There were high expectations for New York Jets wide receiver Davante Adams in his debut with the team in Week 7 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Steelers were able to limit Adams. He had had just three catches for 30 yards and was shut out in the second half as Pittsburgh won 37-15. Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers credited Pittsburgh’s game plan for slowing down Adams.
“I think they had a good plan. They played a lot of two-shell. It was a lot of vision zones, but there weren’t a lot of outside freebies,” Rodgers said. “There was a few opportunities we had, but I think we were just kind of easing [Adams] in,” Rodgers said on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.
While Rodgers said the Jets were easing Adams in, that wasn’t the thinking heading into the game, as Adams was reported to be a big part of the game plan heading into the week, but that wasn’t the case.
It’s not a huge surprise that Davante Adams didn’t pop off in his first game with the Jets, but his familiarity with Rodgers did make it a bit surprising that he was limited. But Pittsburgh has largely done a good job of taking away their opposition’s top weapons at receiver this season. They didn’t let Adams nor Garrett Wilson do too much damage against them, although they did struggle to defend RB Breece Hall, who had 104 receiving yards. However, that was more due to Pittsburgh’s poor tackling on two big gains by Hall.
Rodgers and Davante Adams also missed a connection on New York’s first throw of the game. This was really the only clean look Adams had on the outside, as most of his targets came over the middle of the field. The Steelers made a concerted effort to make the Jets try to beat them over the middle, and it worked.
While Rodgers did throw for 276 yards, it wasn’t a super effective day for him, as he threw two interceptions (although the second one was more the fault of Wilson, who dropped a well-thrown ball). The Jets were shut out in the second half. Outside of a few blips this season, the Steelers defense has been one of the best in the league, and they played like it again on Sunday night to drop Rodgers and the Jets to 2-5 in a season where expectations were as high as they’ve been in a long time in New York.
