Sometimes, the dumbest play of the week in the NFL is not actually a play at all but a play-call or decision by a coach. We’re looking at you, Aaron Glenn.
The New York Jets coach, in his second season with the Jets making all the decisions, has been a study in inconsistency with his clock management.
And he was downright worthy of hard questioning on Sunday after a 20-17 overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers – because maybe this game didn’t need to go to overtime at all.
But Glenn curiously decided it would.
In the fourth quarter, you see, the Packers had the ball and the Jets limited them to a 5-yard completion on third-and-10. So the Packers faced a fourth-down play with about 50 seconds left to play.
Glenn could have immediately called time out.
He could have immediately forced the Packers to punt on fourth down from midfield and given his offense one final opportunity in regulation to perhaps run three or four plays, get in field goal range, and pull out a win.
Glenn had timeouts. But he didn’t use them. He apparently didn’t even think of using them.
“I didn’t,” Glenn admitted after the game. “I didn’t consider using that. I know exactly what you’re talking about. No, I didn’t think of using the timeout at that point at all.”
Fair enough. If we’re giving Glenn the benefit of the doubt, we have to believe he probably thought it all through and made an informed decision.
But informed decisions come with reasoning. So what was Glenn’s reasoning for not using time-outs that would have given his offense a chance?
“Man, I want to go back and really look at it, you know, to be honest with you,” Glenn said. “I think they were in a situation where they were trying a no-brainer, and they took the no-brainer, or they took the penalty on that.”
The Packers did indeed praise Jesus that Glenn didn’t call time out, so they did the no-brainer thing and sat on the ball and took a delay of game penalty. The 10-second runoff on the penalty left only two seconds on the clock.
And the Packers, intent on launching a Hail Mary on fourth down, suffered a Jordan Love sack instead, to end regulation.
But, again, if Glenn had called that timeout immediately after the third-down play, the Jets might have had maybe those 50 seconds to force Green Bay to punt and give their offense a chance.
“Yeah, and if they would have punted it, that would put us in a backed-up situation,” Glenn argued. “They could have punted the ball and put us in a backed-up situation right there. So that was the reason why.”
This is not the way.
If Glenn had forced the issue, he actually has no clue what might have happened next. The punter might have dropped the snap. The punt might have gotten blocked. His punt returner, challenged as he’s been with holding on to the ball, might have contributed a dynamic return.
But instead, Glenn made certain his offense would have no final opportunity to win the game in regulation.
New York Jets fans and the media covering the team, being the understanding and patient people they are, obviously excused Glenn’s strategy.
No, wait—no, they didn’t.
“This debacle falls on Aaron Glenn,” the attention-grabbing part of a New York Post headline blared.
Fans also took to social media and roasted Glenn.
“Playing not to lose,” one said.
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“AG should not be a head coach IMHO,” another offered.
“Banking TO that can’t ever be recovered,” another said.
“Even if they pin you, you still have the ball and a T.O. and a chance. Crazy.”
All of these are accurate and show how dumb Glenn’s end-of-game decision actually was.
