There was a time when Aaron Rodgers scared opponents with the threat of his rushing abilities.
Now, with the quarterback at the age of 40, you have 330-pound nose tackles thinking they could take the Jets’ quarterback in a foot race.
“Yeah, I think he’s struggling right now,” Patriots nose tackle Davon Godchaux said after New England’s 25-22 upset win, according to the Boston Herald. “Just a Hall of Fame quarterback like that, hate to see him go out that way but always gonna take a win against him, look good on your resume.
“But, yeah, he definitely don’t look the same. You just don’t know if he could move back there. (Expletive), I can run him down and catch him. He don’t look mobile at all. So it was good for us. We know we can get after him and attack him in the passing game too. So, you know, glad to come out here with the win.”
Godchaux’s comments are quite rare since Rodgers has been so elite during his career that opponents did not have much to dissect about his play.
Rodgers could always make opponents pay with his arm, but he had an uncanny ability — like Patrick Mahomes — to take off when needed to secure a first down.
He is clearly not the MVP quarterback of yesteryears anymore now that he’s with the Jets, and perhaps the knee/hamstring injury he dealt with this week also slowed him this week.
In the Jets’ 24-3 trouncing of the Patriots in Week 3, Rodgers rushed three times for 18 yards while completing a season-best 77.1 percent of his passes.
On Sunday, Rodgers did not attempt a single rush and completed just 17-of-28 passes (233 yards) with two touchdowns. He took just one sack.
Multiple Patriots defenders noted that Rodgers did not like spry in the pocket.
“So, to our eye, and he didn’t look as mobile as he did the first game, so we tried to take advantage of that, be a little bit more aggressive in our rush, and just pressure him and everything like that,” Patriots defensive end Keion White said, per the Boston Herald.
“We’d seen it probably second quarter, that he wasn’t really moving as much, and then we just seen it from there. But it’s all about getting to third down before you can really take advantage of it.”
Rodgers called the loss that perhaps ended the Jets’ playoff hopes “frustrating” and admitted the offense is not doing its part.
The quarterback has 12 touchdowns to seven interceptions this season.
“If we’re not scoring 30,” Rodgers said, “we’re underachieving. This offense can do that every single week.”