It was the best of halves; it was the worst of halves. By the end, the Jets had yet another loss on their hands on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
The 23-10 loss marked yet another frustrating reminder of how close the Jets seem to be to competing against top-tier opponents, and yet how far they remain from relevancy. Up 7-3 at halftime and dictating much of the pace, New York couldn’t withstand a punishing third-quarter surge from Derrick Henry and the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.
The Jets fell to 2-9; Sunday’s loss clinched the franchise’s 10th straight losing season. They haven’t finished above .500 since 2015. They will undoubtedly miss the playoffs again, extending the NFL’s longest playoff drought to 15 consecutive years.
But at least head coach Aaron Glenn still loves his team.
“Tough loss today, I feel bad for the players, I just told them how much I loved them and how the effort they gave was outstanding,” Glenn said in the post-game press conference. “We come out of the half, I thought our guys played exactly how we wanted to. We knew in the second half, they were going to have a surge. And those guys did.”
New York came out energized, disciplined, and locked in on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor, replacing Justin Fields, played within the structure of the offense, taking calculated shots and working the short-to-intermediate game effectively.
A 79-yard scoring drive in the second quarter showcased that balance. Taylor connected with J. Metchie, who scored on a 13-yard touchdown with 4:04 remaining, giving the Jets a 7–0 lead and brief control of the game.
Defensively, New York was equally sharp. The Jets crowded the box, limited early chunk plays, and forced Baltimore into a conservative approach. The Ravens managed only a single field goal, a 31-yarder inside the final two minutes, as the Jets entered halftime ahead and statistically superior.
For a team that has battled inconsistency, turnovers, and short-field defensive situations this season, the opening half was exactly the formula they needed: long, controlled drives on offense and situational pressure on defense. It was the kind of performance that should’ve put them in a position to steal a road upset.
Then came the Jets’ biggest setback of the day: Halftime. Baltimore emerged from the locker room with an adjusted game plan, and the tone shifted significantly during the third quarter.
Derrick Henry took over the third quarter, hammering the Jets’ defense with a physical ground approach that the Ravens leaned on heavily coming out of the locker room. Henry scored two touchdowns from the 2-yard line, the first with 8:49 remaining and the second with 3:33 left in the frame.
Suddenly, the Jets’ halftime lead was gone, replaced by a 17-7 Ravens advantage and a stadium roaring back to life.
New York’s offense stalled during the same stretch. Drives that should have kept pace fizzled out with minimal yardage, pressure in the pocket, and poor field position. The Jets went from dictating tempo to reacting to it, and Baltimore, as they often do, sensed vulnerability and leaned in.
Nick Folk drilled a 42-yard field goal with 13:58 left to make it 17–10, but that was as close as New York would get. Baltimore responded with two grinding drives ending in field goals, extending the lead and sinking the Jets’ chances one possession at a time.
Meanwhile, the Ravens’ defense turned airtight. Taylor had to push the ball downfield more aggressively in the fourth quarter, and the efficiency that marked the first half disappeared. New York couldn’t find chunk plays, couldn’t establish Breece Hall late, and rarely crossed midfield with the game still within reach.
The Jets will host the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 30. Glenn is hoping they’ll figure out how to get back in the win column then.
“I believe in these guys, I believe in this team. I believe in the effort they give us, and that’s one thing that’s not gonna go away,” he said. “We just gotta coach better, we gotta play better, and next week, that’s our plan.”
