As New York Jets fans know, an offense can only be as good as its line is.

For the first time in a while, the Jets’ line is a positive for the team. The young starters have continued the ascension they began in 2025, and Dylan Parham, the lone new starter, has been excellent.

However, the unit must be better at closing games.

Jets’ pass protection has burned the team late in games

The concern isn’t that the line has been an overall disaster so far. Snap-to-snap, the unit has held up pretty well, helping Geno Smith get off to a great start this season. Entering Sunday’s game, Pro Football Focus had them graded as the league’s best pass-blocking team, as our own Michael Nania elaborated on.

The issue is that their biggest mistakes have come at turning points.

Against the Green Bay Packers last week, the Jets won the overtime coin toss and chose to receive, trusting their offense to drive downfield and score. Regardless of whether or not Aaron Glenn made the right call, the offense had a chance to take control of the game.

However, Smith was sacked on each of the first two plays. The Jets lost 15 yards and were forced to punt, allowing Green Bay to drive down a short field and win on a field goal.

On Sunday against the Detroit Lions, the same problem showed up in multiple spots. While trailing 17-7 in the third quarter, the Jets’ offense drove to the Lions’ seven-yard line with a prime opportunity to score a touchdown. Back-to-back sacks, though, pushed them out of the red zone and forced them to settle for a 42-yard field goal.

The line does deserve credit for allowing Smith and the Jets’ offense to get in a rhythm throughout the middle of the fourth quarter and make the game competitive. Smith couldn’t have thrown for 321 yards and three touchdowns on an 83.3% completion rate if the OL had been atrocious on every play.

However, the pass protection deserves blame for how the game ended. With the Jets looking to tie things up (or win) at the end of regulation, they marched into Detroit territory before the Lions dialed up a blitz that left former Jets safety Chuck Clark with a wide-open lane to Smith. He ended up sacking Smith and stripping the ball out, which Detroit recovered, ending the drive and all comeback hopes.

Center Josh Myers told reporters following the game that the sack was the result of a “miscommunication.”

According to PFF, the Jets’ blockers were charged with 21 pressures and six sacks allowed against Detroit. Left tackle Olu Fashanu had a rough outing, getting charged with a team-high six pressures, three of those being sacks.

Despite playing just 22 pass-blocking snaps after replacing the injured Dylan Parham, Jordan Meredith was charged with five pressures and two sacks allowed. Myers was also credited with allowing four pressures and a sack.

Offensively, Sunday’s results were frustrating because of Smith’s excellent showing. The Jets had a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard tight end in Kenyon Sadiq, and a 100-yard receiver in Garrett Wilson, yet still lost the game.

It would be excessive to blame Sunday’s loss entirely on the offensive line, but a big takeaway from the past two games is that the unit needs to improve in crunch time. For two straight weeks, they have fallen apart in big moments.

Moving forward, that must change if the Jets want to emerge victorious in these close games.