FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The Jets are too flat. The Patriots are too soft.
What was once a fight for supremacy in the AFC East now sounds more like a Yelp review for throw pillows.
Losers of their last four games, the New York Jets (2-5) stumble into New England on Sunday to play the Patriots, who have lost six in a row. Even firing coach Robert Saleh didn't snap the Jets out of the slump they have been in since their last win — a 24-3 victory over New England more than a month ago.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he thought the team's energy was flat in Sunday night's 37-15 loss to Pittsburgh, and newly acquired receiver Davante Adams let them hear it in the locker room after the game.
“Whatever was going on on game day, we all didn’t maybe have the same type of spirit that we usually do,” Rodgers said this week. “I just took it on me. I’ve got to lead with that type of joy and energy each week, so that it gives permission for everybody to enjoy themselves a little bit more.”
The Patriots (1-6) fired six-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick after last season's 4-13 finish, and Jerod Mayo hasn't been able to turn things around — or even show signs of progress. After their 32-16 loss in London to Jacksonville, a team with one win coming into the game, the hard-hitting ex-linebacker said his team was “soft across the board.”
“It's got to challenge you,” tight end Hunter Henry said. “This is a physical game, and you never want that to be our identity, at all. That's a big challenge for us. I've looked at myself in the mirror, and I think everybody else will look at themselves. You never want to be identified that way.”
Rodgers and Adams have spoken about changing the culture of a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2010 — the NFL’s longest postseason drought. Rodgers said it needn't take several years to turn a franchise around.
“It’s like the story of cutting down a tree and it’s the final blow that actually falls the tree, but you might not see the first thousand hacks at it,” Rodgers said. “Sometimes just takes that one thing to happen. It could be a speech — before a game, after a game, something during the week — that just clicks and the energy of that click can be contagious and I think what you do is you try to set up a lot of different things that are part of the structure and the foundation of a winning culture.
“But until each of those things clicks in, you’re fighting against some of the ghosts of years past.”
Rodgers said that’s the case with every NFL franchise, but some are able to more easily tap into a winning approach.
“It doesn’t just go: Oh, you wake up and I’m on the Green Bay Packers and you got this amazing culture,” the former Packers quarterback said. “I think there’s a lot of things in place. It just needs to completely anchor in and I think there’s some things that happened after the game that were big helpers, as far as some of the culture stuff.”
Mayo hasn’t been able to win like Belichick did on the New England sideline, but the rookie Patriots coach is starting to sound like his predecessor.
In an echo of Belichick’s iconic 2014 “We’re on to Cincinnati” stonewall, Mayo repeated some version of “We’re on to the Jets” six times during his meeting with reporters on Wednesday. He also dropped an “It is what it is” and reached back into the Bill Parcells era with “We are what our record is.”
Belichick was known for his nonresponsive answers during his 24 seasons in New England before he was fired last winter. Mayo has promised to be more open, but he occasionally has had to walk back comments when he has been too honest.
After calling his team soft after the loss in London on Sunday, Mayo clarified on Monday to say that they were “playing soft at the moment.”
“When I say playing soft, that means stopping the run, being able to run the ball, and being able to cover kicks, which we weren’t able to do. Do I think we have the guys in there that can turn this ship around? 100%. But, that comes through hard work, hard work on the practice field, and going out there, just getting better each and every day."
Edge rusher Haason Reddick ended his lengthy contract holdout when he reported to the Jets’ facility Monday. He'll make his playing debut with the team Sunday.
Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich announced Friday that Reddick would not have a snap count for the game and the team would monitor him throughout.
Reddick, acquired from Philadelphia in March, is expected to help the Jets offset the loss of Jermaine Johnson, who’s out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon. He also could help create even more opportunities for Will McDonald, whose eight sacks are second in the NFL.
“I’m excited to see him in here,” Rodgers said. “It’s been probably a process for him, so we’re just going to put our arms around him, embrace him, and hope that he can help us out this Sunday.”
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AP Pro Football Writer Dennis Waszak Jr. in Florham Park, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
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