EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Rex Ryan stood at the podium a beaten man, trapped in the kind of season that swallowed up his predecessors. You stay on this job long enough, and it will get you. It got Eric Mangini and Herm Edwards and Rich Kotite. This is how it works with the New York Jets. Misery is part of the gig.
Sadly, Ryan sounded a lot like Kotite, spewing his empty explanations for bad football, which is fitting because these Jets are on their way to a Kotite-ian season. They're 1-7, losers of seven straight, riding the express train to 3-13, 2-14 or (take a deep breath) 1-15, which happened on Kotite's watch in 1996. On Sunday, with six turnovers in a 43-23 loss to the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium, the Jets were an embarrassment of Rich's.
"I'm sick and tired of losing," said Ryan, who most definitely looked sick.
There comes a point in a bad season when a team crosses the "Kotite line" -- the Jets' version of the Mendoza Line -- going from a try-hard, hard-luck loser to a team drowning in its own ineptitude.
The Jets reached that point against a mediocre Buffalo team, handling the ball as if it were radioactive -- four interceptions and four fumbles (two lost). They added some slapstick to the occasion, trying to sucker the Bills with an ill-conceived throwback play on a kickoff return. Fortunately for the Jets, Percy Harvin didn't throw it across the field to T.J. Graham, who tried to make himself invisible to the Bills by lying on his stomach in the end zone. He popped up like a jack-in-the-box, but no one was fooled.
It only made the Jets look like fools.
"We're not a bad football team; we just do stupid stuff," said Eric Decker, who must be experiencing some serious Peyton Manning withdrawal.
Welcome to the star-crossed side of the NFL, Eric, where Stupid Jet Tricks steal the show every few years.
No one figured the Jets would be competing for a championship in 2014, but there was every reason to believe they would take another positive step after last year's encouraging 8-8 finish. But general manager John "Potential Coup" Idzik assembled a flawed roster, and Ryan -- desperate for answers -- has let it fall apart.
Ryan mismanaged the quarterback situation, staying with Geno Smith too long through the first seven games. Now he might turn to Michael Vick, but it's too late to save the season. The only thing it would save is Ryan's credibility in the locker room. Clearly, the players have lost confidence in Smith, who was pulled after throwing three interceptions in the first quarter. If they stick with Smith, it will confirm what we've suspected from the outset: This season is all about developing Smith, not winning games.
"It is what it is," Willie Colon said of Smith's interceptions. "It's deflating."
Smith was brutal, no doubt, but he wasn't the only goat. How about offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg for trying to reinvent Harvin in one week?
Not only did he play Harvin for 42 snaps, making him an early focal point in the game plan, but Mornhinweg removed Harvin from his comfort zone. He took him out of the slot, where the Seattle Seahawks used him, and made him an outside receiver, consenting to the player's wishes. It was as if the Jets were trying to prove they're smarter than the Seahawks.
Naturally, Harvin was happy, but his larger-than-expected role disrupted the offense. You can't acquire a player and build an offense around him in one week. Well, that's what a desperate team would do.
Harvin was a nonfactor, accumulating only 50 yards from scrimmage on seven touches. He was targeted nine times but had only three catches for 22 yards. Smith tried to force a deep ball to Harvin, and it resulted in his second interception. It wouldn't be a surprise if Idzik, who patted himself on the back by calling the Harvin trade a "potential coup," had some input in the offensive game plan.
"That was terrible. That wasn't Jets football -- and it sucks," defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson said of the overall performance. "We stunk it up."
And with eight games to play, the Jets could sink to historically bad depths. They have no quarterback and a coach who has lost his way.
"He's hurt -- he needs help -- but we're not helping him out at all," Sheldon Richardson said of Ryan.
It won't end well for Ryan. It never does with this franchise.
