Jeff Ulbrich didn't imagine this sloppy Jets loss to be his debut

For Jeff Ulbrich, a football lifer, it was a long time coming.

It was also a moment to be careful what you wish for.

On Monday night against the Bills at MetLife Stadium, Ulbrich, the 47-year-old, 10-year NFL linebacker and 14-year assistant coach, was on the sideline for the first time as a head coach.

The result was hardly what he wanted: a wild, bizarre and at times sloppy 23-20 loss to the Bills.

It was, quite frankly, a very similar result to the recent results on Robert Saleh's resume, results that got Saleh fired on Tuesday.

On Saturday, at the end of a long, tumultuous and emotional week for Ulbrich, who had been promoted to head coach of the Jets after Saleh, the man who brought him to the Jets, was fired five days earlier, he was asked when he knew for the first time that he wanted to be a coach.

“It was really late in my (playing) career because I remember early in my career saying, 'Why would I want to do this?' “, Ulbrich recalled. “Later in my career … we had drafted (linebacker) Patrick Willis. I became the backup and spent a lot of time with him. We watched a lot of tapes together. We did a lot of extra (work) on the field.

“I remember it was like yesterday, we were playing the Cardinals and I was standing on the sideline watching. I remember him making a play at the Cardinals game, giving me a quick look and I looking at him. (The piece) was something we had been working on and focused on that particular week, and it felt better than any piece I've ever done for myself. And it was like, “I'm addicted.” ''

Ulbrich's romantic memory of falling in love with coaching was miles away from him on the stressful evening he endured in his debut as head coach.

His defense was roiled by Josh Allen and the Buffalo running game. Allen completed 19 of 25 for 215 yards and two touchdowns. The Bills ran for over 150 yards.

“This is not the start we are used to in defense,” Ulbrich said afterwards. “From a defensive perspective, it’s not winning football.”

The Jets were penalized 11 times for 110 yards of damage, a sign of the same lack of discipline that marked Saleh's tenure.

Jets kicker Greg Zuerlein missed two short field goals, one in the third quarter of a 20-20 game and the other in the fourth when the game was still tied, a blowout in a close game.

When it was all over, Ulbrich summarized his first game as head coach in which, as always, he dictated the defensive plays and at the same time looked after the entire team:

“It was challenging, but by no means overwhelming,” he said.

Ulbrich, incredibly optimistic even in the face of this ugly defeat, remained unwavering in his belief in his team.

“At 2:4 we are still far from out of the game,” he said. “Not at all. I know the character of this locker room. “I know how we're going to react.”

Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner said he got “a lot of respect for” Ulbrich in his head coaching debut.

“He tried to do everything he could to put us in a position to win this game,” Gardner said. “All credit goes to him for doing that and putting us in the perfect position to supposedly win a game like this.”

Gardner said Ulbrich's message to players after the game was: “We put ourselves in a hole and it will be an even better story, an amazing story, when we get out of it.”