Jeff Ulbrich stood in front of reporters after the New York Jets’ latest loss and took full responsibility for the team’s performance.
The interim coach is now 1-4 since taking over for the fired Robert Saleh, with a 31-6 defeat to Arizona on Sunday that was marked by too many missed tackles, missed opportunities, and growing frustration.
Ulbrich admitted his team wasn’t ready to play, and he took the blame for that. He said he needed to “take a hard look” at what he could have done better. While some players appreciated his honesty in accepting the criticism, others felt that Ulbrich wasn’t entirely at fault.
“Coach Brick, you know, he’s a tremendous leader,” linebacker Jamien Sherwood said Monday. “He’s a tremendous coach. He’s been put in a position to lead us, and I feel like he’s been put in a tough spot once he did get the head coaching job. At the end of the day, I did feel like we were prepared well.
“On the defensive side of the ball, everything that they did to us in the game, we practiced that, so I personally wouldn’t blame him.”
Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals easily moved the ball against the Jets throughout the game. The Cardinals racked up 406 total yards, including 147 rushing yards, 28 first downs, and converted 5 of 7 third downs. Their first three possessions were 70-yard touchdown drives. They only punted once, on their second-to-last possession.
A lot of the Jets’ struggles, according to Ulbrich, came down to what he called “an egregious, criminal amount of missed tackles.”
Next Gen Stats counted 20 missed tackles, while Pro Football Focus reported 17. Either way, the number seemed even higher.
“It doesn’t matter about coaching and doesn’t matter about scheme,” said Sherwood, who had 17 total tackles but admitted he missed a few. He said he was responsible for some of the missed tackles because he’s the Mike linebacker, calling the defensive signals.
“It doesn’t matter about what the coaches give to us,” he added. “It’s about the 11 players that are on the field at that time. And like I said, we were prepared. We just didn’t go out there and execute.”
Ulbrich mentioned that last Friday the Jets did a “whole tackling presentation” to prepare for Cardinals running back James Conner, who finished with just 33 yards on 12 carries. That part seemed to work.
However, Conner also caught 5 passes for 80 yards, and the Jets missed too many tackles throughout the game. Players who are supposed to be skilled tacklers failed to bring down opponents in key situations.
“It is obviously a basic fundamental of football, especially defensive football,” Ulbrich said. “I think a lot of times — and this might surprise a lot of you — they come to us very raw as far as tackling is concerned.
They don’t understand leverage, they leave their feet, they don’t commit to the wrap. There’s a lot of bad fundamentals out there, and obviously, we put some bad tape out there yesterday.”
The loss to Arizona adds to a rough 3-7 start to the season, putting the Jets closer to missing the playoffs for a 14th straight year, in a season that began with high expectations for a Super Bowl run.
“There’s collective anger, frustration, all those things,” Ulbrich said. “In my perspective, I have not felt anyone wavering, though, as far as still committed to being together and getting this done together.”
