Jets Fall to 1-3 After 23-12 Loss to Bears, Aaron Glenn Calls Performance 'Very, Very Disappointing'

Since Aaron Glenn took over as Jets head coach in 2025 and finished 3-14, the team has gone 1-3 through four weeks of his second season. Sunday's 23-12 loss to the Chicago Bears was the worst of it.

The Jets' only win remains a Week 1 result over the winless Tennessee Titans. Since then, New York has lost three straight, this time by a margin the final score doesn't fully capture.

The numbers tell the story

Chicago ran 89 offensive plays. The Jets ran 32. According to ESPN's Benjamin Solak, cited by The Jet Press, that 57-play gap was only the fourth time since 1970 that an NFL game produced such a disparity, and the first time since 1999.

The Bears finished with 34 first downs, a franchise record according to Yahoo Sports, against seven for the Jets. Chicago piled up 492 total yards to New York's 157. Time of possession: 42 minutes 45 seconds for the Bears, 17:15 for the Jets.

Chicago's run game did most of the damage. The Bears carried the ball 54 times for 232 yards and two touchdowns, with Kyle Monangai alone gaining 146 yards, according to The Jet Press. Backup quarterback Tyson Bagent, making his first career start for an injured Bears offense, threw for a career-high 268 yards and was sacked just once.

Geno Smith, who threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions the week before against Detroit, completed just 8 of 15 passes for 119 yards against Chicago. Fifty-eight of those yards came on a single fourth-quarter touchdown to Isaiah Williams, according to Yahoo Sports. Garrett Wilson caught three passes for 27 yards.

Penalties wiped out three interceptions

The Jets' defense actually forced three interceptions in the game, by DT Quinnen Williams, CB Brandon Stephens, and rookie D'Angelo Ponds, but all three were negated by penalty flags, according to the Jets' own team website. The Jets were flagged 12 times for 76 yards overall.

Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, playing his first game back from a groin injury, did come down with an interception that counted, according to Sports Illustrated, ending a 20-game streak without a Jets interception.

"This was basically just not playing complementary football at its best," Glenn said after the game, according to the team's official site. "The penalties, which negated a couple of turnovers that we had, was tough. For your defense to have damn near 90 plays, I think the offense had 32 plays. Right there, it's tough to get something going in that situation."

Right guard Joe Tippmann described the frustration from the offense's side: "You're on the field, back off the field, defense is on there. Taking three reps and then waiting 25 minutes and then going back out there. That's not playing complementary football and the offense needs to do a better job."

The history question

Glenn's opposing head coach, Ben Johnson, was his offensive coordinator counterpart in Detroit before Chicago hired him in the 2025 coaching cycle, according to The Jet Press. Johnson's Bears improved to 3-1.

Glenn, for his part, pushed back on any suggestion his team is doomed by the franchise's recent history. The Jets have gone without a playoff berth for 15 years, according to the New York Post. "There are too many people who want to think about history," Glenn said. "Inside that locker room, I want my guys not to think about history, because it's going to be brought up so much from the outside, people beating us down with history. We just have to circle the wagons and not let any of that come inside our locker room."

A fair read of that statement: Glenn isn't denying the losing record, he's trying to keep a young roster from internalizing it. Whether that's possible with three straight losses on the board is an open question his team will answer on the field, not in a press conference.

Columnist Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News made a pointed comparison before Sunday's result. The Cleveland Browns sit at 3-1 with Deshaun Watson at quarterback, a contract many around the league considered close to unplayable a month ago. The Raiders, with 38-year-old Kirk Cousins, have already matched last year's win total. Lupica's point was that other rebuilding or supposedly-finished rosters are winning games the Jets are losing.

The Jets host those same Browns, now 3-1, next Sunday at MetLife Stadium. A fourth straight loss would be their longest skid since Glenn's rookie season as head coach, when the team finished 3-14.