Aaron Glenn wasn’t going to sugarcoat the game that unfolded for his Jets at Jacksonville on Sunday. He made that clear by some key phrases he repeated in his postgame news conference following the Jaguars’ 48-20 victory.
“Very disappointing. Very disappointing,” Glenn said. “This is tough. This is tough.”
Glenn stressed that it wasn’t all on one player or coach. It wasn’t just on rookie free agent QB Brady Cook not being able to rally the offense in his first pro start. It wasn’t merely on the pass rush getting no sacks and two hits on QB Trevor Lawrence in his personal-best six-touchdown performance (five passing, one rushing), It wasn’t only on LB Quincy Williams in pass coverage against RB Travis Etienne (three TD receptions) or Qwan’tez Stiggers stepping in for his third pro start at CB after Azareye’h Thomas was placed on IR the day before.
The first-year head coach saw the bigger picture and it was, well, disappointing and tough.
“Yeah, it has been,” AG agreed with a question about whether the losses to Miami and Jacksonville were a step back for what the Jets are trying to build, “because you don’t give up that many points and lose by that margin and say that it’s not. I’m not going to BS you guys or anybody else. But we have to make sure we can fix that. I’m evaluating everything — schematics, Xs and Os, players, the character of this team. We have got to figure some things out.”
And he didn’t leave himself or his staff out of the evaluation equation. He was asked if — after the Jets yielded 330 passing yards to Lawrence, 24 first downs and 438 yards in all at 7.4 yards/play, and gave up all 48 points on 8 of the home side’s first 9 drives — he would assume defensive playcalling duties for the rest of the season.
“I know that question’s going to be asked,” Glenn said. “I asked [coordinator Steve] Wilks in for a reason. I want him to run his system. We have three games left for our guys to go out there and play. Right now it’s not about Xs and Os, it’s about the character of the men on our team. That’s what I’m looking at. A lot of guys gave it up on that field and I’m proud of those guys for that. I want to make sure I look at the tape and see if everybody did that. And also look at the coaches and look at myself.”
