A day after suffering a crushing defeat, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn is sticking to the questionable decisions that helped lead to Sunday’s overtime home loss to the Packers.
With under a minute left in the fourth quarter, the head coach opted to not call timeout after Green Bay’s Christian Watson was brought down following a 5-yard catch that set up fourth down.
Instead of forcing a punt and getting the ball back, the Jets allowed Green Bay to run the clock down and let Jordan Love attempt a Hail Mary.
The Jets sacked Love, but lost a chance to potentially win the game in regulation.
On Monday, Glenn said he and his game management staff decided with the ball at midfield, “We don’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we get our guys in a backed-up situation.”
He noted the Packers had a pair of timeouts, as well.
“And if you put yourself in a backed-up situation and things don’t go as planned, I think you’re giving the other team an opportunity to go down there and make a play,’’ Glenn said. “I felt like that was the right decision to [make] at that point. We actually wanted to play for overtime when it came to that.’’
That didn’t work out, as the Jets punted in their lone possession in overtime and then allowed Green Bay to kick a game-winning field goal.
“There are always gonna be decisions [you question],’’ Glenn said. “Every coach has that. I think when the clock got to 11 seconds [in the fourth], I could have easily called timeout there and forced a punt, but I don’t think one play determined the outcome of the game. We ended up getting a sack on the play.”
But the extra session might not have been necessary if the Jets had executed better earlier in the game.
The sequence that stood out the most in the aftermath of the loss came when the Jets had the ball in a tie game in the fourth and opted to run the ball twice after it was third and 2 at their own 49.
Breece Hall got the ball on third down and came up just short, leading to fourth-and-1 from the 50, where Braelon Allen was stuffed for no gain.
Asked if he remained OK with that decision, Glenn said Monday, “Absolutely, I was. Especially in that situation.”
As he explained: “We were going to try to win the game. And listen, I do not regret that decision. Not one bit. You’ve got to give hats off to those guys [Green Bay’s defense]. They made a play.”
Green Bay defensive end Lukas Van Ness was part of both stops and drew praise from Glenn.
There was also not going on fourth-and-1 from the Green Bay 9 early in the fourth, already leading, 14-7.
After trying to draw the defense offsides, the Jets took a delay of game penalty and settled for a field goal to go up 10.
“When it came to that exact play, especially with the way we were playing on defense, I wanted to make sure [we tried] to draw them offsides and have a chance to have a first down,’’ Glenn said. “That didn’t happen. I was willing to go up two scores just with the way the defense was playing at that time. I felt like that was the smart thing for us to do.’’
But Green Bay answered immediately with a 73-yard touchdown drive and the Jets offense stopped moving the ball.
The Packers tied the game with a field goal with 2:59 to go in the fourth and the Jets didn’t score again.
