The New York Jets have spent too much of this season digging themselves into holes, and the numbers around the end of halves are as ugly as anything in their early schedule.
At 2-4 entering Week 7 against the Miami Dolphins, the Jets have already let a couple of games slip away against the Detroit Lions in Week 2 and the Green Bay Packers in Week 3. That alone makes the start feel more frustrating than disastrous. But the deeper issue is how often they’ve stalled out before the break.
The most striking stat is this: the Jets have been outscored 20-0 in the final two minutes before halftime this season. And under Aaron Glenn, that problem has grown even larger. Since he became head coach, the Jets are at -94 before halftime.
“But the stats show that, when it comes to the end-of-half situations, Glenn has fallen well behind his peers. Considering how many close games the Jets have found themselves in this season, it is fair to wonder if their 2-4 record would look different with a little better execution going into the locker room.
“All told, the Jets have been outscored 20-0 in the final two minutes before halftime this season - and 100-6 since Glenn became head coach, far and away the worst margin in the NFL,” Zack Rosenblatt wrote.
That kind of collapse before halftime points to trouble on both sides of the ball. The defense has to find a way to get stops, but the offense can’t be ignored here either. It’s a team issue, not just a one-unit problem.
The broader picture is simple: the Jets have been better this year, but not nearly clean enough. And when games are as tight as they’ve been, letting the final minutes before halftime turn into a one-sided mess can change everything.
In Other News...
Jets Keep Dodging A Costly Nahshon Wright Roster Decision
Nahshon Wrights first season with the Jets has become one of those roster situations the team keeps side-stepping instead of answering directly. The cornerback was brought in after leading the NFL in takeaways last year, but his role in New York has been limited to special teams early on, and he has not carved out a real defensive spot as the season has gone along.
What makes the situation harder to ignore is the cost attached to it. The Jets gave Wright a fully guaranteed $3.5 million deal this offseason, yet they still have not moved on from him even with other cornerbacks available on the practice squad. For now, they are keeping him around without using him much, which leaves one of the more curious roster choices in the building hanging in plain sight. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Offense Keeps Making One Frustrating Mistake Fans Can See
The Jets have spent enough of this season showing they can move the ball when defenses play zone, and Geno Smiths numbers have reflected that split. Against man coverage, though, the offense has looked far more ordinary, which is why the tendency to stick with the same balanced script has been so frustrating to watch from the outside.
Even with the evidence piling up, the approach has barely changed. New York has kept leaning into a predictable pass-run mix even as the results have slipped in scoring and yardage, leaving the offense looking like a unit that knows where its best chances are but keeps driving toward the same dead end anyway. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Keep Wasting Chances As Pressure Builds On Aaron Glenn
The Jets keep finding themselves in familiar territory, close enough to matter and still not finishing the job. Their recent stretch has included the kind of late-half lapses that can tilt games before halftime or the final whistle, and the frustration is only growing because the effort has not disappeared. Geno Smith pointed to Omar Cooper Jr.'s return from injury as a boost and said the team showed fight in the second half, but those positives have not been enough to erase the bigger problem hanging over the season.
Aaron Glenn is now carrying the weight of those missed chances, because the margin for patience around the team is getting thinner by the week. Rich Cimini raised the possibility that a loss to the Dolphins could put Glenns status in real jeopardy, which is the sort of conversation that starts to follow a coach when repeated breakdowns keep showing up in the same critical moments. For the Jets, the next game now feels like more than a division test. [Read more 🡒]