
Saleh, Rodgers lament pick six in London defeat
New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh and quarterback Aaron Rodgers both admitted that the future Hall-of-Famer’s pick six to Minnesota’s Andrew Van Ginkel was the difference between success and failure in the first of the season’s International Series games in London.
Rodgers suffered an unwanted career landmark when he threw a brace of interceptions in the opening quarter, the first of which Van Ginkel returned 63-yards for the score. With rookie Will Reichard slotting over the PAT, the Vikings moved into an early 10-0 lead, before Rodgers threw a second interception, snagged by safety Camryn Bynum.
“Aaron’s performance was obviously up and down,” Saleh sighed after the game. “The biggest thing we talked about going into this game was playing clean ball. Minnesota had been feasting on pick-sixes and putting their offense in position to get easy lay-ups — and, unfortunately, that pick-six was a big difference in the game.”
Although there was no direct punishment for the veteran’s error, with the next two drives resulting in a swap of turnover on downs, Minnesota extended their advantage to 17 before the interval, when C.J. Ham crashed over from short yardage.
Rodgers did manage to close the gap before the half, finding former Packers teammate Allen Lazard for a touchdown in the final minute, and actually ended the first period with more passing yards than Vikings counterpart Sam Darnold. With rain beginning to fall as the second half kicked off, Darnold began to find his own passing game suffering, and New York was able to claw back at the deficit with a fourth quarter connection from Rodgers to the inform Garrett Wilson keeping Jets fans interested right to the end. However, a third INT on a shot at the goal-line sounded the death knell for Rodgers and Gang Green.
“They had a seven-up presentation and I peeked at the back side or to the left to see if we were hot or not,” the veteran QB said of the most costly interception he threw. “In doing that, I totally lost Van Ginkel and he made a nice play. In a game where you lose by six, plays like that are exponentially highlighted. Three turnovers, for me, is definitely out of character and I’m disappointed. You’ve just got to be honest with your performance every single week and hold yourself to a standard. Obviously, that was below my standard — I just found out I’ve never thrown two picks in the first quarter before; so that’s a first!”
Rodgers confirmed that, having been seen crawling on the Jets sideline, he had picked up a knock during play, but remained pleased with the way his team had responded to a disappointing first half.
“I’m definitely banged up,” he noted. “I got my foot caught in a pile there, but it just seems to be a low ankle sprain. They were trying to get me in the [blue] tent, but then we had a roughing the kicker [penalty and a fresh set of downs], so I said, ‘Screw it, I’m going back out there!’.
“We had a lot of three-and-outs to start. They kind of got into their ‘zero’ package and, on third-and-long, it’s tough to convert. It’s tough to be on the same page protection-wise too, because they can do everything. But I feel like we changed the tempo a little bit. That got us playing downhill a little bit, and we just were getting the ball out a little bit quicker.
“But we’re still playing below our potential — too many mistakes. I think, until now, we’ve only had two turnovers, which was good, because you give yourselves a chance. But we’re slow starters, with too many mental errors — just too many mistakes in general — and that’s hard to overcome. Then, I’ve got to take care of the football. You can’t turn the ball over three times and win in this league.”