GREEN BAY, Wis. — As soon as he recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown, Jets defensive tackle Jay Tufele went over to the sideline to give the ball to his new head coach.
Aaron Glenn wasted no time giving it back to Tufele.
“I appreciated that, man,” Glenn said after making his head-coaching debut Saturday, “but those guys are out there playing, so I wanted him to have his ball on the touchdown.”
Tufele and the Jets settled for giving Glenn a 30-10 win over the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night in the preseason opener for both teams. That’s a prize Glenn happily accepted.
In the second quarter, the Jets’ Leonard Taylor got past Sean Rhyan to sack Malik Willis from behind and knock the ball loose. Tufele recovered the fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
“Whenever you get a turnover, you always want to give it to your head coach,” Tufele said. “Coach AG, he handed it back and said, ‘That’s your ball.’ I appreciate him so much. He’s a great coach. I’m really grateful to be here.”
Jets quarterback Justin Fields ran for a 13-yard touchdown to cap a 10-play, 79-yard drive in his lone series.
On third-and-5, Fields ran his way out of a collapsing pocket, made a move to get past Keisean Nixon’s diving tackle attempt and got into the right corner of the end zone.
Fields went 3-for-4 for 42 yards passing, including a 24-yarder to Andrew Beck.
“We just wanted to show who we were as a team, show our identity, physicality, that run game,’’ Fields said. “Once you get that run game going, everything else opens up.”
With a knee injury sidelining Tyrod Taylor, Brady Cook and Adrian Martinez took over for the Jets at quarterback after Fields’ departure. Cook was 3-for-4 for 42 yards. Martinez went 11-for-16 for 152 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown pass to Stone Smartt.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love went 1-for-5 for 7 yards. The Jets outgained Green Bay 403-188, forced four sacks and had two first-half takeaways that led to 10 points.
“Well, that was a humbling experience,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “Definitely not what we want to put out there. I don’t care — preseason, regular season, it doesn’t matter to me. It was just sloppy football.”
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