Aaron Rodgers really blew it. At least, that's what Aaron Rodgers says.
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The New York Jets' star quarterback didn't shy away from the blame when talking about his team's loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. And if you listened to him on The Pat McAfee Show, you'd know exactly where he thinks things went wrong.
The Jets had a 15-6 lead, the ball, and the momentum late in the first half. Rodgers, sensing a chance to bury Pittsburgh, decided to go for a big play. Instead, he threw a pick that changed everything.
Rodgers knows it. He owned it.
"I'm disappointed in the pick because I feel like the first pick, that changed the whole momentum," he said. "That was a bad decision, I should have just dumped it off."
No sugarcoating. The interception turned into a Steelers touchdown, trimming the Jets' lead and flipping the feel of the game. Rodgers admitted it's on him for not being more careful.
"We were leading, we had under two minutes there, we go down and get points, we just go down and run some more clock time, they don't get the ball back, we go into halftime up two scores," he said.
Instead, the Steelers clawed back and ended up winning, and Rodgers knows it was a missed opportunity to put them away early. That's what elite quarterbacks do — they recognize when to go for the kill shot and when to play it safe. Rodgers failed in that moment, and he's not running from it.
Now, with the Jets facing a crucial game against New England, Rodgers is talking about accountability and leadership.
"I need to be a great leader," Rodgers said, acknowledging that the team's energy starts with him. "It starts with me and I'm going to set the tone this week."
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