The New York Jets-Buffalo Bills bout was full of excitement. It was Aaron Rodgers’ first Jets game without Robert Saleh. Though Rodgers didn’t disappoint, the New York Jets just faced their third loss in a row. In the wake of this 23-20 defeat, some interesting stats came to light.

Data suggests that somehow, the 4x MVP is falling behind one of the worst QBs in the league. Guess who that is? It’s Tennessee quarterback Will Levis. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? These stats came from Justis Mosqueda, a journalist for the Acme Packing Company, the former sponsor of the Green Bay Packers.

Mosqueda made a post on X titled, “All of the players to get a 300-yard passing game since Aaron Rodgers’ last one,” and Aaron Rodgers’ name is nowhere on the list of 51 people. In fact, it has been 1,029 days since Aaron Rodgers had a 300-yard game. He fell just short of achieving that yardage tonight after coming up with 296 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception against the Bills.

But it doesn’t stop there. It’s not surprising that the 4x MVP has a better quarterback rating than Tennessee Titans QB Levis, but the Bills defense kept him at bay and didn’t let Rodgers have his way. However, his 52-yard Hail Mary to Allen Lazard was a sight to behold.

But coming back to the Rodgers-Levis comparison, the Jets QB currently holds a total quarterback rating of 48.6, per ESPN, while Will Levis is second to last with a rating of 28.3. Levis had a 327-yard, one-touchdown game against the Miami Dolphins last season and led his team to a 28-27 win.

Rodgers, on the other hand, had a hat trick of 300+ yard games back in 2021 when he was still with the Green Bay Packers. He threw for 341 yards against the Bears, another 307 yards against the LA Rams, and then went on to throw 385 yards against the Minnesota Vikings. After a gap of four games, the 4x MVP had a 344-yard game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

A-Rod had a 16-3 regular season that year (2021) but lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Divisional playoffs. Coming back to the present, there were a lot of noteworthy things about the New York Jets in the MNF matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Most noticeably, Rodgers was not happy with the officiating.

Aaron Rodgers expresses contempt against the referees

The game recorded a whopping 22 penalties for 204 yards. Rodgers was sick of the endless flags being thrown in the MNF clash and addressed the media later, bringing up a South Park reference that stemmed from the fact that refs called roughing the passer on the Jets quarterback.

“It seemed a little ridiculous,” Rodgers said of the penalties generally. “Yeah, some of them seemed really bad. Including the roughing the passer on me. That’s not roughing the passer. Might as well play Sarcastaball if we’re gonna call those things. And I thought the one on [Jets defensive tackle Javon] Kinlaw was not roughing the passer, either.”

The NFL is quick to impose fines on players who challenge the referees. Take Myles Garrett, for instance, who was fined $25k after calling out the officials last year. But Rodgers knows how to use his words carefully, and he didn’t directly criticize the officials. Maybe the “Sarcastaball” gag is the most that Super Bowl-winning QB can talk about at this point.

Jeff Ulbrich, the interim HC, admitted that the team needed more “red zone efficiency” and needed to do better at running the football. Perhaps that might help Aaron Rodgers have better yardage in the future. However, to win a game, it’s not necessary to throw that ball that much. We know the Jets QB has it in him because the Hail Mary he threw to Lazard had 61.4 air yards, the most by a Jets QB since 2016. The Jets looked better without Robert Saleh, that’s for sure. Maybe that 300-yard game is not that far away.