The New York Jets had the New England Patriots exactly where they wanted them. Three offensive lineman were sidelined by injuries, left tackle Will Campbell was nursing a knee injury, and the Pats were down to their last substitute lineman.
But the Jets pass rush vanished. A week after 8 sacks against the Cleveland Browns, there were zero sacks on New England Drake Maye.
Head coach Aaron Glenn acknowledged that the line, though it had Maye in its sights several times, couldn’t finish.
“It’s hard to explain, to be honest with you, because I have all the confidence in the world in our front and being able to cause havoc,” Glenn said in his postgame talk. “I give them credit; they did a good job of chipping, thumping and doing all they can to our edge guys, and that was their deal.”
Indeed, edge David Bailey was double-teamed for most of the game, rendering him invisible a week after his 3 sacks performance against the Browns won him the AFC Defensive Player of the Week Award.
“We’ve got to do a better job of now getting some of this interior pressure,” Glenn said. “Another thing, we had him in our grasp. He’s a big quarterback, and he actually escaped a number of those sacks we had. We’ve got to do a better job of making sure to get him on the ground when we do have him in our grasp.”
Glenn admitted there was a communications error on the long touchdown by New England’s Demario Douglas. The Jets rushed three and had Bailey drop into coverage.
“That was a miscommunication overall. That’s not really our plan to be able to do something like that. I’ve got to do a better job of making sure the communication is right when it comes to something like that.”
Also not communicated well was the New England touchdown that left tight end Hunter Henry wide open.
Glenn admitted that was also a mistake. “I’ve got to do a better job of making sure we’re all on the same page on that.”
On the last New England drive, Henry was again left free to convert a third-and-13.
“I thought we had a free hit on that. We had some guys that were pretty deep on that. I’ve got to make sure we understand exactly what we’re trying to defend when it comes to that. I knew we wanted to make sure we had a chance to make sure to pressure and make the play. I think our guys did a good job of doing that. Now we have to understand exactly how we get to those landmarks to make sure we’re not in a situation where we allow something like that.”
The Jets also screwed up the two minutes before the half.
Glenn said the Jets have to be better in those situations. “I must say offense and defense, that we have to get better at that. We have to be able to possess the ball more to go ahead and put stress on their defense to try to score points. On defense, you’ve got to make sure you stop them when we get that opportunity.”
Now, it’s on to Miami. Fortunately for Glenn, Drake Maye won’t be there.
