The Jets were outscored 100-6 in the final two minutes of the first half since head coach Aaron Glenn was hired before Sunday’s game and the team’s problems in those situations continued against the Dolphins.
Glenn, who is now 5-20 as head coach of the Jets, opted not to use any of his timeouts while the Dolphins had the ball after the two-minute warning, which meant just six seconds remained after Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis ran for a touchdown that made the score 21-7. The Jets would end up losing 28-25 and Glenn was asked after the game why they chose not to stop the clock at that point.
“Man, we felt like we were going to stop them,” Glenn said, via a team transcript. “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 we should have done is use our timeouts.”
Glenn’s explanation would actually make less sense if you thought the Jets were going to stop the Dolphins short of the end zone. Under those circumstances, the Jets still would have been down 14-7 and they would want to have as much time as possible to turn it around before halftime. They were also getting the ball to start the third quarter and the doubling opportunity is one that most coaches consider to be a bigger advantage than Glenn thought for his team.
This isn’t the first time Glenn’s clock and timeout management has come under scrutiny and one wonders how many more chances he’ll have to try to get it right before the Jets decide to change who makes those decisions.
Gn sports
