Rex Ryan's Jets Putting Ugly Game Behind Them
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Rex Ryan was still frustrated 24 hours later, and so were plenty of his players.
The New York Jets got back to work Monday, watched film of their 9-0 loss to Green Bay and, sure enough, it was just as ugly as it was in person.
"Inexcusable," wide receiver Santonio Holmes said. "Everything that happened was inexcusable."
The Jets couldn't do much of anything on offense, despite being fresh off a bye-week break and coming into Sunday's game tied for the NFL's best record.
"We had plenty of opportunities," Ryan said. "We didn't execute very well."
Particularly on offense. There were misfires by Mark Sanchez, dropped passes by receivers and questionable calls by the coaches and referees as the Jets saw their five-game winning streak end with a thud.
"You have grown men playing a sport we love to play," said Holmes, who didn't speak after the game because of a family emergency. "The object of the game is to put points on the board by any means, and we went out and had zero points in the game.
"Unacceptable by us as a team — offense, defense, special teams."
In fairness to the defense, it held Aaron Rodgers and the Packers' explosive passing game mostly in check. They also shut down the running game in allowing the fewest points by a Jets opponent so far.
Problem was, nine points were too many for the offense to overcome.
"I just want to execute better and to stop the self-inflicted wounds," Ryan said. "Penalties and dropped balls will get you beat, simple as that."
The Jets (5-2) were penalized seven times, including a couple that negated decent plays. In fact, they had at least one penalty on six of 13 drives. They also had three turnovers, including two questionable interceptions, and had several — at least five — passes dropped by receivers.
Sanchez was far from sharp, underthrowing receivers at times and overthrowing them at others, but he was hardly the lone player at fault. As sure-handed as Jerricho Cotchery has been throughout his Jets career, he had two drops in the fourth quarter and had another pass snatched out of his hands for an interception.
Holmes also had a drop when he was all alone on a drag route with no one between him and the end zone.
"You could see on slow motion on the film that my eyes followed the ball, my hands went down on it," Holmes said. "I just think I didn't get my hands down quick enough to snatch it up."
All the drops had everyone scratching their heads, including the guys on defense.
"It's so crazy," cornerback Darrelle Revis said. "I mean, these guys catch the ball all the time. Yesterday was just a little bit weird to see guys drop balls who always catch them."
While Cotchery had 13 balls thrown his way and Holmes six, Braylon Edwards was targeted only four times.
"Was it that many?" Edwards said, tongue in cheek.
He was wide open down the field for what likely would have been an easy score early in the second quarter, but Sanchez instead went short to Cotchery for a 13-yard gain. Edwards, who said he doesn't care about catches and only wins, chose to not talk after the game — like Holmes — because he was upset with the loss.
"Sometimes you're intense or emotional," he said, "and you don't want to answer a question the wrong way or go off and do something that you wouldn't do if you were cool and collected."
There were the two interceptions that were taken out of the hands of Cotchery and Dustin Keller when it appeared both might have been down with possession. Ryan challenged the call on the Cotchery play and lost, and didn't have a chance to have the other one looked at because he used both of his challenges in the first half.
"The thing with Jerricho is, I looked at it and I still think he caught it," Ryan said. "It was said that he never caught it."
Ryan also used all three of his timeouts on one defensive series with more than 4 minutes left, leaving the offense with no shots at stopping the clock down only 6-0.
"I definitely thought about it," he said. "They made us go four-and-out, which obviously you don't anticipate."
The normally reliable Nick Folk missed a 37-yard field-goal attempt, the running game never really got going and Steve Weatherford nearly pulled off a fake punt on fourth-and-18. After initially ruling it was a first down, referees reversed the call after a challenge by the Packers. Replays showed he was a yard short of the first down — a play the punter called with having it cleared by Ryan or special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff.
"The two most shocked guys were me and Westhoff, when he started running with it," Ryan said. "It was like, 'What are you doing?'"
There certainly was plenty of blame to go around, but the Jets take solace in this: Even with such a bad performance, they're only a game behind first-place New England in the AFC East, and get a chance to turn things around Sunday at Detroit (2-5).
"This," right tackle Damien Woody said, "was just a bump in the road."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
