With the Jets and Patriots, there is never a loss for storylines. And one of the biggest for Thursday night's first matchup of the season between the two AFC East rivals are the head coaches and their programs.
Aaron Glenn, as Jets fans know, is a first-year NFL head coach. And while his team has won two in a row and is getting a little confidence going, the Green & White will be going up against the Patriots, whose coach, Mike Vrabel, is not a rookie but is in his first year at the helm in Foxboro. And with seven consecutive wins and sitting in first place in the division, Vrabel seems to have his team back on the beam.
Are the Jets cautious or cowed heading into this matchup in front of the boisterous red-white-and-blue-clad fans at Gillette Stadium? Hardly. Glenn's Jets are respectfully ready to rumble.
"This going to be a fight, this is going to be a fight ... but we welcome the fight, we look forward to it," Glenn said before Tuesday's practice at 1 Jets Drive. "It's a Thursday night game, and a lot of factors go into this game that I'll keep between us and the players for us to operate the way we need to. But we're looking forward to this one."
Glenn has praise for Vrabel's program, not surprising because, even though the former linebacker has been a head coach longer, taking on the Tennessee Titans in 2018-23, the former cornerback Glenn and Vrabel have followed similar contemporaneous paths toward their positions.
"I know him," Glenn said. "He was always tough, physical, hard-nosed. We're basically from the same tree when you look at the coaches he's been with and I've been with. It's not surprising.
"When you watch the tape, you can tell how Vrabel has his fingerprints on how this team operates. ... Everybody's different, but obviously they're doing a good job of what they're doing."
But as AG quickly reminds, "We have our own blueprint of what we're trying to build here." He said the two wins sandwiched around the bye week have changed some of the furniture but not the basic foundation of the structure he and his players, coaches and organization are building.
"The confidence is up, but the feelings aren't changed," he said. "There's so much noise on the outside, shooting arrows at these guys. They really don't care. They just take it week by week. We just want to work every week to get better."
The Jets, despite up-and-down performances on both sides of the ball, despite health curveballs such as WR Garrett Wilson's knee injury, rookie CB starter Azareye'h Thomas going into the concussion protocol this week, and the loss of S Andre Cisco, haven't wavered.
They've hooked their wagon to some exciting individual performances of RB Breece Hall, who the past two games has produced 272 scrimmage yards and four fourth-quarter touchdowns (two by run, one by pass and one by screen-pass catch-and-run), and Will McDonald IV, who against the Browns erupted for four sacks, all on third or fourth down, tied for the most crunch-down sacks in a game in the past 16 NFL seasons. They and the rest of their old and new teammates on offense and defense have come together and assembled some winning performances.
The Cincinnati game was a stirring fourth-quarter comeback. The win over Cleveland was a case of the Jets taking control in the fourth quarter and not giving it back.
Players have talked this week about liking how their team has finished strong recently — the Jets' 97 fourth-quarter points are second-most in the NFL and their plus-44 point margin in that final frame is third — but would like to see faster starts. Glenn can't argue with that, but he said that besides those football considerations, there is a mindset that is important to keep on instilling.
"Listen, when adversity hits, how do you maneuver through all that and continue that belief that you have?" Glenn said. "You don't go away from those beliefs. And those guys have done a hell of a job. Everything we've talked about from OTAs, training camp, that messaging has not stopped."
Wouldn't the messaging go viral if the Jets parlayed their two straight wins into a three-game hot streak that would include a victory over their division frenemies? Well, sure, but that's not how AG is approaching it.
"I don't care if it's three games, one game — we just want to win," Glenn said. "The more you win, the more confidence you get as players, as a team. That's the only thing we care about."
