Another Jets game, another highly curious coaching gaffe from head coach Aaron Glenn and his staff.
The Jets were trailing 14-7 late in the first half with the Dolphins driving on them and Glenn inexplicably opted not to use any of his timeouts as the Miami offense got closer to scoring.
Eventually, the Dolphins took a 21-7 lead on a TD with 6 seconds remaining in the half and the Jets went into halftime having not used one of their three timeouts.
In a tight game with possessions so precious, this was coaching malpractice.
After the game, when Glenn was asked why not use the timeouts, his answer was alarmingly ambiguous.
“Yeah, I think that’s when [Miami] was all the way down in the red zone,’’ Glenn said.
But it wasn’t. The Dolphins were at the Jets 32-yard line at the two-minute warning and continued to drive after that with the Jets still not calling timeout.
“We felt like we were going to stop them,’’ Glenn said. “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.
“You know, that’s something that we should have done is use our timeouts.’’
Glenn is now 4-9 in one-score games, which is damning considering more than 50 percent of NFL games since 1999 have been decided by a TD or less.
Geno Smith, who was 23-for-30 passing for 287 yards with three TDs and one INT, had a weird game in that his stats were excellent — but he made two killer plays that cost the Jets.
On the first, he threw an INT right into the chest of Dolphins safety Michael Taaffe inside the Miami 20-yard line on the Jets’ second series. That cost them at least a field goal and possibly a TD.
For Smith, who’d gone the first five games without throwing an INT despite leading the NFL with 17 last year, it was his second in the past two games.
Later, with the Jets trailing 21-14, Smith took a 12-yard sack on a third-and-goal from the Miami 3-yard line. The Jets settled for a 33-yard Jason Sanders field goal.
Speaking of Sanders, after the Jets drove the ball to the Miami 22-yard line on their first possession of the second half, trailing 21-7, the drive stalled and Sanders missed a 40-yard field goal attempt that hit the right upright. Not good in a game the Jets lost by three points.
Jets WR Adonai Mitchell, who missed the previous four games with a finger injury, returned to the lineup Sunday and didn’t have a catch. RB Breece Hall, who’s been out with a thigh injury, practiced last week but didn’t play. Nor did guard Dylan Parham, who’s recovering from a knee injury.
The other Jets inactives included CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr., T Max Mitchell, edge Joseph Ossai, KR Kene Nwangwu and DL Jack Heflin. Brownlee being a healthy scratch was a surprise considering he’s been playing a lot.
Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of Nick Mangold, their former center and Ring of Honor member. Mangold succumbed to complications from kidney failure at age 41 last Oct. 25.
