The long and short of this week's situation, Aaron Glenn said today, is that the Jets welcome their opportunity to come across the pond to dig out of their hole,
"I really love the idea of us getting away," the Jets head coach told reporters in his opening remarks in London as his team prepares to host the Denver Broncos at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. "Get the chance to get in this hotel and vibe together as a group, to be able to understand exactly the things we have to work on to improve where we are. And our guys are doing a really good job of that.
"But the thing we're not running from is the fact that we are 0-5 and there's a lot of work for us to get done, and this is a really good week to try to hone in on those things, because there's a lot of distraction on our side. But that's what the NFL is, and you can't run from that, I'm not running from that, either. We just have to work our [butt] off on a daily basis to get out of this hole."
The Jets' opponent will help sharpen that focus. The Broncos are coming off their strong come-from-behind 21-17 road win at Philadelphia and are NFL top-10 material almost across the board, especially on defense. Glenn knows the Orange Crush will be no cakewalk.
"I think they do a good job of coordinating how they want to play defense," he said. "They're very aggressive, they're sending five at you the majority of the time. Our O-line has their work cut out for them and they know that. Plus our receivers know they've got to get open and Justin Fields has got to be able to deliver the ball and throw it accurate because guys are going to be tight on them.
"Our scout team has to do a good job of making sure we give them that picture. Listen, we've got to go out there and outcompete these guys."
There is also an element of familiar friends and foes that adds to this matchup. Denver head coach Sean Payton worked with Glenn on Bill Parcells' Dallas staffs in 2003-05 and hired AG to be his New Orleans DBs coach from 2016-20.
"I owe a lot of my coaching development to Sean," Glenn said. "He's offensive-minded, really understands how to attack different defenses, and he's taught me a lot about being a coach. I love everything about who he is and what he's about. This will be a competitive battle between the both of us. But I also know with both coaching staffs there's some friends on each side, [Denver assistant HC] Zach Strief, for example. I've played with Zach, I know how he is as a coach.
"This'll be a good, competitive battle between the coaching staffs and we're looking forward to it."
Glenn will be relying on some of the tactics and strategies that he learned from his mentors to get the Jets rolling this week by applying game-like pressure during practice periods, which have taken on a little of a training camp feel to them.
"If you put guys in pressure situations and you make practice just like the game, I think a lot of the guys can feel that," he said. "We have a start-fast period where offensively you're trying to get a first down, defensively you're stopping them from getting a first down. To me, those are pressure situations where you can develop mental toughness, so we continue to do that. Every day in practice we have something that's really game-like that I want to put our guys in."
The offense, taking its early cues from the ground game, has at least been moving smartly out of the gate — the last three games the Jets have mounted opening drives of 10 plays, 51 yards and 6:09 at Tampa Bay, 12-82-7:51 at Miami and 12-66-7:17 vs. Dallas. However, the end results of field goal‒fumble‒field goal have not been optimal.
Glenn notes the missed tackles, pursuit angles and turnover-free play that have held back his defense. But the unit will gain the practice return of a key contributor in edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, who missed the past three games with an ankle injury. More on Johnson later today but Glenn said, "I'm looking forward to seeing how he operates today going into tomorrow."
The work in progress continues for the Jets, amid those sightseeing, fan-activity distractions of the week spent on the league's international stage. But Glenn seeks to tune out the noise and turn this trip — their fourth game in London since 2015 and their third at Tottenham in six years — into a productive business venture.
"Man, we're here to play a game," he said. "Our total focus is how do we go out there and beat the Broncos, and that's what we working on every day. and I think our guys are looking at it that way, too. I don't think — I know. Everything we do while we're here is focused on how do we beat the Broncos."
