Aaron Glenn Frustrated by Jets' Penalties, 'Not Playing Complementary Football' vs. Bears
NYJETS.COM CONTRIBUTOR
Jets HC Aaron Glenn got right to the point after his team's 23-12 loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday.
"When it comes to this game, I'm very, very disappointed," Glenn said about the Green & White's third-straight loss. "Very disappointed on a number of different levels. This was basically just not playing complementary football at its best, and man, the penalties which negated a couple of turnovers, that was tough, and that's tough to live with. And for your defense to go out there and have 90 plays, I think the offense had 30 plays. It's tough to get something going in that situation."
The final stats showed the Bears (3-1) with 89 plays on offense. 42:45 in time of possession and a total of 492 net yards. By contrast, the Jets' offense ran 32 plays, had the ball for 17:15 and totaled 157 yards.
"That's what's really frustrating," RG Joe Tippmann said. "You're on the field, back off the field, defense is on there. So that's one of the most frustrating things as an offense. Taking three reps and then waiting 25 minutes and then going back out there. That's not playing complementary football and the offense needs to be a better job."
Penalties (12 for 76 yards overall) put the Jets (1-3) behind the eight ball -- several led to first downs on third-down plays, one on fourth-down and three on interceptions by the defense that were nullified. The Jets, however, had a pair of takeaways of their own -- an interception by S Minkah Fitzpatrick in his first game back after missing two games with a groin injury, and a fumble recovery by CB Brandon Stephens after LB Jamien Sherwood jarred the ball loose from Bears' RB D'Andre Swift.
"We definitely have to play better complementary football in all three phases," Stephens said. "That's one of the ways you win games in this league, and when you can't play complementary football, it's hard to win. But we just got to continue to play our style. Today wasn't a great example of that, but yeah, we just have to do our job."
Early in the game, an illegal touch infraction erased Austin McNamara's 62-yard punt. With the game still scoreless, DT T'Vondre Sweat 's pick of a QB Tyler Bagenet pass was wiped out by a flag. Later, defensive infractions nullified picks by Stephens and rookie D'Angelo Ponds.
Twice on short Bears third-down plays in the fourth quarter, penalties enabled Chicago to continue its drives. The final one on a fourth-down play with 3:22 left enabled the Bears to run out the clock after holding the ball for the final 9:07 of the game.
"So the yards -- that's not really the issue with me," Glenn said. "It's more or less the penalties that happened that negated plays where we should have got off the field. I'm more thinking about that than anything else. I mean, yards are yards.
"It's some of the other undisciplined plays that we have when it comes to penalties. When it comes to having a chance to get off the field and not making the plays that we have to make, and they get to extend drives."
See the best photos from the Jets game against the Bears in Week 4.