As he walked toward the locker room at halftime on Sunday with his team trailing by 10-3 as the offense struggled to sustain drives, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn believed he had no alternative. He replaced starting QB Justin Fields with veteran backup Tyrod Taylor.

"It's always a tough situation," Glenn said after the Jets' 13-6 loss to the Carolina Panthers at MetLife Stadium. "It's always a tough decision. But as the head coach, you have to take a look at the team and see what is best for you, put yourself in position to go win the game.

"And that's the only thing that was going through my mind when I was walking in, and I told the offensive staff, then I went and I told Justin and Tyrod exactly what I was going to do and made the decision."

Against a strong Panthers' defensive rush, which logged 6 sacks in the game, Fields was 6-of-12 passing in the first half for 46 yards. He was sacked 3 times in the first 30 minutes. As the Green & White's passing game, minus their top receiver in Garrett Wilson, struggled, Carolina went all-in on getting to the quarterback. The ground game, led by Breece Hall's 35 first-half yards, gained 72 yards in the opening half.

"We got to improve," Glenn said. "We have to improve in this situation, you know? Because now you see what they're doing against the run. They load in the box against the run. Sometimes they put nine people in the box. So in order to loosen guys up, you have to have ... you have to be efficient to some degree in the passing game. And that hasn't shown up in the last two games. And that's something I have to take a look at that. And I'm putting a lot of the fault on me. As the head coach of this team, I have to make sure that we do whatever we have to do to get our passing game going."

Taylor entered the game with 10:36 left in the third quarter after the Panthers (4-3) took the second-half kickoff and drove 38 yards in 10 plays before Ryan Fitzgerald converted a 29-yard field-goal attempt for a 13-3 lead. Late in the quarter, Hall took a snap in the shotgun, got the ball to WR Arian Smith who pitched it back to Taylor. His long pass down the home sideline intended for WR Allen Lazard was batted away by LB Trevin Wallace.

On the next play, Taylor's pass into the end zone intended for Josh Reynolds was picked off by CB Jaycee Horn.

For the second week in a row, the Jets' defense held the opposition to 13 points. Carolina converted only 5-of-17 third downs and RB Rico Dowdle, who had rushed for 398 yards over the last two games, was limited to 79 yards on 17 carries.

In the game, Taylor completed 10-of-22 passes for 126 yards and 2 INT. The Jets travel to Cincinnati next week and Glenn was asked to look ahead, after the Jets' seventh loss of the season, at who the starting QB would be.

"I'll make the call," he said. "But there's a lot of conversation I got to have with myself to see what can I do to make sure that we give us a chance to win. And then, obviously, I'm going to talk to the offensive staff and see what their thoughts are also, but we'll make the right decision, whatever decision is, and I'm going go with it, then we're going to move forward."