NFL

Jets secondary finds itself cornered

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Jets secondary should have had a favorable matchup, facing a depleted Bills team missing both of its starting wideouts.

What they got was humbled, with corners Antonio Cromartie and Dee Milliner each coughing up deep highlight-reel touchdowns to backup receivers in a 37-14 loss.

In the second quarter, Milliner surrendered a 34-yard touchdown to T.J. Graham on an underthrown EJ Manuel pass that got caught up in the wind. Then in the third, Cromartie got beat on a 43-yard fly pattern by Marquise Goodwin, a play that made it 27-7 and essentially ended the contest.

“I’m so pissed with myself,’’ Cromartie said. “I looked back at the ball too long. I felt like I drifted away from him when I was already on top of the route and it kind of slowed me down. He got up on top, and he just made a play on the ball.

“That’s something for me. I’m pissed off at myself for, knowing that I can make that play. It’s just a matter of me doing the little things, making sure I get my head back around, seeing where the receiver is.’’

On that Goodwin touchdown, Ed Reed was late getting over to help and the receiver got separation late on Cromartie. On Graham’s, the Jets blitzed and Manuel’s heave got held up in the wind, which gusted to 30 mph. Milliner did a poor job of locating the ball, letting Graham come back to it, catch it and race into the end zone.

“He got behind me, the wind caught it and it hung up. I should’ve known it as a player. The wind is coming that way; it’s going to catch the ball, and it just drifted back down,’’ said Milliner, who said Graham didn’t illegally push off. “No, he caught the ball fair.’’

Coach Rex Ryan insisted he was pleased with Milliner’s play, and he said he has no plans to bench the first-round pick from Alabama.

“He’ll definitely remain in the starting lineup,’’ Ryan said. “I thought Dee played extremely well, notwithstanding the deep ball obviously on the cover zero when the ball was underthrown.’’

After the Jets had beaten Buffalo on Sept. 22, the Bills threw about half as many deep balls on Sunday, pecking away short until they hit their chances over the top.

“I think in the first game we played them they took 12 shots down the field. I think this game they took six or seven,’’ said Cromartie. “It’s just understanding how teams are trying to attack us, and who they’re trying to get the ball to. They made some underneath catches and tried to back us off a little bit, and it’s just trying to be physical and just doing our jobs.’’

Even without injured Buffalo starters Stevie Johnson and Robert Woods, Manuel said: “It was something that we saw we could take advantage of, and we did.’’