Terrible first half; Great second half

Former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Thursday had perhaps the worst first half of his long NFL career. He looked slow, old, beached.

The 40-year-old Rodgers passed for 32 yards in the first 30 minutes, his fewest first-half passes in any game of his career in which he attempted at least 10 passes. He had no touchdown passes and a passer rating of 56.2, which if you’re not familiar with passer rating numbers is bad, really bad.

“I was as bad as I could be in the first half,” Rodgers said after the Jets’ 21-13 win over Houston.

To which he later added in his post-match interview: “I was so bad in the first half.”

And then he ended with this: “I played as bad as I could in the first half.”

The Jets were outmatched in the first half, trailing 7-0 at halftime, and there was no indication the second half would be any different.

But everything was different, completely different.

Rodgers completed 15 of 18 passes in the second half for 179 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. The result was a passer rating of 147.69 in the second half, and for those of you unfamiliar with passer rating numbers, that’s good, very good.

Suddenly Rodgers was a four-time MVP again.

Thanks to a spectacular touchdown pass from Garrett Wilkon – “It was funny,” Rodgers said – and Rodgers’ first pass to Davante Adams since 2021, the Jets ended a five-game losing streak and improved to 3-6.

So did cayenne pepper have anything to do with the Jets’ second-half victory?

On Tuesday, Rodgers said he was drinking cayenne pepper and water offered to him by teammate Thomas Morstead, and Rodgers said it had become a “fountain of youth.”

As Jets fans standing behind Rodgers during his postgame television interview chanted, “Cayenne pepper, cayenne pepper,” Rodgers was asked about the impact of his new cayenne pepper regimen.

“I was told not to talk about it anymore,” he said.

Bettors can talk about the point spread for Thursday’s game. Even though the Texans were 6-2 and the Jets were 2-6 and on a five-game losing streak, the Jets were 2.5-point favorites on virtually every betting site. The Jets not only won, but also covered the spread.

Suddenly the Jets’ season doesn’t look so terrible, and Rodgers’ prospects for the rest of 2024 don’t look so pessimistic. None of the Jets’ next six opponents have a winning record, and Rodgers has previously shown he can lead the team to contention after a slow start. The Packers went 4-8 in 2022 before winning four straight and losing the finale.

Hm.

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