NFL

Rex: ‘Not a thought’ to bench Geno ‘right now’

On the day after the Titans dismantled his Jets, coach Rex Ryan provided an obvious diagnosis of what went wrong in the 38-13 beatdown.

“We’ve got to quit turning the ball over,” Ryan said Monday in a conference call with reporters. “That’s killing us right now. It wasn’t obvious until this past game. The reason it wasn’t obvious is because we played real good red-zone defense. That wasn’t the case yesterday.”

Tennessee scored 28 points off Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith’s four turnovers. Smith had two fumbles and two interceptions. All of them led to scores for the Titans.

Ryan reiterated Smith was not the only Jet to blame for the loss, but he clearly is annoyed with his young signal-caller’s inability to protect the ball. Smith has 11 turnovers through four games, tied with Giants quarterback Eli Manning for the most in the NFL.

“You can’t buy experience,” Ryan said. “With that being said, we still have to do a much better job with Geno in particular [thinking], ‘I have to protect the football at all costs.’ You can’t be nonchalant about it. You have to protect the ball. You can talk about it until you’re blue in the face. But when it happens, now you see it over and over. That’s the way we can improve.”

Ryan was asked whether he would consider benching Smith to give him some time to watch and learn from the sideline. With Mark Sanchez injured, Matt Simms is second on the depth chart.

“It’s not a thought at this point right now,” Ryan said. “Not a thought.”

Ryan would like to see Smith take the sack rather than turn the ball over.

“You have to be more aware of it like, ‘I’ve got to put two hands on the ball. I can’t just have one hand on a football,’ ” Ryan said. “The one where he fumbled for the touchdown he’s trying to avoid the rush, but at what cost? … We can’t afford to turn the ball over.”