Jets coach Aaron Glenn under as much scrutiny as his players after team-wide failure and 0-2 start
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn looks on against the Buffalo Bills during the second quarter at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Aaron Glenn has been around the NFL for three decades as a player, scout and coach, but he never has been in a position like this.
He is the head coach of a Jets team that followed up a promising Opening Day loss to the Steelers with a spectacular implosion on Sunday, a 30-10 loss to the Bills at MetLife Stadium.
Now comes the interesting part.
Glenn is under as much scrutiny this season as any of his players as team management and fans assess whether they finally have found a keeper or not.
And starting on Monday, he must figure out how to keep afloat a team that was unable to compete against one of the NFL’s best — with a quarterback who played terribly and now might not play at all because he is in the league’s concussion protocol.
Justin Fields was 3-for-11 for 27 yards, and when he left the game early in the fourth quarter, the Jets had eight net passing yards.
The defense gave up 224 rushing yards and two runs of at least 40 yards — one to Josh Allen and the other to James Cook, a 44-yard touchdown run.
For good measure, the Jets threw in some backbreaking mistakes, including a roughing-the-passer penalty on Micheal Clemons that set up a Bills touchdown and a fumble by Fields that set up a Buffalo field goal.
Not good enough, as Glenn and his players all said. But Glenn is the guy who is in charge of making things good enough.
He began his postgame remarks by saying twice that he was “very disappointed.”
“I just told the players: First off, I’ve got to take a look at myself,” he said. “I want to take a look at every player. I want to take a look at every coach. There’s no stone that will go unturned without figuring out the issue.
“But I told these guys this: I’ve been here with two teams — in New Orleans and Detroit. And one thing that we’re not going to do is, we’re not going to waver, not one bit. Not one bit. The brand we say we’re going to play, we’re going to play that type of game and our guys will get better.
“The only thing we have to do is get ready to go back to work on Wednesday and we’ll go from there. I do know that.”
Last week, Glenn waived returner Xavier Gipson after a key fumble against Pittsburgh in that 34-32 opening day loss. Might Clemons be next?
Perhaps, but Glenn cannot cut everyone who disappoints him. The idea is to get better with the players he has, presumably starting with Fields.
Glenn did not blame the officials for the crushing penalty on Clemons — on a third-and-19 play — instead saying he simply will have to find a better way to explain things to his players.
“Some of the penalties we had were things that we talked about that we shouldn’t allow to happen, and those things came up,” he said. “Maybe I’ll have to emphasize those even more.
“That’s the way I look at it. That’s something I have to make sure I do a better job of.”
Did the Jets beat themselves with their costly errors?
“Yes,” Glenn said.
The players who spoke to reporters stayed on message in saying that playing like that is not good enough, and trying to rationalize it is not good enough, either.
“This is not OK,” Andre Cisco said. “In no way should we be walking around saying, ‘Oh, it’s OK, we’ll get them next time.’ A hard look in the mirror, I think, is the best way to go about it.”
But the most telling response to the debacle came from receiver Garrett Wilson, who when asked to explain what went wrong used a certain term no less than five times.
“I don’t know, man,” he said. “I don’t know. All week you feel like you’ve got a good plan. We had a good week of practice and come out and lay an egg when it matters.
“So we’ve got to figure it out. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how that happens. Props to them, I guess.”
Memo to Glenn: When your star receiver, who is in his fourth NFL season, publicly expresses bafflement at what has transpired, that is an alarm bell for the coaching staff.
It was just one game, against a league power. It does not have to mean the season is beyond repair. What it means is that the tough-talking new coach in town has a tough task for himself. No one said this would be easy.
“Apparently, I didn’t have the guys ready to play,” Glenn said.
Apparently not. But he has 15 more tries this season. Jets World is watching.
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.
