Make no mistake about it, the Jets' 27-21 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday night was bad.
Filled with penalties and turnovers and missed opportunities, New York wasted what looked like a promising opening drive with a fumble inside the 5-yard line which immediately changed the course of the game.
And despite a new regime and some new players, it still feels like the same old Jets.
"Very disappointing. Very disappointing," said head coach Aaron Glenn. "And there’s no way we can win any game with 13 penalties and three turnovers. It just can’t happen. But what we have to do is go back to work. That’s the only way we can fix it."
While Glenn's optimism for a new week is refreshing, it doesn't change the fact that New York is 0-4 and in danger of letting yet another season spiral out of control before it even gets going.
After all, after three losses (two of them close) to begin the season against some stiff competition, the Jets entered Monday's matchup with a chance to take advantage of a similarly struggling Dolphins team who was also winless.
Instead, the same demons that have haunted New York in Miami for the last few seasons reared their ugly head.
"I think tonight we shot ourselves in the foot a lot," said quarterback Justin Fields who also lost a fumble.
According to Fields, who played fine in his return from concussion protocol, the team isn't losing faith even after an 0-4 start. The way he sees it, the Jets have lost three one-score games and are close to turning the corner.
Still, he (and the rest of his teammates) would like to see results as opposed to clinging onto moral victories.
"We’re very close, but it comes to a point to where you want to get over that hump and that’s gonna happen very soon," Fields said.
Cornerback Sauce Gardner called the Jets' start to the season "extremely shocking," saying, "I want to win. Period, point blank."
"We all gotta take a hard look at ourselves," he continued.
Gardner also brought up an interesting point in terms of penalties called on him. While it doesn't excuse all 13 penalties on the night (most of them pre-snap penalties), the cornerback believes he and the Jets are getting called for more penalties than other teams around the league.
"I don’t know if this is wrong to say but I think I get called for more stuff just based off of us not winning," he said. "I watch these winning programs and there will be some egregious things and it don’t get called.
"I feel like we don’t get the calls that we should get, and we get called for the calls that we probably shouldn’t get called for."
For what it's worth, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, who was called for offensive pass interference in the first half, seemed to think similarly as Gardner, saying refs don't call offensive pass interference on the play he was called on.
"I'll make sure I don't do it again and leave no doubt," he said.
After whiffing on their chance to secure their first win against their division rival, the Jets will now head into Week 5 by hosting the Dallas Cowboys in a game that Wilson called a must-win.
"What do you want your legacy to be in this league," he said. "We gotta go now, we have no time, have to have it. I'll make sure to relay that to the team."
As for Glenn, it's back to the drawing board as he continues to navigate his first season as the head coach in New York.
It's a position that has seen many people come and go over the last few seasons, but he's determined to buck the trend.
"I’m not losing hope on our guys at all. We just gotta go back to work," he said. "… My confidence is not gonna wane one bit."
