Jets defense improved, but not all way. Lost to the Saints

Better game from the defense, but not the entire team

New Orleans, LA- The New York Jets headed down to the Big Easy as they faced the New Orleans Saints in a Week 16 matchup. While there were some encouraging moments from the defensive side of the ball, the Jets still couldn’t get into the end zone in this game, and they faced an improved Saints team that looks to have their future quarterback ready to go. The Saints defeated the Jets 29-6.

Chris Harris’ debut as Interim Defensive Coordinator

Steve Wilkes was fired by Aaron Glenn for the last two weeks of horrendous play-calling on the defensive side of the ball. Chris Harris was elevated in these final three games of the regular season to see what he can do to make this defense better. In the entire first half, you saw some big improvements. On the Saints’ first drive during the second snap, there was a forced fumble by Malachi Moore as Quantez Stiggers recovered the ball.

Jamien Sherwood had a much better game, making a sack, several strong tackles at the line of scrimmage, and a big fourth-and-one play when he leaped over the offensive line and grabbed the running back trying from behind, preventing him from earning a first down, then was helped by his teammate from the front seven.

Stiggers continued to shine as a corner in the NFL when he prevented a touchdown by the Saints’ Wide Receiver Chris Olave at the last moment inside the end zone, just pulled the ball out of his hands to not complete the catch, and did not bring the ball in as a possession to force a field goal. While we need to see what Harris can do against a better team, for now, there were some positives to this game.

Offense continues to trip itself up

While Brady Cook had a subpar game, it wasn’t all his fault. Penalties continued to plague the Jets when they made foolish decisions on a chop block that negated a sure first down. The offensive line couldn’t hold off the pass rush, and Cook was allowed to be sacked eight times, the majority of them in the second half.

John Simpson continued to get called for silly penalties that were mental errors, and he cost his team by failing to sustain drives all game, while the Saints’ defense did a good job of stopping the Jets themselves. When Cook had chances to get into the endzone, he either overthrew the ball or he gave interceptions right into the hands of the Saints’ defenders.

Special Teams was stifled

All game long, when the Saints kicked the ball off to the Jets, they always made sure to boom the ball all the way into the back of the endzone to prevent something special from happening. Many knew both Isaiah Williams and Kene Nwangwu were a dangerous pair, and these two never had a chance for a punt return, because the Saints kept getting field goals all game.

But one moment came for Arian Smith as the Wide Receiver was on a mission to give a big stick to the punt returner, and did so at the Saints’ seven yard line. As great as Special Teams has been all season long from Chris Banjo, you can’t make any magic happen if the opposition continues to stop you from getting chances to make something happen.

What’s left in this season

The Jets will now finish up their 2025 season with two games in the AFC East as they host the New England Patriots, then head over to Western New York to finish up at the Buffalo Bills. But for Aaron Glenn, this season hasn’t gone toward his plans. This game was won in the second half by the Saints, who exploded when the halftime session was over.

“There were three things that really stood out. Two, I will keep with this man, the player. But the one thing that I asked our players to do it was to play with effort. And I thought our guys did that. I thought they went with that. I thought they fought hard. They did everything they could to keep us in this game. Now, there are a couple of things that, from an overall perspective that we have to get better at.

The one thing is, they had too many plays on our side of the ball. So field position wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, and we, as a team and as a staff, want to be. Offensively, we had way too many penalties that actually put us behind the sticks. We would have a good play, put ourselves in a good position, and then we’ll have a penalty.

And that happened several times on third-down plays, on early downs. You can’t do that within this league and win games. And I think, at the end of the game, I think we’re trying to do too much. As players, I understand why, because they were trying to make plays, and then they made some plays at the end of the game, but I thought Chris did a really good job at calling this first game in a live game.

I thought the guys again played hard, and we knew what this team was. We knew at the beginning of the game, man, that was our chance to really try to get up on this team. We knew in the second half, if you look at the numbers, that’s who they were, a team that really exploded in the second half. And they did exactly what we all knew they would do.

And we have to do a better job of understanding that and playing to that. And that’s my job to continue to help these guys be able to understand that. Listen, we have two more games left, and I want to continue to play with the effort as we did. It sucks that you lose a game. It does. Regardless of the situation, it sucks.

To get back to work next week, continue to play with effort, and continue to find ways to help put our guys in positions to be successful. I know you guys hear that a lot, but that’s really the one thing that we all have to do as a staff to be able to do that. Again, we’re going to flush this one. I clearly know exactly what happened in this game,” said Head Coach Aaron Glenn

New York Jets News:

• Jets fired Defensive Coordinator Steve Wilkes
• Jets Poor Defense helps Jaguars Demolish them
• Jets Defense Grounded by the Dolphins Early and Often

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