Shonn Greene: "I don’t think I would've put myself back in"

Shonn Greene carried the ball five times for 18 yards in the first half of the Jets' 10-9 loss to the Ravens Monday night.

He never carried it again.

In fact, he saw the field just one more time, making a cameo appearance on the Jets' second possession of the fourth quarter. And he has those two first-half fumbles to thank for it.

Rex Ryan has been cryptic in his remarks about why Greene didn't carry the ball again, skirting around the subject for a second straight day today. But the second-year running back left little doubt that he rode the pine, er, aluminum, because he put the ball on the ground. 

"I pretty much expected it," Greene said after practice. "During the preseason we had problems with turnovers and stuff and they pretty much said if you fumble the ball, you are going to be out of the game."

Greene took it a step further.

"I don’t think I would've put myself back in after that performance."

Greene's second fumble was a costly one. The Jets had just seized momentum with a great interception by CB Antonio Cromartie and subsequent 66-yard return down to the Ravens' 31-yard line. Two plays later, with the Jets leading 6-0, Greene coughed the ball up.

The Ravens cashed in with an 11-play, 76-yard drive capped off with Willis McGahee's 1-yard touchdown run on third-and-goal.

"I take that loss on my shoulders," Greene said. "That was a key moment in the game, that fumble, and it turned into a touchdown for Baltimore. So, I put that pretty much on my shoulders."

"You can’t fumble," he added, "at key time like that in a football game against a team like that."

Greene had plowed into LG Matt Slauson's backside, which dislodged the ball even though he had just put two hands on the pigskin just before the actual contact. 

"When I saw it on the replay," Greene said, "I had both hands on it and it was just one of those things where I wasn't expecting to get hit because it was my own guy. And I just ran into my own guy."

That miscue cost him another shot at getting back in there in a tight game.

"I was just waiting on when they said I can go back in, to get back in," he said, "because like I said, in the preseason, that was the formula -- you fumble and you aren’t getting back in the game."

But he also made it clear there's no controversy with his benching.

"I believe in my coaching staff," he said. "So whatever they have in store, I’m going to follow that suit."

And he's already champing at the bit to get back out there and earn a little bit of redemption come Sunday against the Patriots.

"I wish we could play tomorrow, so I could flush it down the toilet," Greene said. "But I’ll be ready to go. I’m all right."