CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The end is inevitable now, the end to a most improbable playoff dream for a team that turned into nothing more than a cruel tease.
And the magic number now for Rex Ryan is 2.
His Rexpiration date has drawn perilously closer.
A source described Jets owner Woody Johnson this way to The Post after Panthers 30, Jets 20:
“Not happy.”
Not good for Rex.
Two more losses now in the last two games after three straight years out of the playoff — Ravens over Lions on Monday night would cinch it — will leave Ryan dangling at the edge of the cliff on Woody Mountain, at the mercy of John Idzik, the rookie general manager forced to inherit him.
Johnson loved Ryan enough to give him a mulligan this season.
But only this lame duck season — when the promise of 5-4 has deteriorated into a 6-8 team that no one thinks is overachieving anymore.
It was unrealistic to think the Jets could shock these Panthers, but if the Good Ship Woody goes down to the Browns and Dolphins, it would be hard to imagine Ryan not going down with the ship.
Johnson was a pained spectator high above Bank of America Stadium, and if he was looking for progress his team was ready to turn a corner, he didn’t find enough of it.
An unlikely victory over the Panthers could have gone a long way towards saving Ryan’s job.
But there are no medals for trying. You are what your record says you are, and Ryan has won 12 of his last 33 games.
Geno Smith and the Jets scratched and clawed, but the difference between Panthers and cubs is cubs do not recognize Winning Time, cubs are too young to seize the moment when the moment is there to be seized on the road.
Santonio Holmes, the Foot-In-Mouth That Roared (2 catches, 14 yards), may have riled up the Panthers secondary when he called it the weak link of a ferocious defense, but his words didn’t rile up DeAngelo Williams, who changed the game late in the first half with a 72-yard touchdown on a screen pass from Cam Newton, and they didn’t motivate the Panthers’ special teams, which decided the game in the fourth quarter when Jason Williams raced past long-snapper Tanner Purdum up the middle to block a Ryan Quigley punt that positioned Newton at the 14. Four plays later, it was Panthers 23, Jets 13.
It was Smith who gifted Captain Munnerlyn the 41-yard pick-six into traffic on the next possession that gave the Panthers their trash talk day in the sun. Holmes was the intended target.
“Bad throw. I forced it,” Smith said. “Should have checked the ball down.”
Smith, who completed only six passes to his wide receivers, had used his legs nicely (6 rushes, 44 yards) to get out of harm’s way, and this was his first and only turnover of the day.
“I feel as though I let Rex down today, man,” Smith said. “He talked to me about playing a game without a turnover, and I wanted to do that today.”
Unfortunately, Rex never talked to him about playing a game without wide receivers who can get separation and scare the other team.
It was coaching strategy that backfired on the backbreaking punt block. Coaching scared of returner Ted Ginn Jr.
“We were trying to mix in some three flyers to take advantage of our speed. … When you do that, obviously you can cover up the center, and the guy just had a good rush on us. … We knew that was a risk, but we took it,” Ryan said.
While it was noble of Ryan to take the blame on Mike Tolbert’s walk-in 1-yard touchdown run following the blocked punt, it won’t win him any points from the owner.
“I really thought Cam was going to just take it and lean over,” Ryan said, “so we have a thing we call Sell the Farm.”
Sell the strategy.
“Obviously he wants the job, but it’s about this team staying together and finishing it, that’s what he will want,” one Jet said.
Smith brought the Jets back to 16-13 after Panthers coach Ron Rivera’s ill-advised decision to pass up a chippie field goal and go for it fourth-and-2.
“I’ve already said we’re eliminated, so maybe that’s a good thing,” Ryan said.
He was referring to mistakenly telling his 2009 Jets they had been eliminated from the playoffs at 7-7.
“This one’ll be Ripley’s if we pull this one off,” he said.
His magic number is 2. Believe it or not.