Grading the Jets' Week 8 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders

OFFENSE

For the second week in a row the Jets put up huge season-high numbers and it didn’t matter. They had 439 total yards. Braelon Allen ran for 147, Geno Smith threw for 290, and Adonai Mitchel had 142 receiving. They scored on their first six possessions (becoming just the second team since at least 2000 to do so and still lose; the Bucs did it in 2019 against the Giants) but managed just three points on their last four chances. Scoring just two touchdowns on six red zone trips was the glaring problem.

Grade: D

DEFENSE

That red zone stat for the offense swung the other way for the defense. They allowed a touchdown on all four of the Raiders drives that went inside the 20. There was one good stand on a fourth-and-inches sneak but the Jets also allowed Kirk Cousins to run for a 1-yard TD and convert a key third-and-1 on the final Vegas possession. Allowing TE Brock Bowers to score twice and catch 7 passes for 92 yards was a bad look considering he has been their best offensive weapon. After Ashton Jeanty called out the Jets’ run defense during the week at least they held him to 9 yards on just two carries. Too bad he also caught a checkdown pass and took it 45 yards right through them.

Grade: F

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Jets allowed the first and only kickoff return for a touchdown in the NFL this season. Let that sink in. Hat tip to Long Island’s Dylan Laube for the 95-yard play but the fact that he took it untouched up the sideline with barely a juke or wiggle to elude anyone was a setback for the Jets. At least they got wise later on and started putting their kickoffs into the back of the end zone for touchbacks. Jason Sanders has settled into some consistency as the kicker with four field goals and a long of 39. Isaiah Williams had one decent kickoff return of 41 yards.

Grade: F

COACHING

At least there were no glaring clock management or strategy issues from Aaron Glenn in this game. “He finally used his timeouts appropriately” isn’t much of an epitaph to a tenure as a head coach but it may be as close to a compliment as can be mustered at this point. Not being able to hold onto a 30-21 lead midway through the third quarter against a Raiders team that had lost four straight is a bigger indictment than that. Oh, and make it 107-9 that the Jets have now been outscored in the final two minutes of halves since Glenn took over. They added a field goal before halftime to that ignominious tally but have still not scored a touchdown in that scenario.

Grade: F

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.