Glenn wasn't just referring to penalties, although the Jets, who had cut way back the past three games in the yellow-flag area, got hit with seven flags for 62 yards, compared to New England's two for 20.
He also didn't get into turnovers, although the defense once again wasn't able to turn the opponents over once. And the Jets, while suffering just one giveaway, paid for it when Fields couldn't find the handle on C Josh Myers' low shotgun snap and the Patriots recovered at the Jets' 11 with 7:29 to play. The defense kept Drake Maye and his offense out of the end zone, but Andy Borregales' second field goal turned a two-score deficit at 24-14 into a two-TD hole at 27-14.
One thing that did catch the coach's eye was the Jets' pass defense — only one sack of Maye that counted, by Jermaine Johnson, and four QB hits, and coverage that allowed the Patriots signal-caller to complete his first 11 passes on the night and 25 of 34 overall for 281 yards, a TD, no personal giveaways, and a 107.6 passer rating.
"I really have to watch the tape to give you a true answer, but that did happen. And that bothers me," Glenn said of the Pats' often wide-open targets. "You can't let any quarterback have that wide-open receivers, especially him. That's not who we are. That's unacceptable."
And as for the pressure, AG said: "It was very obvious they were worried about Will [McDonald]. You see he got chipped a number of times, and when that happens, you've got to have other players step up. A number of times we should've had the quarterback corralled but we didn't get him on the ground."
The shame was that the Jets, with as many comings and goings from trades and injuries over the past two weeks as they endured, did at least give a few hints that beating the Patriots was not out of the question.
The magic of their opening drive — 14 plays, 72 yards and 8:04 off the first-quarter game clock, ended by Fields running a naked boot for 5 yards and the Jets' first game-opening TD drive in the rivalry's last 16 meetings — seemed real, then a mirage after four punt drives, three of them 3-and-outs.