Through the Quarterback's Eyes: Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams

Breaking Down the game-sealing 37-yard TD pass vs. the Texans

The Jets’ season was on the line against the Texans on Thursday night. A loss would have dropped them to 2-7, all but ending their hopes of making the playoffs. And after a first half where everything seemed to go wrong, things looked…dark.

But the Jets exploded in the second half, scoring touchdowns on all 3 of their drives. Garrett Wilson caught 7 passes for 81 yards and 2 one-handed touchdowns, the second of which was an all-timer.

Aaron Rodgers completed 15 of 18 passes for 179 yards and 3 touchdowns, including his first as a Jet to Davante Adams.

And it was that play that gave the Jets a 2-score lead with just 2:56 remaining, which secured their first win in 6 weeks.

It was a play that showed the potential of what this passing game can be in the second half of the season. As Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee show on Friday, “That’s […] an interesting look at the stress we put on defenses.”

The Jets would align in a 3x1 formation on this play and the Texans would match up in a cover-1 (man-free) pressure look:

Rodgers described exactly how the Jets were able to create conflict for the defense: “Backside, we got Garrett […]. He’s running a double move. He’s running a slant-and-go:”

“Conk right there in the middle has got a safety on him. I mean Conk’s a real good player. He’s running a middle read:”

“You got Davante on their nickel, number-5 (Jalen Pitre):”

“And then you got Mike Williams, who’s been a 1, 1a receiver most of his career at the top on a 1-on-1 route:”

“So what do you do as a safety? Who do you cloud? […] You can’t just […] shade the field.”

The reason the safety couldn’t “shade” to the field side (where the Jets had 3 receivers) was because that would have left Garrett Wilson all alone:

“So if he shades the boundary (to Wilson’s side) or doesn’t get off the hash at all, I’ve got Davante on […] their safety/nickel there, and that’s just a good matchup for us.”

And shading to the boundary is exactly what happened. Just after Rodgers received the snap, you could see him quickly eye the safety. Instantly he knew that he couldn’t be a factor on Adams’ vertical route:

Pitre had no chance against Adams, who shook him easily at the line:

Adams’ ability to win with his release made this play happen. But Rodgers’ ability to stand in and deliver a great ball with pressure in his face was equally as responsible.

As you can see from the end zone angle, the protection did not do a good job of handling this blitz, which allowed a free rusher in on Rodgers:

That’s a hell of a play to hang in there and make such an accurate throw under the circumstances.

At 3-6, the Jets have a long way to go. But there are still 8 games left. They’re not completely out of it just yet.