Normally, an interception is always the quarterback’s fault. Even if it’s not the quarterback’s fault.
After Monday night’s loss to the Bills, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers laid the blame on receiver Mike Williams. Even though it was arguably the quarterback’s fault, at least partially.
Rodgers exuded a bit of feistiness when reporters first asked about the play and said, “What about it?”
He was then asked to guide them through it.
“It was two verticals,” Rodgers said. “Allen [Lazard is] along the seam, Mike along the red line. So I look at Allen, he raises his hand and three guys go with him. So I’m throwing a no-look at the red line. And when I look into my eyes for a moment, he is busy with a burglar. So. Um, it has to be along the red line.”
Rodgers was then asked if Rodgers threw the ball thinking Williams would come back for it
“No, I threw to the red line,” Rodgers said. “But when I got here about [gesturing with his arm]I realized he was using a burglar. So I had to adjust it a bit. But the game is two men vertically, one man along the seam, one man in the red line.”
As Devin McCourty (who called the game for Westwood One) said on Tuesday PFT LiveRodgers shouldn’t have thrown it where he threw it. Running back Breece Hall was open in the flat. Even if Rodgers hadn’t seen Hall, Rodgers should have just thrown the ball away.
Devin noted that the red line is the area four to five yards from the sideline. It’s actually painted in red on practice fields as a signpost for receivers.
So Williams took it upon himself to change his route. And Rodgers, instead of throwing it away, decided to adjust the pass while his arm was in mid-delivery.
