The New York Jets fell to a 2-3 record with a 23-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London, with everything seemingly going wrong for Robert Saleh and Co.
It’s been another tough week for New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh.
The fourth-year coach was spotted on the sideline, head in hands, following a CJ Ham rushing touchdown in the second quarter of the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 5 victory over the Jets, 23-17.
The Jets stumbled to a 2-3 season record after their defeat in London, despite high hopes for the team’s first full year with quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the helm.
Rodgers, the Jets QB, spent much of the week defending his reputation alongside the beleaguered Saleh and didn’t deliver his best performance. He completed just 29 out of 54 passes for 244 yards, scoring two touchdowns but throwing three interceptions.
One of those interceptions resulted in a pick-six for Vikings linebacker Andrew van Ginkel. When questioned about his starting quarterback’s performance, Saleh responded: “Obviously up and down. The biggest thing that we talked about going into this game was playing clean ball.
“Minnesota had been feasting on pick-sixes and putting their offense in positions to get easy layups. Unfortunately, that pick-six was the big difference in the game.”
Following his second interception just one series later, Rodgers appeared to ignore his head coach as he made his way to the sideline. Rodgers appeared to support his under-fire head coach after the game.
He said: “There will be a lot of people outside the building who won’t be sticking with the Jets. If we stick together — and I still have a lot of confidence in this team — we think this is a team that’s going to make a run.
“Whether that run starts next week, the following week, or whenever it might be, I’m confident in our guys [and] I’m confident in leadership that we’ll get this figured out.”
Earlier in the week, Rodgers was questioned about Saleh while at the team hotel. “I think there’s some driving force trying to put a wedge [from] outside the facility between Robert and me,” he revealed.
“We’re really good friends, We enjoy each other. We spend time almost every day in his office talking about things and talking about the energy of the team.”
However, not all the veteran voices in the Jets locker room shared this optimism. Linebacker Quincy Williams was brutally frank when asked to evaluate the team’s performance.
“People get tired of hearing the same s—,” Williams admitted. “People gotta start taking accountability from the top to the bottom…that’s the main thing.”
