Aaron Glenn says these aren't the 'Same Old Jets,' but it's the same old result
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn watches from the sidelines during the first half of an NFL game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP/Chris O'Meara
TAMPA, Fla.
Aaron Glenn tried to have it both ways on Sunday, asserting that “there’s no such things as moral victories” and that these are “not the Same Old Jets” despite an 0-3 record.
And that’s OK. For now.
Look, oddsmakers figured the Jets for five or six victories this season, so the fact that they are going nowhere is not a surprise.
And they have a rookie coach who is trying to build a new culture while learning on the job, so it’s fair to cut him some slack as he goes about that.
Two of his three losses have been heartbreakers: the opener against the Steelers and on Sunday against the Buccaneers, a 29-27 crusher at Raymond James Stadium on a 36-yard field goal by Chase McLaughlin as time expired.
Afterward, Glenn praised his players for their grit and anticipated what many fans and journalists might be thinking, saying and/or writing.
“We’re not the same team as what everyone says, ‘Same Old Jets,’ ” said Glenn, a former Jet who is all too familiar with the term. “These guys are going to fight no matter what the situation. There’s no give-up in them.
“I hate that term, and I really don’t know what that term means. But I know this: They’re not the Same Old Jets. These guys are fighters. I love these guys. We know we have work to do. I’ve said this before: This is not an instant coffee team. This is a team that is going to continue to keep stacking until we get to where we need to get to, to where we can consistently win these games.”
Fans have a right to be skeptical. Fans should be skeptical. Anyone who is not skeptical cannot have been a Jets fan for long.
But again, Glenn, his staff and players have a right to some patience, more so than, for example, their counterparts with the Giants, whose head coach is in his fourth season.
Perhaps the Jets someday will be able to look back at games such as Sunday’s and, if not laugh, at least reminisce about the bad old days.
When Will McDonald blocked a field-goal attempt and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown with 1:49 remaining to help the Jets take a 27-26 lead, it looked like a potentially season-turning play. Then it turned into nothing more than a talking point, and a lesson.
“It was an extraordinary play,” Garrett Wilson said, “and at some point when people make plays like that, we’re going to finish it so we can celebrate it the right way, because that was a hell of a play.”
Baker Mayfield led Tampa Bay to the winning field goal, and the only team celebrating was the one wearing throwback white-and-orange uniforms on a day the Bucs celebrated their 50 seasons in the NFL.
The key play was a 20-yard completion to former Giant Sterling Shepard. “’Shep, just ol’ reliable,” Mayfield said.
The Bucs are 3-0 for the first time in 20 years. The Jets are headed for their 15th consecutive non-playoff season.
So it goes. But the Jets get to try again against another 0-3 team, the Dolphins, next Monday night, back in Florida for another test of their validity in the humidity.
“Today showed me a lot about who we were as a team and who we’re going to be, also,” Glenn said. “I give a lot of credit to the way these guys came out and fought — no quit in any of these guys.”
When asked about how he balances the reality of 0-3 with the hopefulness he sees, the coach presented reporters the math.
“We’re 0-3,” he said. “How many more games we have left?”
That would be 14.
“That speaks for itself,” he said. “We have a lot of games to go play, and you can build on this.”
Glenn’s enthusiasm, not to mention his athleticism as a former star NFL cornerback, was on display when he ran down the sideline as McDonald raced for his touchdown, then did a celebratory dance.
Someday, that will be a victory dance. Sunday was not that day, a day that must come soon.
“You don’t want to look up and be 0-10,” Quinnen Williams said.
Tyrod Taylor, the wise old pro who played quarterback Sunday, said, “By no means are moral victories something that we accept in our locker room, but this is a young team and we’re changing in a good way. Although that was a loss today, that was a lot for us to learn from as a team as we continue to keep shifting where this Jets team is going.”
All we know for now is this Jets team is going to the other side of Florida in Week 4. Where it goes from there will either be something new at last or just more of the same.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
