In the Star Trek series, the Kobayashi Maru is a famous fictional training exercise used by Starfleet Academy to test command-track cadets in a no-win scenario.
As a cadet, James T. Kirk was the only one to defeat the no-win situation (spoiler alert: he did it by cheating).
New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn isn’t a starship commander, but he faces the exact same no-win scenario this weekend in his team’s game against the 0-5 Miami Dolphins.
Win, and everyone shrugs it off, saying the victory was expected. Lose, and the Jets’ season could spiral into the abyss, with the possibility that Glenn might have to be ejected out of the NFL airlock to appease the angry hordes (and owner Woody Johnson).
The Jets are 5.5 point home favorites, not an overwhelming spread against a winless team. Glenn is 0-7 against AFC East opponents, the worst divisional start by a full-time Jets head coach. The closest he’s come to drinking the sweet nectar of victory came in last weekend’s game, a 26-19 loss to the New England Patriots, leaving the Jets at 2-4 on the 2026 season.
Despite some green shoots of improvement, the 2026 Jets are still confounding fans and pundits with their tactics. In the last game, a strong start by running back Braelon Allen was shelved in favor of middle of the field short passes. Star receiver Garrett Wilson was almost ignored, and had as many targets as tight end Mason Taylor, whom no one will ever mistake for a game breaker.
The Jets also continued their struggles with the last two minutes of both halves.
Since the start of the Glenn era, the Jets (2-4) have posted the NFL’s worst point differential (119-49) in the final two minutes of both halves.
In the most recent game at New England, the Jets allowed a 7-3 deficit to grow to 17-3 in the final 1:46 of the second quarter. After the Patriots kicked a field goal and forced the Jets into a three-and-out, Drake Maye found DeMario Douglas for a 9-yard touchdown with 14 seconds left in the half.
“We just didn’t end up finishing,” Glenn said in his post game analysis. “That’s something we have to continue to work on is being able to finish. Obviously, we did it [in the Week 5 win] against Cleveland, but we failed this game.”
The history of Glenn and clock mismanagement is a grim story.
This season, the Jets have been outscored 20-0 in the final two minutes of the first half. In Glenn’s 23 games as head coach (5-18), the team has been outscored 100-6.
Worse, the Jets The Jets haven’t scored a touchdown in the final two minutes of a first half since the 2024 season finale against the Dolphins. That’s contrasted with the Jets’ opponents’ 11 touchdowns and eight field goals in that time span since the start of last season.
“I totally understand that [20-0] stat, and I know that on both sides of the ball, we have to get better at that and that’s something we work on quite a bit,” Glenn said. “The thing is we just have to continue to work. Usually when you do that, the work is gonna take care of itself and it’s gonna end up showing up on Sunday. Even though I’m not happy with where it’s at, if we continue to work, those things are gonna get better.”
“I always talk about the last four minutes of either half belong to the head coach,” Glenn said last year, “and sometimes, it takes time to get those things down.”
Time is growing short, Mr. Glenn. Ironically, Glenn himself was the victim of one of the most enraging Jets mistakes of their history, the infamous fake spike by Dan Marino. They likely won’t try that again in this game. But if the Dolphins win, they might put a spike through Glenn’s Jets’ coaching career.
