VIOLATION: D

The first four possessions of the second half ended with a punt, an interception, a missed field goal and a down: a quadruple blow for a team that desperately needed to make something positive happen. Even their sustained drive of eleven and nine plays in the second half yielded no points. Breece Hall scored on a run of 13 yards, but his other 11 carries resulted in a total of 25 yards. He led the team with 103 receiving yards. Davante Adams was targeted nine times but caught just three passes for 30 yards so clearly the instant chemistry between him and Aaron Rodgers will take some time to come back. . . if it ever really is.

DEFENSE: F

The Jets had Russell Wilson regain his championship form in his first start for the Steelers as he completed 16 of 29 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for a score. There were way too many wide open receivers and way too many broken tackles on runs. It’s hard to blame the defense for a 1-yard touchdown drive like the Steelers had in the third quarter on an interception and return, but at some point they had to make a stop and they couldn’t. The Steelers scored on their final five possessions of the game en route to 31 unanswered points.

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

For the third time in four games, the field goal hurt the Jets. This time, it wasn’t exactly Greg Zuerlein’s fault that his 35-yard attempt in the third quarter was blocked by Dean Lowry on a rush up the middle, but it’s still in his ledger. The Jets also allowed an extra point to be blocked and were fortunate to have the Steelers flagged for a questionable leverage penalty on the play. Xavier Gipson muffed a punt return and fumbled another, both spraying out of bounds. Isaiah Davis had two poor kickoff return attempts, one of which slipped on the 26.

COACHING: D

Two weeks later, interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich appears to be running out of answers and his frustration is palpable. Even he needs to work on some things; he fumbled with the challenge flag when he wanted the officials to take another look at a Hall run to the goal line that he thought had reached the end zone and couldn’t get onto the field quickly enough to stop the action. . . and nearly canceled out a Tyler Conklin touchdown pass when he threw it there. The offensive play-calling is out of control with 15 carries and 40 passing dropbacks and too few downfield attempts. Defensively, there were way too many open receivers.

Tom Rock started covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became the NFL columnist in 2022. He previously served as Newsday’s Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.