Two brutal stats prove Jets are sinking to historic depths under Aaron Glenn

Monday night felt all too familiar for New York Jets fans. There’s nothing new about the Jets humiliating themselves in front of a national audience. Just take a look back at the "butt fumble" game, “seeing ghosts,” or opening night last year.

So far, this team is far from a departure from the norm. Instead, they are slotting in seamlessly with the rest of the sad sack Jets teams over the last five-plus decades. But believe it or not, they may be topping themselves.

You can’t win football games with an endless flood of penalties, and you likely won’t do much of anything defensively if you never take the ball away. Miraculously, the Jets are taking both those shortcomings to new heights.

It just keeps getting worse for Aaron Glenn and the Jets

25 years is a pretty long time. And 90 years is even longer. But according to a tweet from Rich Cimini, the Jets somehow did something they’ve only done one other time in 25 years, and also something that no one has done in 90 years (hint: neither are positive things to do).

The penalties were absolutely mind-numbing. I felt like I was having a seizure with all the repeated yellow popping up on my screen. It felt like a lot. The reason it felt like a lot is because it was.

The Jets have been bad for quite some time. I would imagine they’ve had plenty of highly penalized games. For this offense to match their two-plus-decade lead in that category is what I would call abysmal.

What’s worse is the 0-4 takeaway statistic. Having no takeaways after four games is obviously bad. Being 0-4 after four games is also obviously bad.

But being 0-4 while also not generating a single takeaway feels like they aren’t even trying. They’re deep inside a hole and aren’t attempting to dig their way out. They’re just letting offenses do what they want.

The fact that they didn't register a hit on Tua Tagovailoa on Monday night is unforgivable. The fact that they seem to have forgotten how to return kicks without fumbling is even worse.

But having a defense led by a defensive head coach that generates zero takeaways, and having an offense that essentially prints penalties before they even snap the ball, are the real back-breakers. They cannot win like that. It isn't possible.

You can dissect the Pro Football Focus grades if you’d like. The advanced metrics will all tell you how bad they’ve been on every side of the football. No one is without blame.

But even if individual units and players pick up their games and numbers, the team still can’t do anything if mental lapses continue to run rampant.

Even if Justin Fields develops comfort in the pocket and starts getting the ball out on time, even if Sauce Gardner starts covering like Sauce Gardner again, and even if the pass rush picks up drastically, none of it will matter if the margins aren’t taken care of.

It was supposed to be different. We knew they weren’t the Bills, the Eagles, or the Chiefs. They have talent gaps all over. But it was supposed to be an organized ship. It was supposed to be mediocre but prideful. This is not that. The play under the Aaron Glenn regime has been disastrous.

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