Jets control everything but final score; Rex Ryan: 'I feel sick'

This is how you lose a football game: You miss two field-goal attempts, you allow a punt to be partially blocked and you handle your quarterback with kid gloves.

Despite a sterling effort by running back Chris Johnson, the Jets couldn't muster enough offense or make enough field goals to keep the Dolphins at bay in a 16-13 loss Monday night at MetLife Stadium.

Caleb Sturgis' 26-yard field goal with 1:57 left gave Miami its first lead of the game and the victory.

"I feel sick. We can't buy a win," Rex Ryan said of his 2-10 team, which entered the season with a surplus of $21 million in salary-cap space. "I can't believe we're 2-10. It's a joke."

The Dolphins (7-5), who still are fighting for an AFC wild-card playoff spot, tied it at 13 on a 4-yard run by Lamar Miller with 10:24 left in the game. On the ensuing possession, to the delight of the raucous Dolphins fans who invaded MetLife Stadium, Nick Folk hooked a 45-yard field-goal try wide left.

"I just missed it. Plain and simple," Folk said.

On a night when a flash mob of fans held up "Fire John Idzik" banners in the upper deck, the postgame stat sheet painted a picture of pure dominance by the Jets: a 277-74 advantage in rushing yards and a 326-291 edge in total yards. Yet they still couldn't close it out.

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"If you look at the stats, there's no way you would think we were supposed to lose that game," said outside linebacker Calvin Pace, who dropped an easy interception.

The loss was "heartbreaking" and "unsettling," players said. But it also raised questions about the coaching staff's faith in Geno Smith. In his first start since Oct. 26, the Jets did everything in their power to ensure that he wouldn't lose the game for them. Smith completed 3 of 6 passes for 22 yards in the first half and wound up throwing only 13 passes, the fewest by any NFL team this season. He completed seven for 65 yards and had a quarterback rating of 35.7.

"We thought what gave us the best chance to win the game was to run the football," said Ryan, adding that running the football so much "had zero to do" with a lack of faith in Smith.

But some Jets seemed frustrated by the game plan.

"I'm not the coordinator. I'm not the guy in charge. He's got to call it the way he sees the game,'' receiver Eric Decker said. "But you think the way you run the football, yes, you got to still have a good passing game to be successful and to win."

The Jets controlled the first half, rushing for 210 yards, and Smith was the ultimate game manager. That strategy worked, as the Jets took a 10-0 lead behind a 47-yard run by Johnson (105 yards on 17 carries), a 20-yard end-around touchdown by Greg Salas (who injured his hamstring on the play and did not return) and a 40-yard field goal by Folk. But the Jets inexplicably did not make adjustments after the Dolphins changed things up to stop the run. And it cost them.

"Would we like to pass the ball more as receivers? Selfishly, yes," added Decker (two catches, 18 yards). "I would like to get some more touches. All the receivers would like to get more touches. But that's not in our control."

Smith -- who said it was his decision not to be introduced pregame with other members of the offense -- said he didn't think the game plan showed a lack of faith in him. "The goal of the team is to win and to execute the game plan," he said. "And for the most part, I think we did a pretty good job of that. When the situation came for us to pass the ball and win the game, we fell short."

Folk made it 13-6 with 7:17 left in the third with a 45-yard field goal that hit off the crossbar and went through, but special-teams gaffes reared their ugly head again. Folk missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt and Ryan Quigley had a punt partially blocked by Dion Jordan. After Sturgis' field goal, Smith's interception finished the Jets.

"It's kind of the theme of our season," Pace said. "We just didn't make enough plays and they did."

Chrebet honored. Wayne Chrebet was inducted into the Jets Ring of Honor at halftime along with the team's former owner, the late Leon Hess. In his 11-year career with the Jets, Chrebet caught 580 passes for 7,365 yards and 41 touchdowns.