LONDON \u2014 Justin Fields looked to the sideline and saw Aaron Glenn staring back at him. The offense was lined up for a play but a snap would never come. As the clock ticked down to zero, Garrett Wilson walked off the field and threw his arms up. He followed Glenn off the field, shaking his head on his way through the tunnel.<\/p>\n
The clouds over Tottenham Hotspur Stadium cleared around kickoff, but boos rained at halftime, an understandable reaction for a group of fans who flew thousands of miles to watch their favorite team on foreign soil, only to watch their players scurry into the locker room, confused as to why their coach was simply \u2026 giving up. They weren\u2019t the only ones.<\/p>\n
Glenn has spoken a lot about all he learned while working on Sean Payton\u2019s coaching staff with the Saints, but there his mentor was on Sunday, at halftime, looking across the field, wondering what his protege was doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were waiting, either a Hail Mary or something,\u201d Payton said. \u201cAnd then the clock just ran out, so that was a little surprising. That\u2019s unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are numbers that can explain what happened on Sunday, like an NFL team finishing a game with minus-10 passing yards \u2014 but that won\u2019t really do the trick. The Jets, in spite of a historic level of passing ineptitude, still had a chance to win. Instead, they will fly back to the United States on Sunday in silence, alone, the last team left at the bottom of the NFL after a 13-11 loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t process it right now,\u201d Sauce Gardner said after the game. \u201cAs a player, I\u2019m tired of these quiet locker rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson winced. He didn\u2019t want to talk. His brain was scattered, worried about the severity of an injury he suffered late in Sunday\u2019s game, reeling from another wasted moment, another baffling loss. But his thoughts crystallized when it came to that moment before halftime \u2014 a moment that was the picture of the 2025 Jets. In a word (or two): Dysfunctional surrender.<\/p>\n
There was one minute left when the Jets ran a trick play on fourth-and-1, lining up to punt only to directly snap it to running back Breece Hall. It worked. Teams don\u2019t usually go for it on fourth down before halftime unless they are trying to score. Glenn called timeout \u2026 and then ran the ball again, a handoff to Hall. With 44 seconds left, Fields was sacked, so Glenn called timeout again. With 37 seconds left, Fields completed a pass to wide receiver Josh Reynolds for six yards, short of the first down. The ball was spotted at 27 seconds.<\/p>\n
Tick, tick, it ticked away. They did nothing. With a few seconds left, Wilson walked off the field. The Jets, down 10-6, went into the locker room, many players with a confused look on their faces.<\/p>\n
Wilson, a captain, went to his coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t know exactly what the plan was,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd once I figured it out, I was disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glenn\u2019s explanation, paraphrased: The Jets were getting the ball back, he wasn\u2019t sure in the moment if the Jets had gotten a first down because, he said, one ref said yes, the other said no. It turns out they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not about to sit there and try to get a play off, they get the ball back, give them a chance to kick a field goal,\u201d Glenn said.<\/p>\n
He referenced last week\u2019s loss, when the Jets attempted to push the ball down the field before halftime, failed, and then the Cowboys scored two plays later, a crucial moment in a blowout loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to put our guys in a situation like that again,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cI think the smart thing to do is: We run this clock down, can we come back in the second half and get some points again?\u201d<\/p>\n
In one fell swoop, it could be argued that Glenn displayed a lack of trust in both his defense \u2014 which was in the midst of its best game of the season \u2014 and his offense, with a quarterback Glenn furiously defended moments later in the same press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what the plan was,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI just thought once we converted the fourth down, I thought we were going to try to (score) then we get to another fourth down and \u2014 it\u2019s a tough spot to be in. In the moment, I was like: Man.\u201d<\/p>\n
C\u2019mon, man. What kind of question is that?<\/p>\n
Glenn\u2019s hand-picked quarterback played in such a way that can be hard to come back from, especially in a locker room that has been here before \u2014 and with a quarterback they believe in (Tyrod Taylor) waiting in the wings. When Fields wasn\u2019t missing his targets, or throwing it to them too late, he wasn\u2019t throwing it all. Three seconds are a lifetime in the NFL, especially against a Broncos pass rush that already led the NFL in sacks before Sunday.<\/p>\n
Tick, tick, tick, BOOM.<\/p>\n
That was Fields\u2019 day. He was sacked nine times, hit 15 more \u2014 and on many of those occasions, receivers were open. If Fields\u2019 first read was covered, he panicked, and held onto the ball. After a week of pushing back on the narrative that he holds onto the ball too long, that\u2019s exactly what he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to get the ball out,\u201d Fields said afterward.<\/p>\n
Left guard John Simpson put the responsibility on the shoulders of the offensive line, though that wouldn\u2019t be an entirely fair way to assess the pressure. The receivers were, at times, streaking open, so it wouldn\u2019t be fair to put it on them either.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough spot as a receiver,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cObviously, you want to keep in mind all the things they are dealing with back there. The O-Line had to deal with a tough front today. It\u2019s not always as simple as: I\u2019m open, I get the rock. I would just say knowing the plan we had in totality and staying and waiting and being ready for your moment if it does come.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moment never came, not on offense.<\/p>\n
But when Jets defensive end Jermaine Johnson sacked Bo Nix with 3:19 left, the Jets, somehow, still had a shot.<\/p>\n
Trailing by two, the final drive started with a bad snap; Breece Hall scooped it up and turned it into a seven-yard gain. Two plays later, Fields was sacked. Three plays after that, on fourth-and-8 from the 44, Fields took a 12-yard sack, and so the misery was finally over.<\/p>\n
By the time it was over, Fields had completed 9 of 17 passes for 45 yards. He averaged 5.5 air yards per attempt \u2014 which, for context, would rank 33rd of 34 qualifying quarterbacks this season. He was afraid to throw it, and so the Jets were afraid to call passes. The running game wasn\u2019t really working either. The Jets offense went the entire game without an explosive play, according to NextGen Stats, the first time any offense has done that sort of thing since 2021.<\/p>\n
So, will Fields be the Jets quarterback next week?<\/p>\n
Glenn responded with consternation, befuddlement at the suggestion that he\u2019d consider benching Fields \u2014 even though he played the way he did, even though the Jets are 0-6, and even though Fields was behind the wheel for their offensive ineptitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s guys that have bad games,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean you just bench them. C\u2019mon, you know better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added later: \u201cI don\u2019t want to sit there and pin this all on Justin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glenn released returner Xavier Gipson for much less after Week 1, after Gipson fumbled away a kickoff in a crucial moment. But Glenn is riding with Fields anyway \u2014 even as the Jets wasted their first positive defensive performance of the season, a familiar tale for this franchise.<\/p>\n
The Jets were 6-4 in 2022 when Robert Saleh benched Zach Wilson for Mike White. He had to \u2014 the defense was dominating and yet they were losing because of incompetent quarterback play. The locker room was turning, so Saleh made the switch.<\/p>\n
These Jets are not 6-4. They\u2019re 0-6. The defense was the biggest reason for the first five losses, but not on Sunday. Jarvis Brownlee forced a fumble on the first possession, the defense\u2019s first takeaway of the season. They held Nix to 49 passing yards in the second half, and Broncos running backs only averaged 2.6 yards per carry for the game. The Jets were only penalized two times. The defense only allowed one touchdown, on a coverage miscommunication that left Broncos tight end Nate Adkins wide open in the end zone. That first-quarter mishap wasn\u2019t repeated.<\/p>\n
The Jets offense started possessions from the Broncos\u2019 37 and 24, as well as the Jets\u2019 43, 42 and 43. The Jets gained 60 yards combined on those five possessions \u2014 37 coming on one drive \u2014 and scored nine points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we got what we wanted to get done,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe said we have to be the reason we win or we\u2019re in it. I feel like we got that done. But we\u2019re always thumb pointers, that\u2019s the main thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be frustrating when the engine is not firing collectively. It doesn\u2019t matter what the component is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the season, Glenn explained that the last four minutes of each half are on the head coach. Those are the high-pressure moments, the situations when he is supposed to step up and make the right decisions to put the Jets in position to score, or to win.<\/p>\n
Those scenarios have not played out well so far, though that\u2019s not the way Glenn sees it: \u201cI think the decisions have been the correct decisions. Sometimes we just didn\u2019t execute it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was nothing to execute at the end of the first half, as it turns out. Glenn chose to retreat to the locker room instead. To Wilson, and to many watching, that\u2019s how everything feels right now \u2014 a retreat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Justin Fields looked to the sideline and saw Aaron Glenn staring back at him. The offense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,45647,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-494703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115363751604021211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}