HEAD OVER HEELS: Receiver Jeremy Kerley gets flipped upside down by a hit from the Seahawks’ Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman (25) during the Jets’ offensively decrepit 28-7 loss yesterday. (Getty Images)
SEATTLE — Mike DeVito was there. Muhammad Wilkerson was there, too. So was Calvin Pace. Bart Scott, with his mangled big toe that requires him to wear a specially made cleat just to suit up and play, was there.
Antonio Cromartie was there. Rookie Quinton Coples was there. Sione Pouha was there. Bryan Thomas was there. David Harris, too. Yeremiah Bell and LaRon Landry were there.
Even Ellis Langster was there … until he finally broke down in the fourth quarter — as did the rest of the defense, really.
Most of the Jets’ defensive players were there and accounted for yesterday at CenturyLink Field.
The offense was a different story.
Mark Sanchez? Missing. Dustin Keller? Lost. Rookie receiver Stephen Hill? Invisible. The offensive line? Don’t ask.
The defense did about everything it could for three quarters to keep the Jets in what ended as a 28-7 loss to the Seahawks, other than padlock the Seattle offensive players in their locker room.
But the Jets’ offense would not cooperate. In fact, it rebelled, throwing the game away — literally.
By the time it was over and the Jets were on their red-eye flight back to New Jersey at 3-6 with their playoff hopes in peril, here’s what the real score behind the score was: Jets defense 7, Jets offense 0.
Sanchez and the rest of the offense owe the defense an apology.
“[The defense] definitely gave us an opportunity to win the game; they played well,’’ left guard Brandon Moore said. “You feel bad. You got one side that for most part put it together and the other side had sparks and was just not consistent.’’
Actually, the Jets’ offense was consistent. It was consistently bad.
The anemic offense kept the Seahawks in the game despite the effort of the Jets’ defensive teammates. And, with each failed series, the offense let the game bleed away. The Jets’ offense, with no explosive players and its propensity to turn the ball over, leaves the defense no margin for error.
By the time the fourth quarter arrived, the Jets’ defense was shot, broken, abandoning fundamentals and, instead of tackling, was wildly swiping at Seahawks players trying to force turnovers and win the game by itself. That led to the lopsided score in the end.
The 1985 Bears defense could not have withstood this level of lack of support.
After a week of pleading to his players to stop beating themselves, this is what coach Rex Ryan got from them:
* Sanchez threw an interception at the Seattle goal line and later, trying to do too much in the face of a blitz, fumbled the ball away in the fourth quarter. On both plays, he made inexcusably poor decisions, which were avoidable and unacceptable for a player with his experience.
* Keller, Sanchez’s most dependable target and one of the veteran leaders of the offense, was called for two key false-start penalties and also dropped a crucial third-down pass.
* Receiver Jeremy Kerley muffed a punt in the second quarter that led to the Seahawks’ go-ahead touchdown and a 14-7 lead they never relinquished.
The final score will indicate the Jets were blown out by the Seahawks on both sides of the ball — but that was not the case.
The Jets defense slowed running back Marshawn Lynch, who entered the game having rushed for more yards (881) than the Jets had as a team (878) until he padded his 124-yard day with 60 yards in the fourth quarter when the Jets were already broken.
DeVito forced a Lynch fumble that was recovered by Wilkerson, who returned it 21 yards to tie the game at 7-7 in the first quarter.
Wilkerson later sacked quarterback Russell Wilson and forced a fumble that was recovered by Pace in the second quarter. Overall, there were enough plays made on defense to give the Jets a chance to win the game.
“The season ain’t getting no longer; it’s only getting shorter, so something’s got to give,’’ Bell said. “We have to come together in this locker room. That’s the only way we’re going to do thing this — together.’’
If they had been doing it together yesterday, the Jets might not be in the 3-6 mess they’re in now.