Has Frank Reich Done A Good Job with the Jets Offense After Another loss? | Gang's All Here

Hello and welcome to Gangs All Here. My name is Ryan Sampson. That's Brian Costello, our Jets beat writer. Today is Monday, October 19th. Cause, the Jets fall to 2-4 after losing to the New England Patriots on Sunday, 26-19. And we're here to break it down a lot of things from yesterday's game and some comments from Aaron Glenn today. But before we get to any of that, as always, how are you doing today, sir? I'm good, Ryan. Good. Good to be home after a nice long ride from Foxborough last night. Yeah, look, and the weather finally wasn't horrible on a Sunday, which is nice that you don't have to watch a game in the rain. Kaz, look, there's a lot to talk about for yesterday's game, but I think we have to start with your question, Aaron Glenn, about Frank Reich's job as offensive coordinator and his response on how he thinks Reich has done. How would you assess the job Frank has done through six games? Say it again? How would you assess the job Frank Reich has done through six games? I think he's done a good job. I really do. Obviously, there's a number of things that we can improve on, and I think I just told you guys that from short yards to two minutes. But that also goes on me also when it comes to the defense side, me and Duker, on some things that we have to get better at too. Obviously, we've got to improve on some things, and that's what this season is. That's what practice is. And, I mean, after six games, it's hard to just say, okay, we're this. We have to see how this thing plays out. But I would say I think he's done a good job. Obviously, Geno has done some good things, and you've got to give a lot of credit to Frank Musgrave, Merck and those guys, and plus Geno himself. So as we continue to go through this season, I continue to see us progress and get better on the things we've got to get better at. But to answer your question, I think he's done a good job. So, Kaz, he says he's done a pretty good job. What do you make of that? Look, as the person who asked the question, I understand the coach can't really give you a full answer on that, right? He's going to defend this guy. That's what he has to do. I asked a similar question last year about Steve Wilkes the week before he was fired, and he backed him, right? So you're going to back the coach publicly, so I understand that. I think it's more, from my perspective, just letting the coach answer the question, right? I think it's something fans are talking about. Frank Reich, it's something I might be writing about I want to give him a chance to answer the question but look this is not a well-coached team Ryan and you know I think the we talked about this a little bit last week the brown the beating the brown sort of was a deodorant for a lot of things and people didn't really want to look at it like if you really looked at that game the Jets should have lost 12 to 10 the punter the ball goes over the punter's head the Jets get the ball to 23 yes they scored a touchdown kudos to them they won the game they found a way to win which you have to do in the NFL but if you're really looking at that game the offense was not good and I know people say I was in a rainstorm but the offense wasn't good the week before in Chicago it's it's been pretty much in like spurts we've seen some good offense the second half in Detroit was pretty good they did some good things against Tennessee um Green Bay I don't even really remember if they they had a good spurt in that Green Bay game but it's been it just hasn't been consistent and situationally Ryan they are terrible they are a bad team on third down they are a bad team in the red zone they are a bad team in two minutes and those are areas where you go coaching um I'm a big players guy I think you know this I pushed back against you and Frankie you do I'm coaching stuff a lot because I think it's the easiest thing that fans do is go fire the coach fire the coach it's the coach's fault the coach's fault they don't really want to see I think a lot of this players but when it comes to situational football that's coaching and I thought the the chasm between the two coaching staffs was on display yesterday with two minutes left in the first half and the patriots score a field goal jets get the ball I think it was 1:43 left they have a timeout they go three and they threw three and out patriots get the ball their own 29 with 1:24 left and they just go boom boom boom 15 yards 11 yards like they just had the perfect plays dialed up by Josh McDaniels, David Bailey helps them with a, you know, roughing the passer call, but they go down and score a touchdown and that was 17-3 at halftime, and that game had flipped. It had been 7-3 two minutes before, and that to me was like, wow. Like, not just Mike Vrabel, Josh McDaniels is a great offensive coordinator, and they just out-coached the Jets in that last two minutes. It's well said by you, Kaz, and I think you're pointing out to the key situations and areas that the Jets just have been lacking in. and an execution. So I think there's two parts I would love to go here. The first being on the coaching side. You know, everyone's seen the stats now about the final two minutes of the first half and at the end of the game, the Jets are being outscored at an astronomical rate. They don't score themselves, 100-6, Brian. 100-6. It's 20-0 this year, 100-6 in the last year and a half. When I saw that number yesterday after the game, I was like, wow. I didn't even know it was going to be that bad. I'm sure you were surprised too It was that high of a margin I did a story on this Toward the end of last year I kind of figured it out Toward the end of last year How bad they were And it's just continued Through this year So it's something I pay attention to And you know They actually call it The middle eight If you want to do that Extend the first four minutes The second half Last four minutes First half They're bad They're bad all around In that too But yeah It's just It's staggering And it's hard to figure out Right Like why they're that bad because they practice it I see it all summer they practice two minute drills I go back though if you remember there was a practice against the Buccaneers in the summer oh yeah and there was some negativity coming out of that practice and it was there was a two minute period at the end of the practice I was at that practice and the Jets looked like they had never practiced before they couldn't move the ball at all and then Baker Mayfield he missed like the first throw yeah I feel like Bailey was in his face missed the first one and then all of a sudden it was like oh he just sliced and diced the Jets down the field. And I was like, whoa. And at that point, I thought the Bucs were going to be a good team. They're not even a good team. So yeah, the two-minute thing is something they have to figure out. And what's fascinating, too, is look, there could be arguments that offense has a little bit more of an advantage in two minutes because they do like to do a lot of no-huddle in that situation. They're trying to get you up on the line of scrimmage before you can get substitutions in and try and get the ball out and move the ball downfield. And I think what's interesting, too, cause is that the start of that game, you know, in the first half, the Jets crossed midfield three times and they'll end up with three points out of all those situations yeah that's where like we talked about I think on last week's episode about the sustained drives they keep having these killer moments where whether it's short yardage situation missed time penalties um miscommunication whatever it may be they are just not executing at a at a high enough level so I'm curious from your thought your standpoint what did you think about the fourth and two run in the shotgun again with Braylon Allen yeah and then the Geno Smith QB sneak which felt again I know it was fourth and one on the field it felt more like a fourth and two and I would not have called it and I would not have called the quarterback sneak in that spot I'm curious what your thoughts were on those two situations yeah um I was okay the first one I was okay with trying Braylon Allen I mean Braylon Allen's a 250 pound running back I think if they had lined up and thrown a pass downfield and it was incomplete everyone would have screamed you have a 250 pound running back just run him up the hole and look spillane made a really nice play i i tip i think you tip your cap on that so the second series i'm gonna take you back though ryan the second and one yeah on that if second and one now if i'm a play caller and i get second and one that's a dream right that is every single play on your play sheet is in play at second and right like what what do you have to lose like you don't get it you're going to have third and one you have like so you can you can take a deep shot on second and one you can call your best trick play on second and one you can you can call a screen like you can do so many different things maybe target gary wilson he hands the ball to isaiah davis who runs near the guard and i'm just like oh it's just the last thing i would want to do on second and one i got i just i would love i would just love to try something there so then it's third and two I think and then they did they run the ball from the middle and then like you said it was a fourth and a very long one I I do not know in that instance if Geno called his own number right like sometimes the quarterback right a lot of times quarterback has the right they go to the line of scrimmage and they see the A gap is open to call sneak and sometimes it's just him him in the center right he gooses the center and that's a sneak so I don't know that if it's called that's a good question for Reich on Thursday yeah was that called what do you know call it and it looked like you know I know the broadcast they were kind of getting all over Geno like he went low like he needed to if he stayed high he could have gotten it so he's he's not the most strongly built lower half person I would say in terms of driving the pile forward if that makes sense but it was it wasn't a bear front he wasn't running into the teeth of defense there was like there was two holes there like he could have I understood that I understood why there was a sneak there to me it's more that second and one one drives me freaking crazy because the because that's the one and yeah like you just like to see some creativity on these short yardage situations because they are terrible at them right now and and I would also say Geno Smith's not the best right now in terms of knowing where he is on the field in certain situations we've seen him run out of bounds before the first down marker we've seen him slide before the first down marker he's sometimes the awareness is not i don't think Geno wants to get Geno doesn't want to get hit he's 36 years old that's something we've like We covered Aaron Rodgers for two years. I mean, maybe basically one year. The difference between Aaron Rodgers in 2024 and Aaron Rodgers in, like, 2019 was he no longer wanted to get hit. And I have not watched Aaron Rodgers this year, so maybe you'll tell me it's different if you've watched him. But, like, with the Jets, Aaron Rodgers didn't want to get hit. So the ball was always coming out really fast out of his hand. He wasn't trying to take deep shots down the field. He wasn't really running the ball. You understood it. He's an older quarterback. Like, you get it. Like, the hits, everything feels different when you're older. You'll get there someday. When I get out of bed, everything hurts. and I'm not playing football, so I get it. But, yeah, that's something with Geno right now. He looks like he does not want to get hit. That's fair. That's a fair assessment, but I would also say, too, on getting the ball out quickly is something Geno has not been doing well either. It's true. He's getting sacked. He's getting sacked, and, look, the interior of the offensive line was another issue, I feel like, today. I thought Moses, Membu, and Fashner were okay, But the fact that the interior got beat up again, Kaz. I didn't think they got beat up, right? There was one series where they were backed up, right? I think it was their second series, maybe. And they gave up two sacks. Tippmann got run over, and they didn't pick up the blitz. And then there was the third down in the second half that ended a drive. That was a sack. But other than that, I didn't think they were getting destroyed yesterday. I thought the offensive line kind of held up okay. And they obviously opened up some really big holes for Braylon Allen. Yes. In the first half, they got away from running the ball in the second half for whatever reason. I was told it was because they were trailing. But, like, Jesus Christ, you're trailing by four points. Like, run the ball. That's so funny. I was talking about this with Frankie on the post-game show. I go, if we were with Kaz right now and I said, Kaz, why would they get away from the run in the second half? They were doing it so well in the first. You would have gone to me, Ryan, they were trailing. You got to try and throw the ball and try and score some points. But I agree with you. I don't understand why you just completely abandoned the run in the second half. If you're down by 20 points, I get it. Go ahead, throw the ball. But they're down by 10 at the most. And in third quarter, it was seven points, then four points, and, like, just run the ball like you were getting. He was – Braylon Allen looked awesome. He did. He's looked awesome the last two weeks. Like, this is the Braylon Allen we've been talking about for two years, three years. Amen. Give him the ball. Give him the ball. I could not agree more with you guys. And we're going to get to Garrett. That's where I was going to go to next is about the Garrett Wilson. Two targets in the first half, one catch. And then it was too little too late at the end where they were targeting him and peppering him with some throws. Look, I think Garrett's taken the high road a little bit in terms of his post-game comments, but I think you could see the expression on his face and you could see him on the sideline. It doesn't look good right now, Kaz. And I didn't love Aaron Glenn's answer today, again, about why Garrett Wilson's not getting targeted as much. He's saying, hey, there's only one ball. It's like, okay, but you paid Garrett a ton of money. Why aren't you getting the ball more? Yes. And I think if you look at it, A.J. Brown was targeted 10 times yesterday. A.J. Brown might have had the worst game of his career yesterday. He did not look ready. And they still kept feeding him the ball, right? Like, you got to find out. Garrett Wilson is Garrett Wilson for a reason. He's going to be open. He's going to get open, even against Christian Gonzalez. Get him the ball. And I won't get into too much detail on this, Ryan, because it's a little bit eavesdroppy of me. Yeah. But when Garrett, I was in the tunnel as Garrett came off the field yesterday. He was not happy. And I'm not going to quote him. but he was not happy. He was talking to his teammates and he wasn't happy about the way that game went for him. So he's very frustrated. And when you saw him speak to us in the locker room, that was a long time after the game. And after many conversations with Jets public relations departments, you know, trying to make sure he was going to say the right things. And Garrett is a good company man. And he did, he did say the right thing. He's a good teammate, but he's frustrated as hell right now and you can't blame him i mean he's lived this now for five years right is this this year five yeah you're six what is it it's your five yeah you're five for Garrett it's a lot of losing and i think garrett's frustration comes from a place of he believes he can help the team win the game but he needs the ball in his hands to do it and they're just not figuring out ways to get the ball and they got to do that even right like running wide receiver screen yeah i don't like wide receiver screens that much but it means you're gonna get the ball to Garrett go go for it like go for it like if you just dial up some easy completions just to get him in the game i saw Kevin Byard said after the game one of the most important things was getting number five out of the game and we did it like so like you know what they were talking about yeah on the other side like that so i do think if they get Mitchell back this week they get Breeze back this week right the offense looks a little different with those two guys in there, although Braylon's done a great job in place of Breeze, but Breeze is just more dynamic in the pass game and Breeze can break a run for a touchdown at any point so the offense will look better once they get those guys back in there and Par, I would include Par on two in there Yeah, I mean those will be necessary reinforcements, but at the end of the day, you got who you do on the field and Garrett Wilson's one of the best ones in the NFL I would argue, and they still just like you said, they just are not getting the ball enough and he's not part of the game plan right now in the way that you would hope that they would want to put them in the game plan. I want to hit on Omar Cooper first before we get to the defensive side of this cause. Omar Cooper comes back and, wow, what a game. Should have had two touchdowns. I think that was a bogus OPI call. I know you're going to say that's a letter of the law. That is offensive pass interference because he's trying to run block because he thought Geno was going to scramble. I think the refs, you're either looking for that or you're not looking for that, and that felt very forced in that call. But what did you make of Omar Cooper's day yesterday? Yeah, great. I mean, he had an instant impact, right? And I think you've got to feel good right now. You've had three games this year where a rookie first-round pick was one of your best players, if not the best player, was Sadiq against Detroit, David Bailey against Cleveland, and now Cooper. So, you know, these guys can do it consistently. You've got three really good players there. I think Daryl Jackson's been very good as a fourth-round pick, fifth-round pick. He's been very good. I do think you'll see more Pons now. Pons played a lot more in the second half yesterday, which I think Brownlee might have been responsible for that one touchdown where Henry was wide open. So I think you'll see more Pons. So you got to feel good about the rookie class. And, yeah, Cooper had a big impact. I actually would love to ask a referee about the OPI call, right? Because I do not know what the rule is there. It didn't affect the play at all. So that would be my argument of, like, why are you calling it? But they do call. Sometimes they call stuff on the other side of the field. that it was going to affect the play. And, you know, yeah, you can see what Tim Patrick was thinking. He thought Daniel was going to run, so he started blocking. I just don't – it just had no effect on the play. So that's why the call bothers me. The same way, you know, a holding call bothers me on the other side of the field when it's not where the run is going. But technically, I'm sure that is the rule. And it's convenient when the refs miss a blatant face mask. That would have set the Jets up on first and goal later in the game as well. So it's funny how that works. Let's switch to the defensive side of the ball. Kaz, I think the biggest thing for me was the Jets got zero pass rush on Drake May, and he had no sacks yesterday after you had a great game last week. We can get into the Bailey, drop it in pass coverage. I know it was a quote-unquote miscommunication on the touchdown to Romeo Dobbs, but I don't know if you saw this, Kaz. I went down into the stats. Aaron Glenn called the second-least amount of blitzes yesterday, all season long, against Drake May. And I find that curious when you're going up against the backup and the backup to the backup tackle and right tackle and really a banged up offensive line for the Patriots. Curious what you think about that. Yeah, I'm okay with it, Ryan. I'll tell you what, I think May is good against the Blitz. We talked about that, right? He's been very good against the Blitz. And I think your argument when you have the backup and the backup to the backup and there is, my front four should be able to win against that offensive line without having to do Blitzes. Like, I should be able to win with four people on the pass rush there. They got backups in there, and they just weren't winning yesterday. And so that's a problem. I think this week, when you get Malik Willis, he's going to dial up the blitzes like there's no tomorrow. I think it'll be like the Deshaun Watson game. I think what we've seen is when they play a quarterback that, I don't know if fears is the right word, that he respects, that he thinks can do some damage to them and can throw over the top of them, he's going to play two deep safeties. He's going to play that. He wants to keep everything in front of him. I think when he plays a quarterback that they think that they can rattle, he's going to blitz. And so I would think Willis is going to get a lot of blitzes this week. Can I retort there just a little bit? The defensive line has to win, Ryan. The defensive line has to win. And they were crap against the run, too. No doubt. The pass rush was 148 yards. They had rushing Horrible. This defensive line was getting pushed around yesterday. And, yeah, I actually had my binoculars right on David Bailey on that touchdown. It was interesting. And I'm like, sometimes I pick a play where I'm going to watch a player. And I set my binoculars on Bailey. And right before that, he was lined up like wide nine. And then right before the snap, Sherwood walked over. And I don't know if Sherwood said something or what, but like Bailey kind of looked at him and he moved inside. And then I saw him drop and Sherwood came. And I'm like, what, what the heck is this? Cause, and I think it was supposed to be, I think that was supposed to be an overload blitz with Sherwood and Bailey coming together. And Bailey, for some reason, and then we got confused and dropped in the coverage because, yeah, that play was a mess. And then the safety bit underneath, and the guy was wide open. No doubt, and I think that's a good point by you, and I will say this. Aaron Glenn, though, the superpower that he proclaimed he has is defensive play calling. And I hear you on the Drake Mayes good versus the Blitz, but I also think if you're going to play into your strengths as a team, without Joseph Asai in that lineup, you have to be able to generate pressure via the Blitz as well. It can't just be versus four, because I don't think they have the dogs right now. And that's just, you saw yesterday, the Patriots were chipping Bailey almost every single pass rush snap he had. They had a tight end or a running back chipping him at the line of scrimmage. They said, that's the guy we cannot let beat us. So, yeah, if you're going to drop him in pass coverage on a miscommunication, thanks, we'll take that. But I think if you're Aaron Glenn, wouldn't you want to be a little more aggressive? Like, I think of like a Brian Flores who blitzes all day and all night, No matter who the quarterback is, I'm going to get after your ass. That's what the Jets' strength is. Wouldn't you agree, Kaz, is blitzing and forcing those mistakes by the quarterbacks. I understand Drake Maye is more polished. Josh McDaniels probably has more outlets built into their offense for him. But wouldn't you think you should play more into your strength as a team defensively? I don't know if I agree that strength is blitzing. I think Will McDonald should have played more. He only played 23 snaps. And I get it. They don't think he's the greatest against the run. But you gave up 148 yards against the run with Will McDonald barely playing. So how much worse can it get? They weren't running outside. They were running right up the middle in this defense. And so, you know, you have two first-round picks as edge rushers with McDonald and Bailey. Like, that should be good enough. And you'd be able to get there with that. And they spent a lot of money on the interior. They made a trade for Sweat. Like, they should be able to push the line. This one, to me, wasn't a play calling for Glenn. I thought Glenn – I thought he did a really good job against Cleveland, and that was a blitz-heavy scheme. This one to me was more about the players on defense. I just felt like there was just guys wide open at times, and Glenn's not drawing it up like that. Guys are screwing up. I'm not exactly sure who, and I'm not actually sure what they're doing, but there's no way that he's designing the defense to look like that. Maybe you could say, well, the miscommunications are his fault. he's the coach, I understand kind of the buck stops there type of thing, but this defense, Ryan, they played much better than I expected them to, but I still think there's a lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball for the Jets, and that's going to be exposed at times when they play good offenses, and I think that's kind of just what happened yesterday. Okay, I hear you. Maybe I think we have a different viewpoint there, but I'm totally okay with that from your perspective on that. They're heading into two weeks here, Kaz, back-to-back games. You would think could be winnable games for them. They're playing the Dolphins. Yeah, the Raiders look different, huh? Right. But the Raiders also had a competitive game against the Bills yesterday. So they're not – they are, I think – I had this thought yesterday because my buddy's a Raiders fan. He goes, I'm really excited that they're in every game and they're competitive. It stinks that we can't win, but we don't have the talent yet. Hopefully in a year or two they can have the talent to win some football games and close these out. I don't feel like the Jets are there yet, if I'm being honest with you. Like, I don't think they're there where they're actually in these games. I don't know about you guys, but it was going to take a real miracle for them to win that football game yesterday against the Patriots, it felt like, even though the score says it was a seven-point loss. I remember the Packers game. I remember that they should have won that one. The Lions, you know, it was a tough fight back. Talk to me. Like, can they win these next two weeks and prove that, you know what, they're better than in the bottom of the league still? Yeah. Well, like, this week is – I separate the two games. Sure. The Dolphins are a winless team. They look like they're heading to Jeremiah Smith country, right? Like, they're going to have the number one pick in the draft. So, that's a different animal than the Raiders. The Raiders are competitive. The Raiders have won, what, are they 3-3? Yeah. I think, right? So, they're 3-3. So, give them credit. I saw the highlights of the Bills game. It looked like Kirk Cousins is playing amazing right now. So, they're different. So, this week, like, I know, like, you asked me week one. You asked me against the Bears. Like, is this a must win? this is a must win, you gotta win this game there's no excuses, you gotta win this game this is a team you are better than and there aren't that many of those teams in the NFL, the Jets are better than this team, beat them, step on their throats, blow them out have a convincing victory don't let this be any question you should just beat them up like you beat the Titans up in week one, it should be the same type of thing, the Raiders that looks trickier, and it's interesting, I was looking at the schedule yeah and they have like you can go oh the jets have they play the cardinals they play the dolphins twice you know the chargers look like they're i don't know if we believe it but they're in the bottom of the league so like you're looking at these teams and like okay these are all games the jets should slash could like whatever you think want to say win and then they have a then they have this other group of games who are like the top five teams like the bills twice the chiefs they play obviously the the patriots are in that category the broncos are a little weird right now right they're struggling on offense but the Broncos could figure things out, the Vikings are undefeated they play them in December so they have this like this group of teams where you're like man did the Jets have a chance in those games like I'm not sure the Raiders are like the one team that's kind of in the middle and like they're hard to figure out and that could that's like feels like a big swing game for the Jets for their when you're doing the win-loss game of like is this Is this team going to be 6-11, or could this team be 8-9? The Raiders game feels like a big one to me. But yeah, I think these are winnable games. I think the Raiders are similar to the Jets, maybe a little bit better. In terms of them, yesterday, could they win, Ryan? I always think about this. Was there ever a moment when I thought the Jets could win? 17-10, they force the fumble, and they get the ball back in Patriots territory. if they went down and scored there and tied the game at 17, now you're talking. Now you've got the Patriots on the ropes. Because the game felt over at half. It felt like, okay, this is over. The Jets had this huge advantage of time possession, and they were down by two touchdowns. But then they came back, and then they had to kick a field goal. And so once they kicked the field goal, I'm like, all right, here they are. So I went for another field goal. You knew they weren't coming back. So, yeah. For a brief moment, I thought they good win yesterday, Ryan, but not for very long. Yeah, I mean, the Omar Cooper touchdown, it was awesome to watch, and I'm like, okay, there's some fight in them. Let's see if they can claw their way back into this, but the defense could not respond, could not stop the run, and that ultimately led to them just burning, burning the clock out, and that was how the Patriots were able to succeed that victory yesterday, man. Third and 13, Ryan. Woof. And Hunter Henry's wide open. Woof. It's something. Yeah, you can't like, it's when we talk about situational football, To me, my criticism of Glenn is not the play calling yesterday. It's the situational football. They're bad on both sides of the ball. And this isn't as big of a point as the other stuff, Ryan, but remember when this team used to be able to return kicks? Yeah. It's bad, man. It's bad right now. Yeah. It's on coverage, too. It's on coverage as well. Yeah. Yeah, their special teams are bad. Other than Jason Sanders, who we all panned all summer. He's doing great. But he shows what we know. But the special teams have been bad. The punter even has had some short punts. And I'm like, what's going on? I don't know. Well, Kaz, we appreciate you hopping on here, giving us all your analysis. We're looking forward to your coverage. And we'll catch up with you before the end of the week as we preview the Jets versus Dolphins coming up next weekend. Thanks, buddy. How'd Frankie handle the loss? He's like, he is basically saying what he's always said is, Aaron Glenn's not the head coach of the Jets. He can't handle it. And he's not wrong. 100-2-6. That's bad. That's all-time bad. Also, can I ask you one, Ryan? Yeah. Did the halftime interview bother you? I just kind of shook my head, and I'm like, that's my superpower coach right there. That's what he says. I mean, he just cut to black. I don't know. Anything else? I thought, yeah. I thought he misspoke. I mean, I did, listening to it, just having heard him speak. Well, I thought he misspoke, but, yeah, it wasn't a good look. It was interesting, you know. I didn't realize it at the time, obviously. I'm in the press box, and then someone pointed it out to me late in the game. I was kind of like, eh, yeah, but. Hey, they did get the ball back after the Bailey fumble. I will say that. They did, yeah. Fun times, guys. Appreciate you, buddy.