Aaron Glenn wasn't going to sugarcoat the game that unfolded for his Jets at Jacksonville on Sunday. He made that clear by some key phrases he repeated in his postgame news conference following the Jaguars' 48-20 victory.

"Very disappointing. Very disappointing," Glenn said. "This is tough. This is tough."

Glenn stressed that it wasn't all on one player or coach. It wasn't just on rookie free agent QB Brady Cook not being able to rally the offense in his first pro start. It wasn't merely on the pass rush getting no sacks and two hits on QB Trevor Lawrence in his personal-best six-touchdown performance (five passing, one rushing), It wasn't only on LB Quincy Williams in pass coverage against RB Travis Etienne (three TD receptions) or Qwan'tez Stiggers stepping in for his third pro start at CB after Azareye'h Thomas was placed on IR the day before.

The first-year head coach saw the bigger picture and it was, well, disappointing and tough.

"Yeah, it has been," AG agreed with a question about whether the losses to Miami and Jacksonville were a step back for what the Jets are trying to build, "because you don't give up that many points and lose by that margin and say that it's not. I'm not going to BS you guys or anybody else. But we have to make sure we can fix that. I'm evaluating everything — schematics, Xs and Os, players, the character of this team. We have got to figure some things out."

And he didn't leave himself or his staff out of the evaluation equation. He was asked if — after the Jets yielded 330 passing yards to Lawrence, 24 first downs and 438 yards in all at 7.4 yards/play, and gave up all 48 points on 8 of the home side's first 9 drives — he would assume defensive playcalling duties for the rest of the season.

"I know that question's going to be asked," Glenn said. "I asked [coordinator Steve] Wilks in for a reason. I want him to run his system. We have three games left for our guys to go out there and play. Right now it's not about Xs and Os, it's about the character of the men on our team. That's what I'm looking at. A lot of guys gave it up on that field and I'm proud of those guys for that. I want to make sure I look at the tape and see if everybody did that. And also look at the coaches and look at myself."

MLB Jamien Sherwood quietly agreed with his head coach's observations.

"We have to execute ever play," Sherwood said. "We can't be good two plays, then one play we're off. We have to be consistent and sustain that for four quarters."

Sunday's game opened similarly to the home game the week before, right down to the 21-7 score for the Dolphins at the end of the first quarter and for the Jaguars in the first minute of the second period. But the Jets did have a small window of opportunity when Isaiah Williams struck for his third punt-return touchdown in five games ... except it didn't count because a Jets player, either Isaiah Davis or practice-squad elevation Tre Brown, was called for blocking while out of bounds on the return.

Instead of a 21-14 deficit midway through the second quarter, the Jets settled for the first of two Nick Folk field goals and a 21-10 hole that only got bigger from there.

Glenn as always spoke encouragingly of the Green & White's highlight moments. Cook, starting due to the injuries to Tyrod Taylor and Justin Fields, threw his first pro TD with an end zone strike to Adonai Mitchell, and while he completed two-thirds of his passes (22-of-33 for 176 yards), he wound up with three INTs, the last two on the Jets' last two series of the day.

But the HC said he thought Cook "did some good things trying to get us back as close as he could in that situation." He also said: "I thought our special teams showed up."

Defensively, he wouldn't alibi the injuries pressing new players into frontline roles and returned to the subject of character that he did see from the sideline. But he wanted to view the video back at 1 Jets Drive just the same.

"We had a number of guys who really gave it to us this game," he said. "I could see that, how they played the game. But we have to get better. ... We can't lose games like that. It's unacceptable."

Those final three games won't be easy. New Orleans went into Sunday's home game against Carolina with a 3-10 record, true, but had won two of their last four, with the loss at Miami on Nov. 30 by four points and the win at Tampa Bay by four points. Then comes the final home game of the season against New England, followed by the season finale at Buffalo.

"We have to come back Monday and look at it," Glenn said of Sunday's loss. "We've got to eat it and we've got to move on. It's not just about Xs and Os, it's about the character of this team, which player is going to lay it on the line which coach is going to lay it on the line for the players, how am I going to lay it on the line and get us all moving in the right direction."

"The previous two weeks weren't up to par, obviously not the standard we've set for ourselves," Sherwood said of what he wants to take from his team the final three weeks of the season. "I want to see the guys fight and finish and have pride about playing for the New York Jets."