Aaron Rodgers’ tenure with the New York Jets can best be described as an extended darkness retreat.

Despite entering this season with Super Bowl expectations, the Jets once again find themselves in the basement of the NFL at 2-6. But it wasn’t until Sunday that New York officially reached rock bottom, suffering a 25-22 loss to the lowly New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

Following the soul-crushing defeat, cameras captured Rodgers staring off into the distance with a blank expression on his face and towel over his head. The dejected look was put into words by Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich, who conceded that his team is currently in the midst of a “moment of darkness.”

When asked about Ulbrich’s comments during a post-game press conference, Rodgers – who completed 17-of-28 passes for 233 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions – told reporters: “I’ve been in the darkness. You’ve got to go in there, make peace with it.”

Yet Rodgers acknowledged that New York’s latest defeat was hard to stomach – and for good reason. The Jets are the only team in the history of the NFL to score 20 or more points, not turn the ball over and limit the opposing team to 250 yards in a game that they still lost.

“The NFL is hard to win, hard [when you] really make it difficult on yourself,” Rodgers added. “You know, offensively, we can’t worry about what else happens. We got to be efficient. You know, we got to make the most of the opportunity.”

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Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets have lost five-consecutive games

Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets have lost five-consecutive games ( 

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For much of Sunday’s contest, the Jets appeared to be all out of sorts on offense, as New York was forced to burn three timeouts in the first quarter alone due to an expiring play clock. “On one of them, we were lagging out of the huddle, one I was trying to get the protection right,” Rodgers said. “One I felt like we could have gotten off, but it was fine to take it there. Yeah, our operation was a little slow at times.

“You can’t objectively say this is the reason why. We had some substitution stuff at times. We were laid-back in the huddle. Sometimes after a big play, that can be a slow operation. We have shifts and motions on plays after some of those. We were trying to get lined up, trying to get the play off, trying to get the perfect call. There’s a lot to look at.”

New York’s defense wasn’t exempt from blame, either, as the once formidable unit allowed backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett to command the Patriots down the field on a 12-play, 70-yard touchdown drive in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.

“We’re not playing complementary football,” Rodgers admitted. “We haven’t put it together really since the last time we won a game where all three phases played really well. Same thing today.”