Jets show mediocrity as ex-coach Rex Ryan departs with win

The visiting coach's interview room at MetLife Stadium usually is a sparsely populated afterthought, but late Thursday night it filled up quickly with reporters angling for orchestra seats in advance of the curtain rising for the big show.

Then Rex Ryan delivered, as always, emboldened by his Bills' 22-17 victory over the Jets and ready to unload a backlog of soundbites on his lone visit to the metropolitan area this season.

Meanwhile, far around the bend on the lower concourse, Todd Bowles was addressing the many questions that had to be asked of him by a smattering of beat writers, who sat among rows of empty seats.

OK, so all of the above probably says more about journalists - and show biz - than it does about football. But the pooped-party vibe did symbolize a larger, more depressing point about this Jets season:

Now that the possibilities of something special have faded during a 1-3 slide, it is evident this team is nothing special at all, but merely a middle-of-the-pack outfit destined to battle through the wild-card muck.

Hey, there are worse things than that. Look no further than the Lions. Or the Chargers. Or the Nets.

The Jets should be good for a few fun Sundays down the road, including juicy matchups with the Giants Dec. 6 and a potentially decisive rematch with the Bills Jan. 3 in Buffalo, which is lovely that time of year.

But where is all this headed, really? They have a merely functional quarterback, injuries galore, a rookie head coach still feeling his way. All in all: meh.

Could I be eating these words come January? Of course. Far stranger things have happened than a team that looked like this just past midseason working miracles down the road. And not just in football.

Maybe the Jets just need to threaten to unload someone - Dee Milliner, perhaps? - have him cry on television, and watch everyone rally behind the cause. (Unfortunately, the trade deadline has passed, so Yoenis Cespedes is not walking through that locker room door.)

More likely, though, the Jets are early round playoff fodder, at best.

Let's review their results to date. The Jets have won five games, all of them against teams that currently have losing records. They have lost four games, all of them against teams that currently are .500 or better. Hmm.

The good news is there is plenty of blech-iness ahead on the schedule, with the Giants the only one of their next five opponents currently sporting a winning record. And the Giants face the Patriots on Sunday, so . . . we'll see about that.

The bad news, to reiterate: What does it all mean?

This is where I should express opinions about some of the key decisions Bowles made in that maddening loss to the Ryan's Bills. Fine.

Should he have attempted a two-point conversion with the score 22-9 and 4:39 left in the third quarter rather than settle for one?

No. No, no, no, no, no. No. See me after class for a more detailed discussion of why Bowles was right, and why coaches at every level should never, ever glance at their two-point conversion chart before the fourth quarter.

Should he have tried a field goal on one or both pivotal - and failed - fourth-down attempts in the fourth quarter, once trailing 22-10, and later 22-17?

Reasonable people can disagree here. Yes is an acceptable answer. But so is no.

Should the play calls have been less terrible on those fourth-down attempts?

Yes, absolutely. Same goes for their execution.

Jets fans have a right to feel frustrated, as do the defensive players who deserved far better against their old coach.

This is an excellent moment for a mini-break before they try again in Houston Nov. 22, not least because their starting quarterback happens to be undergoing surgery on his left hand Friday.

"You want to play your best ball in November and December," said receiver Brandon Marshall, who is not currently playing his best ball. "Right now we got off to a tough start and we have to figure out how we can get back on the right side of the column."

Said cornerback Darrelle Revis, "I mean, we control our destiny. We do . . . We've got the break. Hopefully we'll get away from football a little bit, but everybody will come back fresh and ready to work because we have a long way to go the rest of the season."

Added cornerback Buster Skrine, "You have to win these games. You don't want to be scratching in December to try to get into the playoffs."

Even as the Jets spoke about the loss in their locker room, Ryan still was holding court with one last group of New York-area reporters in the tunnel leading to the Bills' bus.

He finally left the building when the clock read 12:12 a.m. The team he left behind could only hope that it still will be relevant come 1/3/16.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.