ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Sometimes the Jets simply make it too easy. Sometimes they just go ahead and write the narrative for you.
Case in point: Sunday’s listless 37-14 loss to the Bills on a blustery Buffalo day at Ralph Wilson Stadium — a defeat that will forever be known in Jets lore alongside the likes of the “Fake Spike Game’’ as the “Dave & Buster’s Game.’’
It’s your prerogative to judge whether the decision by coach Rex Ryan to take the players on an impromptu team outing to the wings-and-arcade chain near the team hotel on Saturday night, during a period when the coaches usually conduct meetings, had anything to do with how poorly they played on Sunday.
That, of course, is impossible to measure tangibly.
But there is no arguing the perception Ryan created, unwittingly delivering a motivational bullet to a struggling Bills team that had lost its previous three games by a combined 41 points.
Ryan’s intentions were surely pure, meant as no disrespect to anyone. If Ryan is about anything as a head coach he is about team building and camaraderie.
But he had to know what the perception would be: The Jets were so confident they replaced team meeting time with a night out of Skee-Ball and Pac-Man.
Had the Jets gone out and done what they came to Western New York to do — which was to beat the Bills, win their second consecutive game for the first time all season and galvanize their playoff position — the “Dave & Buster’s’’ night out would have been laughed off.
Instead, the loss and the way it went down — with the Jets out-everythinged by the Bills — leaves you wondering if it had a motivational effect on the Bills and/or an overconfidence effect on the Jets.
“Me personally, I feel it was disrespectful. I take my nephew to Dave & Busters,’’ Bills defensive end Mario Williams told The Post.
“What were they thinking?’’ another member of Bills told The Post. “I can understand if the team was tight and needed a break to loosen up, but they were coming off a bye week.’’
Ryan defended the move, saying: “We do different things when we’re on the road. I don’t know how that would give [the opponent] added motivation.’’
If the Jets played the Bills as well as they worked those arcade joy sticks the night before they might be 6-4 now and in commanding position to make the playoffs.
Asked if he still “views’’ the Jets as a playoff team, veteran right guard Willie Colon grew uncharacteristically agitated.
“I’m tired of answering that damn question,’’ he said. “We’re not a playoff team until they say we’re in the playoffs. Right now, we just lost to the [bleeping] Buffalo Bills so please don’t ask me that question anymore.’’
The Jets were badly outplayed by the Bills, beginning with Ryan being outcoached by Bills coach Doug Marrone.
Marrone heard about the arcade outing the night before, when The Post’s Brian Costello broke the news, but he opted not to say anything to his players before the game, because he knew they were already aware of it. He instead decided to let them marinate on it and use it for whatever motivation they chose once kickoff arrived.
Judging by the way the Bills smacked the Jets in the mouth en route to a 20-0 halftime lead and forced four Geno Smith turnovers, they handled it perfectly and the Jets, 1-4 on the road this year, did not.
Receiver David Nelson, a former Bill, said the Jets’ problems stem from “a lack of maturity,’’ calling the team “just a bunch of young guys trying to figure out how to win, how to travel.’’
“We have to just grow up,’’ Nelson said. “We’ve got a young team, but we can’t let that be an excuse.’’
Colon, downplaying the adverse motivational effects of the Saturday night field trip, refused to use that as an excuse.
“I don’t care who we go against, if they go and see the Empire State Building, that’s them,’’ Colon said. “If it was motivation for them then it is, but if a team had done that to me it wouldn’t motivate me. If they feel that was motivation for them, fine, but we beat ourselves today, they didn’t beat us.’’
That’s very debatable.
“It was team-bonding moment for us to grow together as a team,’’ Colon said. “It had nothing to do with our actions on the field.’’
That’s also debatable.