When it was over, Aaron Glenn was blaming and second-guessing himself after another New York Jets loss. And this has become perhaps too familiar for the team’s coach this season.
The Jets lost to the previously winless Miami Dolphins on Sunday, and while that can happen because the other guys get paid, too, the Dolphins had been getting paid without winning before this one.
In fact, the Dolphins had been getting paid without even leading a game all season.
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But against Glenn’s team, the Dolphins looked like a playoff contender. That left Glenn disappointed. And defeated.
“When it comes to this game, highly disappointed,” Glenn lamented. “Disappointed in myself, first and foremost.”
Glenn is familiar with losing this season, but when the head coach is blaming himself for his clock management, that familiar spot is problematic. And that’s exactly where Glenn was for the second time this season — guilty of the dumbest moment of the week.
That Week 7 moment:
The Dolphins held a 14-7 lead with 8:44 left before halftime, and then they went on the Earth’s longest drive.
They marched from their own 9-yard line to the Jets 32-yard line with only two minutes remaining until half. Holding all his timeouts, Glenn stood idly on the sideline like a spectator.
“Yeah, I think that’s one they were already down in the red zone, correct?” Glenn asked reporters who wanted an explanation. “That’s the one you’re talking about?”
Well, the Dolphins weren’t in the red zone. They were at the New York 25 with 1:16 to play. But Glenn saved his timeouts for use in the year 2037, when he maybe gets his next head coaching opportunity.
So the clock ticked, and ticked and ticked, and the next time Miami ran a play, there were only 35 left on the clock.
The Dolphins eventually scored again, and the moment passed, but the clock management from the coach was curious.
“Man, we felt like we were going to stop them,” Glenn said. “And maybe we should have called our timeouts to get it back, but at that point, we just felt like we were going to stop them and be able to get the ball back.
“That’s something that we should have done is use our timeouts.”
Yes, correct.
Glenn’s explanation actually makes zero sense because if the Jets had done as he thought and held the Dolphins scoreless, using the timeouts would have given the Jets the football back with more time remaining on the clock.
As it was, the Jets got the ball back with six seconds remaining in the first half, which New York used to merely take a knee.
The second half witnessed something of a Jets rally before the Dolphins eventually prevailed 28-25, but that made the failure to a call time out more glaring because the Jets might have used that extra time in the first half to manage a field goal — which eventually was the difference in the game.
The Jets, by the way, are 2-5 and Glenn is in serious trouble. His teams are terrible just before halftime, having been outscored 107-6 in the coach’s 24 games.
And owner Woody Johnson has not given Glenn a vote of confidence like he did at this stage in the 2025 season. Johnson declined to speak with reporters at the League Fall Meeting last week.
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“We all have to get better, from coaching to playing to everything that we’re doing, we have to get better,” Glenn said. “… We know what’s going to happen from the outside in, we accept that, and it is what it is.
“This is a time where our guys, we’ve got to lock arms to make sure that everything that we get as far as energy and connection is going to be built from within, and we understand that.
“But we’ve got to play better, and our fans deserve better than that, and that starts with me.”
If Glenn continues to mismanage the clock, a coaching change is going to start with him.