BALTIMORE — The Jets made it a full decade of despair Sunday.
Gang Green lost 23-10 to the Ravens to drop to 2-9 this season. That secures a losing season for the Jets, the 10th straight year the Jets have had a losing season.
With six games left, it’s time to cling to silver linings and hope for the future, something that has become a Jets tradition.
“We don’t want to be 2-9,” first-year Jets coach Aaron Glenn said, “but I do understand this. There are some underlying things that we’re doing, some foundational things that we’re doing that I’m excited about. We just have to make sure now the record catches up to the things we’re building.”
The Jets did some good things in this game, but ill-timed penalties, a killer fumble and a questionable coaching decision doomed them against the more talented Ravens.
The game was sealed with 6:51 remaining when Breece Hall fumbled at the Ravens 2-yard line. Instead of scoring a touchdown to cut into a 20-10 Ravens lead, the Jets gave Baltimore the ball back and the chance to run the clock down. Hall had a big day with 119 total yards and a huge 40-yard catch, but the fumble overshadowed everything else.
“It stung. You never want to fumble,” Hall said.
Glenn put his arm around Hall as he walked off the field after the fumble and backed his player after the game.
“He’s my guy,” Glenn said. “And you know what? S–t happens. You don’t want it to happen, but it did. The one thing I didn’t want him to do was hold his head down. I know exactly how he felt in that situation. I don’t want that player to ever get down on himself. We’re behind him.”
The Jets actually led 7-3 at halftime after bottling up Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense in the first half. Then, they gave up a touchdown on the Ravens’ first drive of the second half, and Glenn decided to go for it on fourth down in his own territory. Quickly, the Jets’ four-point lead turned into a 10-point deficit.
For the second straight week, the Jets played hard but did enough to lose against a better team.
“We’ve just got to find a way to win these games. We’re right there,” tight end Jeremy Ruckert said. “We had a couple of drives in the first half that I wish we could have had back and put more points on the board. We’re going to be in all these games. We’re just going to keep grinding.”
Tyrod Taylor orchestrated some positive drives for the Jets as the new starting quarterback, but ultimately only got the Jets into the end zone once.
This is the worst 11-game start for the Jets since 2020, when they started the year 0-11. The Ravens improved to 6-5 after winning their fifth straight game to keep their hopes of winning the AFC North alive.
On the first drive of the third quarter, the Ravens still looked stagnant, but the Jets gave them life with a penalty. Jets safety Isaiah Oliver was flagged for pass interference on what would have been an incompletion on third down by Jackson. Oliver was all over tight end Mark Andrews and gave the Ravens a new set of downs.
The penalty sparked Baltimore, and Derrick Henry scored a 2-yard touchdown to put the Ravens up 10-7.
Glenn then made a curious decision on the Jets’ first drive of the second half. He decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Jets 42-yard line. Taylor’s pass to John Metchie III fell incomplete, and the Jets handed the Ravens good field position.
“I want to be aggressive,” Glenn said. “We didn’t make it. That’s just what it was. I trust our guys to go make those. That was a situation where I wanted our guys to not blink and get ready to go and we didn’t make it.”
It looked like the Jets might get away with just allowing a field goal, but the secondary had another killer penalty.
Jackson had an incompletion intended for Zay Flowers on third-and-7 from the Jets 20, but Tony Adams was called for pass interference at the goal line, giving the Ravens a new set of downs. It was the third penalty on third down committed by the Jets in the game. Four plays later, Henry scored a 2-yard touchdown to put the Ravens up 17-7.
The Ravens had a 20-10 lead, but it looked like the Jets were about to reach the end zone when Hall fumbled.
Loop added a 27-yard field goal in the final minute of the game to make it a 23-10 final score.
The Jets have six weeks left with nothing to play for except pride and signs of improvement. It’s been a decade of dismal football, and 2025 is another lost season.
