Three Jets Who Deserve Praise In Week 4 Loss Against The Bears

Yikes. That’s all the Jets fans have to say after watching Sunday’s absolute disaster against the Tyson Bagent-led Chicago Bears. Yikes. We know that Chicago is a better all-around team than the Jets. However, we thought the Jets would at least put up some fight. This was by far the worst the team has looked in 2026. It was a callback to how the team looked all last year in the worst way possible.

Geno Smith finished the game with 119 yards, completing just eight of his 15 passes. A quarterback completing just eight passes in an entire football game does not equate to winning football. The Jets were completely dominated by the Bears on both sides of the ball. They couldn’t get anything going on offense and had one good moment on defense, which we will get into down below. Chicago took a 13-3 lead into halftime and it somehow did not feel like a ten-point, it felt like a 40-point deficit. In the end, the Jets lost to the Bears, 23-12. So, which three Jets deserve praise in a very lackluster game?

Offense: Armand Membou, OT

The Jets offense was absolutely abysmal in Sunday’s loss against Chicago. Geno Smith looked the worst he has all season; Braelon Allen couldn’t get anything going on the ground, and Garrett Wilson hauled in three receptions for 27 yards, and Kenyon Sadiq was radio silent. To make matters worse, both Wilson and Sadiq were just targeted four times each. Isaiah Williams led the receiving corps, which spells disaster. However, one player quietly had his best game yet, and that came up front in the trenches.

At least one Jet made fans proud on Sunday, and that’s Armand Membou. The 2025 first-round draft pick has had an up-and-down start to the 2026 season, but he may have had his best outing of the season in Week 4 against the Bears. Armand Membou is currently PFF’s highest-graded OT in Week 4. His 90.4 overall PFF grade is 7.0 points higher than any other OT. His 92.7 PFF run-blocking grade is 4.6 points higher than any other OT. Best game of his 2026 season by a mile, at least according to PFF.

Somewhat of a welcome to the NFL moment for Malik Muhammad courtesy of Armand Membou https://t.co/bA9cdZcjVH

— ImBearingDown (@ImBearingDown) October 5, 2026

Considering the way Membou had started the season, it was really encouraging to see him bounce back in a game where the rest of his team struggled mightily. The former Missouri standout came into the 2026 season with lofty expectations, and so far, he has been a bit underwhelming. His larger PFF grades have not been kind to him through the first four games. He’s graded out as the 47th-best offensive tackle among 69 qualified players, and Jets fans know he’s much better than that. Hopefully, Membou’s outing is the first step in the right direction, and he starts living up to the preseason expectations Jets fans had for him.

Defense: Minkah Fitzpatrick, S

The Jets defense had another quiet game. There was arguably no bigger standout for the Jets on Sunday than safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was making his return to the field for the first time since exiting New York’s season opener with a groin injury. The Jets secondary was getting a major boost with Fitzpatrick making his way back to the field. He is one of the best safeties in the NFL and that’s n0t up for debate, he’s a surefire Hall Of Famer when all is said and done.

Entering the game, the Jets were still making history as the only team to not have an interception in over 630 days. However, Fitzpatrick had something to say about that. Fitzpatrick finally broke the Jets’ long-standing interception drought, picking off Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent early in the second quarter. While it wasn’t a starting quarterback, it was still nice to see the Jets once again get an interception going their way. That was the only real excitement fans got all day.

Minkah Fitzpatrick gives the Jets their first INT in 636 pass attempts

NYJvsCHI on FOX/FOX One
Stream on @NFLPlus https://t.co/CQUCl4JVnt

— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2026

Regardless, it was a great outing for Fitzpatrick, who stuffed the stat sheet. He recorded 16 total tackles, broke up one pass, and, of course, made the interception to end a 638-day streak in his return to the field. While this whole game is one that the entire Jets team would like to forget, hopefully this interception can lead to something bigger in the coming weeks. After all, the Jets nearly finished the game with four interceptions, but penalties shot themselves in the foot, so only one counted.

Special Teams: Austin McNamara, P

Another game, another lackluster special teams outing. Jason Sanders had an okay game, connecting on both of his kicks, including a long one of 32, but he missed an extra point, which should be automatic for NFL kickers. However, the standout for special teams has to be Austin McNamara. In a fairly low-scoring game, field position means everything. McNamara, the Jets punter, more than played his part in doing what he could to keep the Bears on the opposite side of the field. He finished the game with 263 yards on five punts.

Out of those five punts, one was a touchback, and one was down in the 20. He had a longest punt of 62 yards, and averaged 52.6 yards. When an offense stalls, a premier punter becomes a team’s most vital defensive asset. In a gritty, low-scoring affair where every yard dictated the momentum, McNamara single-handedly kept the Jets competitive by weaponizing field position and mitigating the damage of empty offensive drives.

Where would the #Jets be without Austin McNamara https://t.co/WRz7nuiE74

— Harrison Glaser (@NYJetsTFMedia) October 4, 2026

Beyond the raw statistics, McNamara stands out because he executed flawlessly in a phase of the game where his peers faltered. The punting unit remained a model of clinical efficiency. Punting is often an invisible art until something goes wrong, but McNamara’s performance demanded attention because of its sheer consistency under pressure. In a game defined by small margins and offensive stagnation, he did his job at an elite level, proving that even in a losing effort, a dominant special teams weapon can be a powerful equalizer.

The post Three Jets Who Deserve Praise In Week 4 Loss Against The Bears appeared first on JetNation.com – New York Jets Blog & Forum. Be sure to check out the JetNation forums for around-the-clock Jets talk. https://forums.JetNation.com You can discuss this with other NY Jets fans on the Jet Nation message board. Or visit of on Facebook.