LaRon Landry didn’t want to take his pads off. He didn’t want to leave the locker room. So he sat in front of his locker with his head in his hands and a million thoughts speeding through his brain.
The Jets safety was so disgusted and disillusioned by what had just transpired in the 34-0 loss to the 49ers last Sunday at MetLife Stadium, he wanted to sprint back through the tunnel and onto the field and play another game.
It has been six long days and counting since that game, and Monday night, Landry and the Jets get to run back onto the field and right the litany of wrongs they committed against the 49ers.
Their opponents, the 4-0 Texans, are by many accounts better than the 49ers.
That doesn’t seem to matter, though. The Jets simply want to play another game as soon as possible to erase the memory of last Sunday.
“It ticked me off,’’ Landry said yesterday. “It was a tough pill to swallow. I hate to lose. It was like pee-wee football as a kid. You lost your pride. I take that to heart.’’
Landry described the mood in the Jets locker room this week as “antsy’’ to get back onto the field, describing the loss to the 49ers as “a feeling that you don’t want to feel again and you’ll do anything to prevent it.’’
“It rubbed me the wrong way,’’ he said. “I have a lot of animosity — a chip on my shoulder to go out [tomorrow] and produce.’’
On Wednesday, in the darkness of the defensive team meeting room, a quiet animosity was generated when defensive coordinator Mike Pettine posted the quote on the video screen from 49ers cornerback Carlos Rogers, saying it looked like the Jets defense “quit’’ in the game.
“I let those guys read it and take it in,’’ Pettine said.
The response from the players in the room?
“Silence,’’ Pettine said.
“You’re going to get all sorts of insults hurled at you in sports, that you’re slow or you’re dumb,’’ Pettine said. “But to me, there’s nothing worse that can get put on you than someone saying that you quit.’’
Indeed, the Jets have become a punch line of late with their struggles.
“When you lose like we did you open yourself up for criticism and ridicule and it’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’’ Jets special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff said.
With their last body of work the non-competitive performance against the 49ers, a number of precincts have been weighing in on the Jets this week consensus is all negative.
“Everyone wants to see us fail,’’ safety Eric Smith said.
“People are going to find a reason to hate us with all the attention our team gets,’’ left guard Matt Slauson said.
A Steve Serby column in The Post this week, calling the Jets a “dead team walking,’’ rattled a few cages in the locker room.
“I’ve heard that before,’’ veteran right guard Brandon Moore said. “There have been times when that’s been true to some degree and there have been time when the team has pulled it out. I’ve been on more teams when people early in season try to write you off once some adversity hits, start saying the season’s over and then guys come together and make plays and string some wins together.
“Guys have an idea of what people are saying about them — that we are a descending team feeling sorry for ourselves about injuries,’’ Moore added. “I don’t think guys are buying into that, because we’re getting ready for the next game and you’ve always got that attitude that this is going to be the game that it all comes together.’’
Moore hinted you “might see an angry team’’ tomorrow night.
“I think you’ll see a team that’s hungry, a team that’s a totally different team from last week and a team with a lot more energy,’’ safety Yeremiah Bell said.
“You’ll see a fired-up, motivated team, without a doubt,’’ defensive tackle Mike DeVito said. “There’s an urgency to get things fixed and show everybody that wasn’t us.’’