Jets Fall to Raiders 38-33 as Losing Streak Reaches Three Games

“Bad mistakes, bad penalties … Jets being Jets,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said in a damning statement.

The Jets reached a grim new juncture on Sunday, falling to a 38-33 defeat against the Raiders at MetLife Stadium. The loss drops the team to 2-6 on the season, extending a three-game losing streak that leaves players and coaches disappointed as time is rapidly running out.

The defeat stung all the more because the Jets actually checked off nearly every offensive box required to win. They scored on each of their first six offensive possessions—marking the first time they’d done that since 2008 when Brett Favre was quarterbacking them. They built a 23-14 halftime lead and held a 30-21 advantage midway through the third quarter before unravelling.

Offensive Output Overshadowed by Late Collapses

The numbers paint a picture of an offense that fired on cylinders yet still walked away empty-handed. Running back Braelon Allen rushed for 147 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. Quarterback Geno Smith threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns, while receiver Adonai Mitchell caught seven passes for 142 yards and a TD. Garrett Wilson added six catches for 83 yards on 12 targets.

Yet, the execution stalled where it mattered most. The Jets finished 2-for-6 in the red zone, settling for four Jason Sanders field goals. Meanwhile, the Raiders were 4-for-4.

Special teams proved equally costly. Shortly after taking a 13-7 lead in the second quarter on a Smith touchdown pass to Isaiah Williams, the Jets surrendered a 95-yard kickoff by Dylan Laube, a Long Island native who used to come to MetLife with his family to watch the Giants.

The defense then yielded 31 points, including 236 yards of offense in the second half.

“No team can give up that many points and expect to win,” head coach Aaron Glenn, who calls the defensive plays, said. “And on special teams we can’t give up a return for a touchdown and expect to win. I have to dig deep and figure out how we improve on defense and on special teams.”

The Road Ahead and Disappearing Margins

The atmosphere inside MetLife Stadium turned hostile in the fourth quarter. After the Raiders took a 35-30 lead on a Kirk Cousins 2-yard scoring pass to Jalen Nailor with 11:33 remaining, thousands of Raiders fans drowned out the home venue with chants of “defense, defense, defense.”

Of the Jets’ six losses, five have been by one score, by a total of 25 points. They have lost two games by three points, two by seven points and Sunday by five.

“It’s disappointing to be 2-6, man, no doubt,” Wilson said. “That’s not the goal we had in this thing. We’re trying to finish 8-0, whatever it may be.”

The schedule offers little respite. The Jets face games against AFC powers Kansas City and Buffalo over the next two weeks. Looking further ahead, their remaining slate includes matchups against the winless Chargers, the Dolphins, to whom they’ve already lost, and Cardinals.

“I can sit here and talk about how close we are, but that’s not going to do us any good at all,” Glenn said. “We have to improve to make sure we get on the other side of that.”