard… Three turnovers for me is out of character, and I’m disappointed.”
Two of those turnovers came during a shambolic first quarter, during which the future Hall of Famer was picked off twice on consecutive drives, further exacerbating the Jets’ offensive struggles.
With two-and-a-half minutes to go in the first from the Vikings’ 38-yard line, a check-down pass from Rodgers sailed right into the arms of Minnesota linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, who returned it 64 yards to make it a 10-0 game.
Three plays later, Rodgers overthrew Allen Lazard and was intercepted by Camryn Bynum at the Vikings’ 43-yard line. It was Rodgers’ first multi-interception game since November of 2022.
“I just found out that I had never thrown two interceptions in the first quarter,” Rodgers said. “So that’s a first. One of those cost us seven, and the other could have cost three. In a game you lose by six, plays like that are exponentially highlighted.”
New York’s defense appeared to snag some momentum when they forced a Minnesota turnover on downs on the ensuing drive. Rodgers then drove the Jets down to the Vikings’ 26-yard line, but Saleh took the ball out of his quarterback’s hands, with Allen getting stopped on a 3rd-&-3.
Rather than getting some points, Saleh opted to go for it but ran the ball again. Allen was stopped for a second straight time, and the Vikings had the ball back.
With it, they broke the game open. Fueled by two pass-interference penalties and a defensive holding—two of which were called against Gardner—the Vikings took a 17-0 lead when CJ Ham punched one in from two yards out with 3:58 to go in the first half.
The Jets squeaked out their first points of the game before halftime when Rodgers hit Lazard for a 14-yard score with 36 seconds to go in the second quarter. They were given a short field thanks to Xavier Gipson, whose 30-yard punt return gave New York possession on Minnesota’s 31-yard line.
With his first completion of the second half, a seven-yard completion to tight end Tyler Conklin, Rodgers became just the ninth player in NFL history to eclipse the 60,000-career-yard mark.
Rodgers narrowly suffered a serious injury scare later in the quarter when, on a 3rd-&-10 from the New York 14-yard line, his left leg was rolled on by Vikings linebacker Jihad Ward. He was making his way to the medical tent on the Jets’ punt, but the Vikings were flagged for a 15-yard roughing-the-punter penalty, prompting the quarterback to turn around and go back out.
The Jets’ drive went 17 plays and 83 yards but sputtered on the Minnesota 14-yard line. This time, though, Greg Zuerlein was called upon for a 32-yard field goal to make it a seven-point game with 50 seconds left in the third.
Following four punts to start the second half, the Vikings did just enough to get Reichard into range — the kicker converting a 53-yarder with 12:07 to go in the game to put Minnesota up 10.
