As I am sure you are aware, the Jets lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yesterday 29-27. The game frustrated me so much that I decided to sleep on it before I wrote the recap.
I was hoping maybe to wake up renewed with hope in the team. Well it didn’t happen.
I suppose I could write about how the team showed “fight” and “didn’t lay down” when far behind. I could do that. I’m just not sure when playing hard even when far behind became an exceptional trait in the National Football League. I would think
the bare minimum expectation for professional football players would be to always play hard. This is the pinnacle of the sport. These guys are played well. Their job is to play hard. I don’t think doing your job deserves any special praise.
What I saw was a Jets team that was thoroughly outplayed. The offense was absolutely terrible until the Buccaneers defense took its foot off the gas in the fourth quarter and started conceding short passes. Tyrod Taylor checkdowns that produced minimal results in the first three quarters suddenly became productive plays.
The Jets scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but I’m not sure I see a repeatable formula to build upon. Two of them came against a prevent-ish type defense. Of those, one really shouldn’t have been a touchdown. Allen Lazard clearly appeared to drop the ball. The Jets caught a break when it wasn’t overturned on review. Nobody should apologize for the Jets actually being the team that catches a break on a blown call for once, but it was a fortunate break.
The third touchdown was even less repeatable. I don’t want to say it was lucky because it was a spectacular play by Will McDonald, who lept over the line to block what would have been a game-clinching field goal, recovered the ball, and ran it back to the end zone. But if we are talking about building on this performance…well I don’t think that’s going to be a staple play for the Jets going forward.
I have said since the start of the year that 2025 isn’t just about wins and losses. It’s about how we get to those wins and losses. The hope is that the Jets do good things that show signs of growth even when they lose. I hate to say it, but I didn’t see many in this one despite the comeback.
Evidently Aaron Glenn saw things differently.
I have seen Glenn get some criticism for this quote online. I don’t know that I agree with the criticism of Glenn. He’s coaching a young team that might have a fragile psyche. There hasn’t been a lot positive to happen so far in the first three games so he’s trying to motivate them by accentuating the good. As a general rule, you should never read too much into what a coach says at a press conference.
My hope is that Glenn understands this team has a long way to go and a lot to correct. A lot of the offensive issues at least can be traced to a quarterback whose starting days are numbered. Tyrod Taylor turned in a dismal performance in his first game as Jets starting quarterback. Even with his late game stat padding, he still only threw for 197 yards on 36 attempts. He was slow to get through his progressions and slower to find his checkdowns. And his pick six right before halftime was the type of ludicrous decision we might expect from a rookie. I’m not sure how much confidence we can have in Justin Fields going forward, but Taylor was a driving force behind the Jets’ offensive struggles. He is on his way back to the bench sooner rather than later.
The Jets’ defensive issues aren’t as easy to explain away. We know that while there is talent on the unit, there isn’t much depth. The Jets started the game down Jermaine Johnson. Sauce Gardner and Quincy Williams were out due to injury by the time the game ended.
Still it’s tough to justify the unit being this inept. It might not be fair to expect the top five defense from the peak of the Saleh era with this personnel, but it’s tough to explain the unit being this bad. The Bucs had a patchwork offensive line that committed five holding penalties on just the game’s first series. The Jets still allowed that drive to end in points. It was one of the stories of the game.
We could also talk about the second half. The unit just couldn’t get a stop. Whenever a stop could have changed the momentum of the game, the defense failed to deliver. The Bucs took the second half kickoff and marched 16 plays for a field goal that put them up three scores. Tampa Bay scored three times in five drives in the second half. One of the two nonscoring drives ended in the McDonald field goal block. That was a drive where the Jets allowed the Bucs to march 40 yards for what would have been a game-clinching field goal when a stop would have given them the ball back with a chance to take the lead. Does the fact McDonald blocked that kick make that defensive performance any better?
And we know after the McDonald block, the defense allowed Tampa Bay to march right down the field for a field goal rater than close out the game.
I’m not saying a loss for the Jets in 2025 needs to be irredeemable. I’m all for finding things the team can build on in defeats. I just don’t see what the Jets can build on from this one other than “not quitting.” And if something that basic is praise worthy for this team, it’s going to be a really long season.
It would be different if the Jets played a clean game. Had they minimized their errors, stayed close throughout, and just lost because the Bucs’ talent won out in the end, that would be one thing.
Getting completely dominated, having a few random moments come together to put the team in front, and giving the game back anyway is something different entirely.
Really bad teams find ways to lose games of all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s a shootout where you come up short like Week 1. Sometimes it’s a complete no show like Week 2. Sometimes it’s a game where the other team is better but you still get a chance to win…and then squander it.
Until the Jets start giving us something more positive than playing hard for 60 minutes, they are going to remain a really bad team.
