Even with a little late miracle, the Jets fall to the Buccaneers at Tampa Bay

Poor play again after a solid start to the game, with a little miracle that didn’t last.

Tampa, FL- The Jets made their first road trip of the 2025 season, heading down to the Tampa/St. Pete area to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. What looked like a solid start to the game later on went into implosion as the Jets continued their poor play and barely stopped the Buccaneers from reaching the scoreboard. Even with a miracle play from special teams, the Jets went 0-3.

Aaron Glenn’s playcalling is questionable

In his first three games, Aaron Glenn’s play-calling has been atrocious. The fourth and one call that was stopped by the Buccaneers, when you hand the ball off to Braelon Allen, got stopped two yards behind the line of scrimmage. That play should have been a quarterback keeper and a tush push since Glenn said he was in favor of it.

His decision-making on penalty flags, either to accept or decline, is also in question. Just like the flag he accepted against the Steelers and went for the 2 Pt Conversion early after a missed extra point, he couldn’t convert on the conversion. Now, against the Buccaneers, he had three consecutive holding penalties on Tampa Bay, instead of declining on two of the three to force a punt, Glenn continued to accept until the Buccaneers got a pass interference call in favor of them for a first down.

While I applaud Glenn’s aggressiveness, he needs to understand when he has a lead and when the plays are incomplete with a major penalty on the opposition’s offense that has more than ten to twenty yards away from the line of scrimmage, decline the penalty on third down, and force them to punt the ball to you.

Defense is still leaking

Every time the Jets put their defense on the field, they continue to leak chunk yards to their opposition, even if their offensive line is patchwork, or you allow Baker Mayfield to run roughshod all over the field. Baker Mayfield completed 19 out of 290 attempts for 233 yards and threw one touchdown, while running with the ball four times for 44 yards, and his longest was 33 in the final position that led to the game-winning field goal.

Abandoning the Run

After being down by seven points, the Jets once again abandoned the running game and went on the passing attack. They continued to fail making positive plays, and they paid for it by getting intercepted by Jamel Dean for a 55yd Pick 6 down the near sideline. That made the halftime score 20-6. Not using Breece Hall, Braelon Allen, or Isaiah Davis in important situations to balance the attack falls apart.

Getting back into the game

The Jets found a way to climb back into the game when Tyrod Taylor threw two touchdown passes to make it a one-score deficit. Garrett Wilson converted his second touchdown of the season for 11yards, and Allen Lazard caught his first of the season in the back of the endzone for a four-yard grab. The Jets’ defense found a way to force a field goal attempt by the Bucs to make it a two-score lead with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“We talked about being aggressive in this game,” Taylor said. “Obviously, first half started off pretty good with two scoring drives, but kind of stalled towards the second quarter. We talked at halftime about sticking true to our game plan. Which is still getting back to the aggressiveness. … That’s what we got to in the second half.

“Obviously, turnovers hurt you in this league. But we were able to bounce back from it. I’ll learn from it, and we’ll be better from it moving forward.”

McDonald’s leap and return

Chase McLaughlin was attempting to make a 43 yard field goal to make it a nine-point lead. When the ball was snapped, Will McDonald leapt over the players at the line of scrimmage, blocked the ball, ran toward it, and scooped it up for a 50 yard touchdown return. With the extra point converted by Nick Folk, the Jets had a one-point lead, 27-26.

Can’t stop the Bucs again

Once again, the Jets’ defense was tasked with stopping the Buccaneers from going down the field. Once again, the defense failed to do its job. Baker Mayfield ran down the near sideline for 33 yards, a big catch from Emeka Egbuka for a first down, more running plays from Bucky Irving, that set up the game-winning field goal from Chase Laughlin for 36 yards.

“Man, these guys — they fought their asses off,” HC Aaron Glenn said. “Love every one of those guys for how they came out in the second half. … Today showed me a lot about who we were as a team and who we’re going to be as well. A number of things we have to correct. And I’m going to say this again — there’s no such thing as moral victories when it comes to us.”

If the Jets did hold off the Buccaneers in their final possession, there would be some relief that they got the victory. But overall, this was a poor game from start to finish. The Jets need to fix their defensive issues and in a hurry if they want to give Aaron Glenn and themselves their first win of the season, and somehow start a winning streak. Right now, it’s not even close.

The Jets will get ready for Monday Night Football as they return to the state of Florida to take on the Miami Dolphins on Monday, September 29th at 7:15 PM Eastern on ESPN.

New York Jets News:

• New York Jets getting ready for Week 3 Road Trip to Tampa Bay
• Justin Fields Ruled Out with Concussion for Road Trip to Tampa Bay
• Concussed Jets Fall to Rival Buffalo

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