Cromartie's day gets all fouled up

Antonio Cromartie was headed to the hospital. "He won't be talking," a Jets spokesman told several reporters waiting at his locker. True to the cliche, Cromartie's actions, the ones on the field, had spoken louder than any words Sunday.

Twice Cromartie, a cornerback and return man, was called for pass interference. Twice Cromartie was called for defensive holding. Once he muffed a kickoff, at the end of the third quarter, allowing Oakland to recover the ball at the Jets' 13, only seconds after the Raiders scored to break a tie at 17.

Finally, to finish a dismal day in which the Raiders would beat the Jets, 34-24, Cromartie injured his ribs and left the game. After his hospital visit, he rejoined the team and traveled back to New York with them. A painful afternoon by any definition.

Jets coach Rex Ryan was more philosophical than critical about the turnover, even though Cromartie tried to reach down and grab the ball on the run.

"In hindsight," Ryan said about the bobble, "obviously he should have let the ball go, but at the time the guy's trying to make a play. It's unfortunate."

When someone wondered if maybe Joe McKnight should be fielding kickoffs, Ryan answered, "It's certainly something we'll look at."

Ryan, however, was more critical than philosophical about the Jets' seven penalties, four of them by Cromartie. "That many penalties is ridiculous," the coach said.

Darrelle Revis was asked if his skill at single coverage puts additional pressure on Cromartie because opposing teams choose to challenge Cromartie rather than Revis.

"You can't blame his penalties on those guys not throwing to me," Revis said of Cromartie. "Every team comes in with a game plan, with what they want to do and how they attack defenses. I think some of those calls could have gone both ways. They called them on Cromartie and we had to play through them.

"Some of those plays, I mean, it was bad field position on some of them. We don't try to make excuses. We try to stop them from finishing the drive.''

Which against the Raiders, who now have the same 2-1 record as the Jets, they could not.

Revis said that as the game progressed, he tried to give a mental boost to Cromartie, now in his sixth NFL season. "I was right there by his side,'' Revis said. "I wanted to make sure he played the game strong.''

Cromartie's first penalty, interference for 25 yards, came only a minute into the game. Three plays later, Oakland took a 7-0 lead. "Our defense let us down, clearly,'' Ryan said. "We gave up too many big plays.''

Four of which were defensive penalties against Cromartie.