FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- It takes only a few plays to blow a fourth-quarter lead and it takes only a few games to blow an entire season. No one on the New York Jets knows this better than defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, who has seen plenty of both.
"The season is about to start rolling -- it's been rolling -- and you don't want to look up and be 0-10," said Williams, who lived through an 0-13 start in 2020.
Williams was standing in the Jets' locker room late Sunday afternoon, beads of sweat covering his forehead as he tried to digest a 29-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- their second loss this season after leading in the final two minutes of regulation. His message was clear: The defense needs to get its act together, pronto, before it's too late.
Without question, the most disappointing part of the Jets' 0-3 start is the performance of the once-formidable defense, which is tied for 29th in scoring and ranks 27th in EPA (expected points added) before the Monday night game.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
This is a defense that, from 2022 to 2024, ranked ninth and second in those respective categories. It's a defense that returned eight starters, a unit inherited by two coaches -- Aaron Glenn and coordinator Steve Wilks -- that have a combined 30 years of NFL coaching experience.
And yet the Jets are on pace to give up 527 points, which would set a franchise record for futility.
"You can't give up the number of points that we have given up and expect to just be gung-ho about it," Glenn said Monday. "And every guy knows that."
Without prompting, Glenn backed his coaching staff, saying he has "total confidence" in his handpicked assistants.
If things don't improve, the pressure on Wilks will intensify. Wilks, fired by the San Francisco 49ers as their DC after the Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2024, is the one coordinator on the staff who had no previous working relationship with Glenn.
Wilks said last week that the issues aren't scheme-related. Tackling has a lot to do with it. The Jets missed 19 tackles against the Bucs, per Next Gen Stats, bringing their total to 39 in three games. It's a high number for any team, let alone one that conducted live tackling drills in training camp -- an uncommon practice across the NFL.
"It comes back to emphasizing that, and you can always improve in those things," said Glenn, who said the problem Sunday was too many players on the ground, lunging at ball carriers.
Another major issue is the lack of turnovers. The Jets, Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins, whom they face Monday (7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN), are the only teams without a takeaway. This puts additional stress on the offense, which is operating without the benefit of short fields.
The Jets have some big names on defense, notably Quinnen Williams, linebacker Quincy Williams and cornerback Sauce Gardner, and yet there has been an alarming shortage of game-changing plays. The biggest came from defensive end Will McDonald IV, but it was on special teams -- a blocked field goal attempt and touchdown return Sunday that gave the Jets a 27-26 lead with 1:49 to play.
They had erased a 17-point deficit, and it looked as if they had created a turning point for the season. In came the defense, needing one stop to secure the miracle win.
"A crunch-time moment," linebacker Jamien Sherwood said. "And we needed a crunch-time performance."
Didn't happen.
Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield exploited a mismatch in the Jets' secondary (wide receiver Emeka Egbuka beat safety Andre Cisco for 28 yards) and he obliterated a Cover-0 blitz by Wilks by throwing a wide receiver screen to Sterling Shepard, who went for 20 yards to set up the winning field goal.
Another blown lead, another heartbreaking loss. Since the start of the 2024 season, the Jets have lost a league-high five games after leading in the final two minutes. There's an art to winning in the clutch.
"The teams that are the most resilient, that understand how to play in those situations, are the teams that usually win in those situations," Glenn said. "It's my job to make sure that I put our guys in those situations in practice, and we do that quite a bit. We just have to get over that hump."