Aaron Glenn backtracks after questioning Jets’ effort: ‘Did not quit’

A day after questioning his team’s effort, Jets coach Aaron Glenn backtracked a bit.

Glenn said he was not happy with the Jets’ effort after their 42-10 loss to the Patriots on Sunday. But Monday morning, he changed his tune.

“Our guys did not quit,” Glenn said.

Glenn perhaps realized that calling out his players would not go over well or reflect well on him.

“And getting a chance to look at it last night, and look at it again this morning, I will say this, effort was not the issue with that game,” Glenn said. “I thought our guys played all the way to the very end. What really showed up is they did some things schematically I thought that was challenging offensively and defensively that we really have to take a look at and try to hone in on and fix those things.”

The Patriots destroyed the Jets, scoring on their first six possessions. It was the Jets’ fourth straight loss of at least 23 points. They have the worst point differential in a December in NFL history, according to ESPN.

Jets head coach Aaron Glenn looks on during the second quarter of the Jets and New England Patriots game in East Rutherford, NJ. Bill Kostroun/New York Post

Glenn is 3-13 in his first season as Jets coach. There is no indication that the Jets are considering a change, but this has gotten terribly ugly for him. Part of the issue is the Jets have a number of players on the field who don’t belong there right now either because of injury or tanking.

“I would say that some of their players just made plays, and I said this yesterday, man, this is a playmakers league,” Glenn said. “Between the quarterback, the receivers, some of their defensive backs and their D-linemen, those guys made the plays that should have been made, and we didn’t. So again, it was not total effort.”

Glenn seemed to irk the Patriots when he called two timeouts in the final two minutes of the first half despite trailing 28-3. The Patriots wound up scoring another touchdown and then Patriots coach Mike Vrabel used a timeout to force the Jets to run one last play in the half. Glenn said he was trying to get his offense another possession.

“At that point and absolutely man I’m trying to give our offense another chance because I know we’re getting the ball back coming out of halftime,” Glenn said. “If we can go and score right and get to 10 points then come back after halftime and score again 17 points, man it’s 28-17. We’re back into this game. That’s the only thing that I’m thinking about as a coach is how do I give our guys a chance to get back into this game.”