Jets winless and still without a takeaway under Aaron Glenn

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets are making history in all the wrong ways this season.

And they're only five games in.

The Jets dropped to 0-5 with a dismal showing in a 37-22 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, leaving them and the Tennessee Titans — who were playing later in the day — as the NFL's only winless teams.

“Highly disappointed,” Glenn said.

A former Pro Bowl cornerback who played eight of his 15 seasons in New York, Glenn became the first coach in franchise history to begin his tenure with five losses.

“It's a tough game,” he said. “And it's coached and played by real men. And listen, I'm going to embrace this challenge, all right, just like any other challenge. And we're going to figure out as a team, we're going to figure out how to get out of this hole.”

Glenn insisted when he was hired in January that the Jets would someday become respectable winners again because, as he said at his introductory news conference: “We’re the freakin’ Jets. And we’re built for this (stuff)."

He has also bemoaned those saying this version of the team is the ”same old Jets." But he has cautioned that it takes time and patience. And that's something frustrated fans don't have much of, in any, these days. Not for a team with the NFL's longest playoff drought at 14 years, and counting.

It’s New York’s fourth 0-5 start and first since starting 0-13 in 2020 under Adam Gase.

The Jets also became the first team in NFL history to open a season 0-5 and have no takeaways on defense, according to ESPN Research.

“I don't know if it's true or not, but I just know this: We haven't taken the ball away,” Glenn said. “And that's one thing you guys hear me say: It's not giveaways, it's not turnovers. You have to take the ball away. That's what you do as a defense. That has to be the mentality of the defense, that we have to go and get it because no one's going to give it to us.”

The Jets' defense was considered a strength entering the season, especially with two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner and three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Quinnen Williams leading the way. But New York hasn't been able to get any interceptions or fumble recoveries.

“The reason why it’s sickening," linebacker Jamien Sherwood said, “is because that’s the difference between winning and losing, at the end of the day.”

Well, that and other mistakes, such as the 14 missed tackles, according to Next Gen Stats. Not being able to take down opposing ballcarriers has been a theme through the first five games.

Glenn dismissed the notion that perhaps he, after being Detroit's defensive coordinator the past four years, could pull playcalling duties from Steve Wilks.

“I know that’s going to be the thing everyone says, but I always go back to my first year in Detroit when we struggled on defense, too,” Glenn said. “Our head coach had a lot of confidence in me making sure we get it right. And I feel the exact same way. I have a lot of confidence in Wilks. He’s done a lot of great things in this league as a defensive coordinator. And I’m going to allow him to do his job.”

Penalties have also been a problem on all sides of the ball. The Jets had 10 more against the Cowboys, giving them 30 accepted calls in their last three games.

“I don’t know what it is," Gardner said of the Jets' overall struggles. "Like I told you, this has been keeping me up at night. But I don't know what it is right now.”

The Jets have seen multiple possessions this season end in fumbles that have been recovered by opponents. Dallas was the latest to take advantage, this time when Breece Hall drove toward the end zone with New York down 10-3 and looking for the tying score.

But Hall had the ball knocked out and the Cowboys recovered. And then Dallas went on a 91-yard touchdown drive — its second of 90 or more yards — to take a 17-3 lead with 57 seconds left in the first half. It was a momentum-swinging error from which the Jets couldn't recover.

“It's unacceptable by me,” Hall said. "As one of the best players on the offense, you can’t put us in that situation.”

Still, Glenn is shouldering the blame for the Jets' lousy start.

He said he spoke earlier in the week to former NFL head coaches Tony Dungy and Jimmy Johnson — both Pro Football Hall of Famers — to hear how they got through their own rough first seasons. Dungy opened 0-5 with Tampa Bay en route to a 6-10 finish in 1996. Johnson was 1-15 with Dallas in 1989, including an 0-8 start.

“I'm not throwing any of these guys out,” Glenn said. “The only thing that we can do is go back to work. ... We're doing everything we can to fix all these issues, and that's all we can do.”

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