Steelers rout Jets in Davante Adams’ first game with the team

PITTSBURGH — Another game, another Jets loss, this time on Sunday Night Football.
The Steelers (5-2) rolled past the Jets (2-5) 37-15 behind two Russell Wilson touchdowns in his first game of the season in front of 66,956 attendance at Acrisure Stadium.
Sunday’s loss marked the Jets’ fourth in a row. Gang Green has not won a game since its Sept. 17 victory against the Patriots.
“That game especially that second half, that’s not who this team is,” Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “It’s not good enough and that starts with me and the coaching staff. And that goes down to every single player on this team.
“We can all give more and we will give more. That is not who we are. I’m extremely disappointed.”
Aaron Rodgers struggled after completing 24-of-39 passes for 276 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. Running back Breece Hall led his team with six receptions for 103 yards.
For most of the night, Rodgers struggled to find open receivers and complete passes. The Jets’ offensive line only allowed one sack. However, they were 3-for-10 on third-down attempts.
“It’s been a rough stretch since we played so good on Thursday night,” Rodgers said. “We lost each of those four in different ways, but we gotta figure it out.
“Everything is still in front of us. We have to somehow keep the belief in the locker room and start a run. You can’t win 10 in a row unless we win the first one. We have to be very critical of ourselves, each of us individually and come in with the right attitude all week and go to New England and get a win.”
Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson finished with five catches for 61 yards.
Sunday was Davante Adams’ first game in a Jets uniform. On Tuesday, he was traded from the Raiders to the Jets, which reunited him with Rodgers after the two played eight seasons in Green Bay together.
Rodgers threw to Adams on the Jets’ first offensive play of the game, but the veteran dropped the pass. Gang Green eventually went three and out on the drive. Adams finished the night with three catches for 30 yards.
“First play of the game, it’s football so it doesn’t always work perfectly,” Adams said. “We had a really good week of practice and we will continue to have a good week of practice this upcoming week and see what we can do to turn it around.”
Sunday also marked Russell Wilson’s return after he missed the season’s first six games due to a calf injury. After Steeler fans booed Wilson following a shaky start, he settled in and was efficient. Wilson completed 16-of-29 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns.
Jets owner Woody Johnson has made several moves during the last month in hopes of improving a stumbling team. On Oct. 8, Johnson fired coach Robert Saleh after three-plus seasons and made Ulbrich the interim coach. Then, the Jets changed offensive play-callers from Nathaniel Hackett to Todd Downing.
In addition to those moves, the Jets decided to trade for Adams, but the results have remained the same. Gang Green’s offense has averaged 17.5 points per game in the last two weeks, compared to 18.8 points per game in the Jets’ first five games of the season.
The Jets had Super Bowl aspirations before the start of the season. But the Jets don’t look anything like a contender and now at 2-5, the season is on the verge of slipping away from them.
“It’s a belief,” Rodgers says. “You gotta have culture changes in the amidst of the talent to steer things in the right direction. There’s a lot of us leaders that try to do that week to week, but it comes down to each individual making the right decisions during the week and going out playing as well as they can and trusting each other.
“I’ve been loving the messaging that Brick [Ulbrich] has brought to us. We had three great speakers at the team meeting and the energy seemed very good. But for whatever reason, it just seemed a little flat in warmups.
“I mean Sunday Night Football, NBC, I live for these games. I just don’t understand why the energy was a little bit flat.”
After registering 27 rushing yards on the game’s first drive, the Steelers took an early 3-0 lead after Chris Boswell’s 46-yard field goal. Late in the first quarter, the Jets finally got on the board after they were aided by a Steelers’ penalty.
To begin the Jets’ second drive, Hall was stopped for a one-yard loss. However, Larry Ogunjobi’s unnecessary roughness penalty on Hall gave the Jets an automatic first down. Gang Green eventually got into the end zone following a Hall 13-yard touchdown run, which gave them a 7-3 lead.
Pittsburgh trimmed into Gang Green’s lead, 7-6, in the second quarter after Boswell’s 29-yard field goal. The drive was set up by Rusell Wilson’s 44-yard pass to George Pickens, putting the Steelers in Jets’ territory.
Gang Green responded by scoring its second touchdown of the night. Hall registered a 57-yard reception down to the three-yard line. That set up Rodgers’ play-action one-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Conklin. The play was Conklin’s first touchdown since Week 8 of the 2022 season.
The Jets scored the two-point conversion after Rodgers completed a pass to Wilson in the end zone, making the score 15-6.
Just when it appeared the Jets were in complete control after the two-minute warning, Rodgers made a terrible decision, and Steelers cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. intercepted his pass.
That interception by Rodgers proved costly as Wilson found Pickens for an 11-yard touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone. The 48-second drive cut the Jets lead to 15-13 at halftime.
“It was a bad throw, I should have just dump it underneath and for whatever reason, it changed the entire energy and changed the game,” Rodgers said.
Pittsburgh retook the lead at 16-15 with 7:49 in the third quarter following Boswell’s 21-yard field goal, which was his third of the night.
Gang Green tried to respond immediately, but Rodgers’ pass to Wilson was intercepted by Bishop, which was his second of the night. The pass hit Wilson right between his chest, but he couldn’t come down with it, so Bishop picked it off and returned it to the one-yard line. Wilson then scored a touchdown on a one-yard quarterback keeper to extend the Steelers lead to 23-15.
“I gotta catch the damn ball,” Wilson said. “I’m playing like s–t right now and I gotta fix it. I feel like that was the reason we lost the game at the end of the day.
“S–t can’t happen. It’s a culmination of bad habits. I got good hands and I gotta use them to catch the damn ball.”
The Steelers extended their lead to 30-15 after Russell Wilson found Van Jefferson for a four-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The Jets got hit by the injury bug in a significant way. Guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (ankle) and safety Tony Adams (hamstring) suffered injuries and did not return. Xavier Newman replaced Vera-Tucker but injured his neck after a Rodgers interception in the third quarter and was carted off the field after getting blocked by Patrick Queen on the play. Newman’s X-rays were negative and he flew home with the rest of the team.
Safety Ashtyn Davis was also placed in concussion protocol.
Gang Green was already without D.J. Reed (groin) and Michael Carter II (back), who were both inactive.
The Jets will stay on the road in Week 8, and they will play the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. The Steelers will host the Giants on Monday Night Football.