Aaron Glenn didn’t hide from the way the Jets let Sunday’s game slip away.
New York looked in command at MetLife Stadium after stacking 17 straight points and taking a 17-7 lead into the fourth quarter. But the finish turned into a nightmare. The Packers clawed all the way back, forced overtime, and then watched the Jets’ offense go nowhere in the extra period before Green Bay sealed a 20-17 win on rookie Trey Smack’s 26-yard field goal.
For Glenn, the frustration was immediate and obvious.
“When it comes to this game, I’ll be honest, I’m highly upset,” said the Jets head coach.
He didn’t soften that message afterward, either.
“Tough way to lose a game. There’s a number of things that go through my head that, man, we have to fix… This loss is not gonna define who we are and what we’re about; I will say that.
And it’s not okay, and our guys are gonna take it like that. It is not okay, but we have to get ready to move on to next week against another good opponent.”
The overtime sequence only added to the pain. New York chose to take the opening kickoff, but under the overtime rules introduced before last season, both teams are guaranteed an offensive possession.
The Jets couldn’t do anything with theirs, going three and out and punting from their own 22 on fourth and 18. That handed Green Bay the ball at its own 34 and opened the door for the Packers to move into range and finish the job.
The fourth quarter had already been littered with chances that slipped through New York’s hands. One of the biggest came on a fourth-and-1 attempt near midfield with less than two minutes left in regulation. Then special teams broke down on a long punt return, giving Green Bay strong field position and setting up the score that tied the game and pushed it to overtime.
It was the kind of collapse that leaves a head coach searching for answers - and Glenn made it clear he was still stewing over every part of it.
In Other News...
Packers Fans Have Another Reason To Be Furious With NFL Officiating
Week 2 brought another round of frustration for Packers fans, and not just because of the usual game-day complaints. Meghan Payton publicly took aim at the NFLs officiating standards after a series of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties across the league, a conversation that included flags on Packers safety Javon Bullard as well as Saints receiver Chris Olave.
The bigger issue is the direction the league has taken this season, with the Competition Committee putting taunting and illegal celebrations near the top of its enforcement list. Officials and league representatives have already laid out the reasoning behind the tighter standard, but the more aggressively it is applied, the more it is likely to keep drawing grumbles from teams and fans who feel the games are getting too tightly policed. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Fans Got Caught In Foxs Most Infuriating Broadcast Mess
Fox Sports turned Week 2 into a headache for viewers across the NFL, and Packers fans had their own moment of broadcast frustration during the overtime stretch of the Packers-Jets game. Multiple early games were affected when the audio feeds did not match the action on screen, leaving viewers listening to commentary that had nothing to do with the game they were watching, while Fox also briefly lost its scorebug during Green Bays overtime finish.
The network got the audio problem sorted out before the primetime Cowboys-Commanders matchup, but the damage had already been done for anyone trying to follow the early slate. For Packers fans, it was one more layer of annoyance on a day when the game itself was already moving into tense territory, and the broadcast breakdown made an already chaotic afternoon feel even messier. [Read more 🡒]
Trey Smack Is Already Changing A Packers Conversation Fans Dreaded
The Packers overtime win over the Jets brought a welcome dose of stability to a spot that has too often been a source of anxiety in Green Bay. Rookie kicker Trey Smack handled the moment with a game-winning field goal, and through the first two weeks of the season he has made all five of his attempts, quickly giving the team something it did not have much of last year: confidence when the game is on the line.
After the playoff frustration that lingered through the offseason, Smacks early showing has changed the tone around the kicking job in a hurry. He has already shown range and the kind of mental toughness the Packers were hoping to find, while Jordan Love and the offense did their part in getting the team into position for the finish. For now, Green Bay has a new reason to feel better about one of its most nerve-wracking situations. [Read more 🡒]