NFL

Jets’ Hill tries to forget big drop

MOVIN’ ON: Stephen Hill continues to receive support fromhis Jets teammates after dropping a crucial pass in Sunday’s OT loss to the Patriots.

MOVIN’ ON: Stephen Hill continues to receive support fromhis Jets teammates after dropping a crucial pass in Sunday’s OT loss to the Patriots. (Bill Kostroun)

The game was decidedly in question, the clock was exhaling the final minutes, the throw was right there. But the ball was dropped — by a rookie. Some rookies might beat themselves up, but Jets wide receiver Stephen Hill determined the only solution was to move on from “that” play.

“Oh, it’s over. It’s over,” said Hill Wednesday of his fateful drop where he just took his eyes off the ball, prepping to run before catching, with 2:11 left in regulation of Sunday’s 29-26 overtime loss to New England, a flubbed play that could have made OT unnecessary if the Jets kept driving. “It was difficult but it’s over now.”

Hill’s teammates, including quarterback Mark Sanchez and fellow receiver Jeremy Kerley, were the strongest supporters of adopting a selective memory.

“I said, ‘Don’t even worry about it … you’re going to get another shot to catch the ball. Just forget about it. Never happened. Move on,’ ” Sanchez said, expressing the belief the second-round pick from Georgia Tech had indeed buried the play in his mind. “His drop was a physical mistake, he ran the right route, he got himself open. He knows how to catch the football. He had a hell of a game.”

Coach Rex Ryan this week claimed the game still ranked as Hill’s best. All the receivers, including Hill and Kerley, have needed to do extra, covering for the loss of Santonio Holmes. Holmes suffered a Lisfranc injury to his left foot in the fourth game and was subsequently placed on the season-ending injured reserve list, leaving Kerley as the only wide receiver who was on the roster last season.

Since Holmes’ injury, the second-year Kerley has enjoyed the best three-game stretch of his embryonic career with 15 receptions and 238 yards — he had 120 yards, his first ever 100-yard game, through a personal best seven receptions against the Patriots.

“It wasn’t really an ‘I’ thing,” Hill said of the receivers’ reactions to the Holmes’ injury. “Yeah, we did challenge ourselves personally, but we did it as a unit, a receiving unit. Chaz [Schilens], Kerley, we talk every time we’re on the field making sure we know [what we should do]. We criticize each other for routes, tell each other if certain routes look . … You can definitely tell we’re starting to grow.”

Sanchez sees it, even if others in the league don’t.

“Guys don’t respect them enough, to be honest,” Sanchez said. “It’s an explosive group.”

And a together group. One that closes ranks in support. Like after Hill’s drop.

“He’s not the type to beat himself up and I’m not the type that would let him beat himself up,” Kerley said. “Stephen is going to be asked to make that same play two or three weeks from now, two or three days from now. I told him just to keep his head up, don’t worry about it, drops are going to happen.”

fred.kerber@nypost.com