An overtime loss was enough for NFL Media to start leaning away from the Jets again, and that tells you how fast the mood can swing around this team.
A busy offseason and a Week 1 win over the Titans had briefly created real optimism around Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets. That buzz has faded quickly, with last Sunday’s overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers doing plenty of damage. Glenn himself has largely avoided the harshest criticism, but the national conversation has still started drifting back in the wrong direction for New York.
The latest example came from NFL Media’s weekly game picks, where five analysts - Jeremy Bergman, Brooke Cersosimo, Gennaro Filice, Bobby Kownack, and Dan Parr - all backed the Detroit Lions to beat the Jets on Sunday.
“As Week 2 proved, the Jets still need to learn how to win,” Bergman wrote. “New York is close, but the lesson won’t come this week against a tested Lions team.”
It’s a pretty bold stance considering how that same group fared last week. All five picked the Buccaneers to beat the Browns, with Filice even calling for a 36-9 Tampa win.
Cleveland won that one outright. And that wasn’t the only time the consensus missed - the Saints, Vikings, and Raiders also won as underdogs last week, while the Cardinals pulled the same trick in Week 1.
That makes five games over an eight-day stretch where the five analysts all landed on the wrong side.
Still, the panel was united again in Week 3, with the Lions, Packers, Bills, Texans, Jaguars, Chiefs, Bengals, Seahawks, 49ers, and Rams all getting unanimous support. Thursday night already broke that trend when the Falcons upset the Packers at Lambeau.
Nobody’s saying the Jets should be expected to go into Ford Field and win by 14 points. But the speed of the backlash is the point here. One overtime loss was enough to send NFL media back toward the familiar habit of writing the Jets off, and it may take a while before that narrative changes.
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