Business as usual unfolded for the bulk of the New York Jets’ Week 3 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Save for a couple of early script-featured offensive drives that opened eyes towards the optimistic side of Tanner Engstrand’s play-calling and strategic development, Aaron Glenn’s squad found themselves on the familiar end of the scoreboard.
Losing quite soundly.
Tampa Bay’s 23-6 lead after three quarters of play had Jets fans stuck in a perpetual state of apathetic frustration. Yes, you read that correctly: apathetic frustration, as contradictory as that may be.
Apathy, attributed to the fact that watching such lousy football leads any individual to check out to at least some level, and frustration, attributed to the myriad emotional fits thrown in the direction of the screen or field (for those attending the game).
What was familiar in the seven quarters leading up to Week 3’s fourth quarter was shockingly sidekicked to the curb.
After the defense forced its fourth three-and-out of the day, Tyrod Taylor assumed control of the football with 14:06 remaining in regulation. He then took his offense on a 10-play, 80-yard drive in just 3:54 of game play, resulting in an 11-yard Garrett Wilson touchdown.
After a Bucs field goal, Taylor and the offense did it again, marching 73 yards on 11 plays in just 2:33. A clutch fourth-down Allen Lazard touchdown haul cut the lead to just six points.
Steve Wilks’s defense could not do its job on the ensuing Tampa Bay drive. Baker Mayfield’s backbreaking scamper down the right sideline put his team in position to make it a two-score contest.
All the Bucs needed was a chippy, a short-distance field goal to extend the lead to an unreachable nine points.
Interestingly enough, something strange happened—something almost supernatural. A unique spectacle of sorts unveiled its mythical presence on the road, with a good chunk of Jets fans eating up the corner of one of Raymond James Stadium’s end zones.
Will McDonald found a phone booth, quickly hopped in and out, and did the unthinkable. Leapfrogging the long snapper, McDonald’s field goal block, scoop, and score put the Jets on top by a point (courtesy of Nick Folk’s extra point).
No longer were Jets fans tired.
After the game, Glenn lauded his team’s persistence, highlighting the “no-quit” attitude he witnessed from the sideline.
“Man, these guys (Jets) fought their asses off,” Glenn told the media after Week 3’s game. “[I] love every one of those guys for how they came out in the second half. We didn’t do anything different when it comes to mentality.
“Today showed me a lot about who we [are] as a team, and who we’re going to be.”
No matter how disappointing the outcome was, there’s no arguing the Jets’ lack of quit, which could be labeled as somewhat strange. (This is especially the case when comparing the effort to the 2024 squad.)
Come to think of it, several strange occurrences occurred on this day.
Engstrand’s offensive game plan smelled entirely of uniqueness. On the heels of one of the worst game plans in football history—against a Buffalo Bills coaching staff that was 100 steps ahead, every time—Engstrand allowed his backup quarterback to work in the three-step passing game.
It’s precisely the strategy that works against the mad-blitzing bomber himself, Todd Bowles. Although Taylor took several monstrous hits, he also unloaded the ball quickly enough and with the correct type of courage. (The fact that New York could only muster field goals on each of the first two drives reeks of “same old, same old,” however.)
Nonetheless, the opposition found itself banged up at just the wrong time. Mike Evans came up hobbled on an in-breaker early in the fourth quarter, and defensive captain Lavonte David also left the game early with an injury. (Granted, the Jets also endured injuries, as Sauce Gardner missed some time with a head issue, and Quincy Williams exited with a shoulder. But hey, at least the Band-Aid game somewhat evened out, which is an objective rarity around these parts.)
Strange, indeed.
Included in this pot was the action of Tampa’s coaching staff prior to the McDonald block. Instead of calling a timeout, after playing the “catch them offside” game, Bowles decided to take the delay of game penalty, pushing Chase McLaughlin’s attempt five yards further.
Oh yeah, let’s also not forget the fact that Tampa was penalized 14 times for 124 yards. Led by a critically banged-up offensive line, the Bucs were flagged for twice as many penalties as the Jets (7 for 81 yards).
How much stranger could it get? (Don’t answer that question because I know the answers are limitless.)
Either way, the Jets’ defense could not make a play when needed. Mayfield calmly dismantled Wilks’s defense while leading a game-winning drive with under two minutes remaining.
Seven plays, 48 yards, and 1:49 of game clock to set up the McLaughlin game-winner with no time remaining on the scoreboard.
“[There are] a number of things we have to correct,” Glenn proclaimed after the Jets’ 29-27 defeat. “I’m going to say this again: There’s no such thing as moral victories when it comes to us, [but] we’re not the same team. We’re not the same team at all.”
Aside from about 30 minutes of positives and 5-10 minutes of superhero-type exhilaration, Jets fans find themselves in the tired state they simply cannot escape. No matter the superstitious ritual, the mind games one plays with oneself, or the disciplined way a chunk of them at least attempt to keep expectations at bay, the result places them in the same spot of the football world where nobody wants to dwell.
They’re brutally tired. They’re so tired of being tired that it’s tiresome to even think about keeping both eyelids open.
Jets fans no longer want to feel like losers. Jets fans no longer want to feel anger. Worst of all, no longer do Jets fans want to feel like suckers—as if they were once again sold a bill of goods about how and why this time, it’s different.
But hey, at least, on this day, one man turned into a superhero to jolt them to life for a brief moment in time. Then again, it would be the equivalent of The Undertaker rising from a prone position for just 10 seconds, only to ultimately be thrown into the casket—before the lights are shut off.
For Aaron Glenn’s New York Jets and their tired fans, the lights will flip back on next Monday night when they take on the also-0-3 AFC East rival Miami Dolphins in primetime.
Until then, Jets fans, make sure to drink your coffee.
