Rex Ryan didn’t try to soften the blow after the Jets’ ugly loss to the Chicago Bears, and his read on Sunday’s disaster was brutal.
During an appearance on ESPN Radio’s DiPietro & Rothenburg, Ryan said the Jets had “reverted” to their 2025 form after a 23-12 defeat in which Chicago controlled the game from start to finish. The Bears outgained Aaron Glenn’s team 492-157 and ran 89 plays to the Jets’ 32.
“This was the first game where there’s not a positive thing about it,” Ryan said. “I thought this team was growing.
I really did. And it took a major step back, like a huge step back.”
The numbers tell the same story. The Jets were hit with 12 penalties for 76 yards, and three interceptions were wiped out in the loss. Isaiah Williams’ 58-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter was one of only four Jets plays that gained at least 10 yards.
“I thought this team was past that,” he acknowledged. “And obviously there’s a ways to go, but you can’t let one game define your damn season.
… Now it’s nobody believes in you. Well, you gotta go out and believe in yourself and in the people in that room, and we’re gonna find out exactly how this team feels about themselves [and] how hard they compete.”
Ryan’s sharpest point was his belief that the Jets didn’t just have a bad afternoon - they gave back the progress they had made, or said they had made, entering Glenn’s second season. That’s the kind of critique that lands hard, especially after a performance this sloppy.
The penalties are the kind of detail that reflects poorly on Glenn and his staff. A holding call on an offensive lineman is one thing, but the Jets also hurt themselves with flags like hands to the face and illegal touching. Penalties were a problem in several Week 4 games, but that didn’t stop the Jacksonville Jaguars from beating the Cincinnati Bengals despite 13 penalties for 125 yards.
The obvious comeback is that the Jaguars are simply a better team than the Jets. Still, good teams manage to survive when the officiating and the circumstances aren’t breaking their way.
A lot of the talk around this Jets team centered on how different they were supposed to be this year, and Geno Smith deserves credit for giving them mostly competent play at quarterback. Glenn also can’t be blamed for the injuries that gutted the receiver group and kept Breece Hall out on Sunday.
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Wilson was later seen conscious and alert as staff helped him away from the area, and the Chicago Police Department said it had no calls or case reports tied to the incident. For a stadium already emptied out after the Bears win over the Jets, the bizarre episode added an unexpected and messy footnote to the afternoon. [Read more 🡒]
Aaron Glenn Already Faces A Jets Debate Nobody Wanted
The Jets entered Sunday hoping to build on a competitive first three weeks, but instead left Chicago with a 23-12 loss that exposed how far the team still has to go. The Bears controlled the game in yardage, time of possession and plays run, and Aaron Glenn made clear after the final whistle that the performance did not meet the standard he wants, pointing to penalties and an offense that never found enough rhythm.
After a 1-2 start, the bigger concern in Florham Park is no longer just the record, but what happens if the same uneven play keeps showing up. Glenn is still early in his tenure, yet losses like this tend to sharpen the conversation around any young coach, especially when the margins are being beaten as thoroughly as they were Sunday. [Read more 🡒]