The New York Jets lost their third game in a row in Week 4, 23-12 to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. The loss drops the Jets to 1-3 on the season as they head home for Week 5 to face the Cleveland Browns (3-1), who have won three straight.
The Jets struggled on both sides of the ball as they looked non-competitve from the beginning of this game to the end. The lone positive was the Jets finally getting an interception, their first since the 2024 season. In fact, they should have had four interceptions of Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent on the afternoon, but three were called back due to penalties on the defense.
Here is Jets Wire's report card following the Week 4 loss:
Passing Offense: D+
Geno Smith attempted only 15 passes the entire game as he never
got into any type of rhythm. Whether that was because of his overall performance or the awful play calling from Frank Reich is up for debate. He did throw a late touchdown to Isaiah Williams to get them within two scores, but the defense was gassed and the Bears offense basically ran out the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
Smith finished 8 for 15, 119 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He was sacked three times on the afternoon. Garrett Wilson finished with three receptions for 27 yards on four targets. Kenyon Sadiq, who had over 100 yards receiving last week against the Lions, was targeted four times for no receptions. A brutal performance and a brutal game plan from the offensive coordinator for not doing whatever it takes to get the ball to two of his top play makers.
Rushing Offense: C-
In all fairness to Braelon Allen, he wasn't bad running the ball as he finished with 14 carries for 59 yards and an average of just over four yards per carry. Reich was a bit over-reliant on the running game with Breece Hall out, which was a bit of an odd strategy. On the Jets first drive of the third quarter, Reich called five straight running plays to Allen, the last one resulting in a loss of five yards. That put the Jets in a hole and on Smith's first pass attempt, he was sacked for a loss of eight yards and they had to punt. Isaiah Davis did not have a carry in this game, which made no sense whatsoever.
Passing Defense: D+
Having Minkah Fitzpatrick back in the secondary was huge as his interception of Tyson Bagent in the second quarter ended a very humiliating streak for the Jets defense. The Jets should have had three more interceptions, but penalties by D'Angelo Ponds, Demario Davis and Azareye'h Thomas negated the turnovers. Ponds, in particular, negated his first career interception after he was called for defensive holding. That was a killer penalty because it was late in the game when the Jets had a chance to make a comeback and it allowed the Bears to run out the clock.
The Jets were without Kingsley Enagbare on Sunday, but the combination of David Bailey, Will McDonald and Joseph Ossai combined for only one quarterback pressure, which is pathetic. McDonald continues to be non-existent as a pass rusher and his days seem numbered in New York. Give credit to Jamien Sherwood, who had a nice bounce back game with 13 tackles, a pass defended and a forced fumble on Swift that was recovered by Brandon Stephens.
Rushing Defense: F
The Bears steamrolled the Jets defensive line all afternoon as Kyle Monangai rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Chicago as a team combined for 232 yards on 54 carries and what once looked like a strength for the Jets now looks like a major weakness. T'Vondre Sweat almost had his first interception as a Jet but it was called back due to a penalty on Azareye'h Thomas. Even though the defensive line did have a goal line stop on D'Andre Swift to force a turnover on downs, they had no answer whatsoever for Monangai.
Special Teams: C
Jason Sanders made both field goal attempts on the afternoon, but missed an extra point. It hurt because while the Jets would have still needed two scores to tie the game, they would have only needed a touchdown and field goal if Sanders makes that extra point.
Coaching: D
This was the type of game we've seen far too often from this Jets team, whether Aaron Glenn is the head coach or when Robert Saleh was coaching. They came out completely flat once again and there seemed to be no offensive game plan to attack an opposing defense. For some ridiculous reason, Frank Reich went away from what worked against the Detroit Lions last week and decided to force feed the ball to Allen for most of the afternoon. When your two top receivers, Wilson and Sadiq, are only targeted eight times combined in a game where the Jets trailed throughout, that's borderline criminal.
The defense was gashed to the tune of 492 yards of total offense from the Bears. They continue to make dumb mistakes at the worst time and it's completely unacceptable for this team to lose three turnovers over penalties. They were very undisciplined (12 penalties, 76 yards) and it may be time to consider benching Thomas for Nahshon Wright. The second-year cornerback has played well this year, but this is the third week in a row he committed a backbreaking penalty that cost the Jets. The Bears had the ball on offense for a whopping 42 minutes of today's game. Linebacker Devin Bush said after the game that he was "bored" playing the Jets, which is a bad look for Glenn and the team.
What should worry Jets fans is if this team will recover from Sunday's loss or will they go down the rabbit hole we have seen them go down season after season and ultimately quit. Any goodwill Glenn may have had over the first three games is completely thrown out the window after this embarrassing performance. As we said before the season started. The Jets and Glenn have zero margin for error this year. Every play call will be scrutinized and every loss will be an indictment on the head coach, whether his fault or not. It was alarming that the Jets did not look prepared to play a Bears team coming off a short week and with a backup quarterback. That falls entirely on Glenn.
The Jets now head home in Week 5 to face a rejuvenated Cleveland Browns team who have won three straight games, including a win over Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers this past Thursday, and will be on extended rest. This is a must-win in front of your home crowd against a team that no longer looks like a pushover with Todd Monken as their head coach. A loss next week and the buzzards will be circling around Glenn once again calling for him to be fired. And he'll have no one left to blame but himself.
This article originally appeared on Jets Wire: Report card: Jets lose 23-12 at Bears in Week 4
