KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The New York Jets feel the pressure. Yes, already. You could hear it in their voices and read it in their body language Sunday evening, after their blooper-reel loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Everything that went so right last week went so wrong at Arrowhead Stadium, where they committed a bad month's worth of turnovers (eight) in one lousy afternoon for a 24-3 loss. The Jets, who began the season with championship aspirations, suddenly find themselves 1-2 and already two games behind the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots.
"This was not good," Brandon Marshall said. "We have to watch film and get it corrected ASAP. That's embarrassing, and it can't happen."
Team confidence can be so fragile in the NFL. The same players who looked and sounded invincible 10 days ago in Buffalo seemed rattled during and after the mistake-filled performance, easily one of the sloppiest games in team history.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, usually a smart quarterback in the red zone, threw three of his six interceptions (yes, six!) inside the Chiefs' 20. His trusty red zone target, Eric Decker, was somewhere in the twilight zone. He didn't catch a pass until the fourth quarter. His frustration was palpable on the field, according to Fitzpatrick, and easy to sense in the postgame locker room. The man has only nine receptions in three games, and that's not cool.
"Honestly, I just want to find a way to win," Decker said. "Whatever that formula is. ... If it's catching more balls, yeah, sure."
The Jets' greatest strength last season -- red zone efficiency -- has turned into a hit-or-miss proposition. The Jets were 0-for-4 against the Chiefs, which brings their total to 5-for-14. They lost their mojo in part because they were too pass-happy -- 10 passes and only two runs in the red zone. Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey forgot about Matt Forte, who scored three touchdowns the previous week.
"Maybe we're a little overconfident," Marshall said of the red zone problem. "We maybe get too cute."
Asked what he meant by "too cute," which sounded like he was questioning the playcalling, Marshall said, "I said what I said. I'm not going to go in-depth on that. We have to get better."
The Jets got so discombobulated by the Chiefs that mild-mannered coach Todd Bowles turned his postgame news conference into a PG-13 movie by using five expletives.
Yep, this team is feeling the pressure, and now it has the Seattle Seahawks coming to town. We'll learn a lot about the Jets, a team that prides itself on having strong, level-headed leadership from an accomplished group of older players. Marshall called upon the veteran leaders to take charge and guide the team through its first dose of adversity.
"This is a great blueprint for us," he said of the crushing loss. "We can either go two ways as a team after a smack in the face like this. We can either fold and not jell as a team or use this as a character-building game and look at what's going on internally.
"Our leaders need to step up and do a better job. [We need to] look at the X's and O's, get it corrected. We have too much firepower on this team to be sitting in this stadium like this."
He's right. They have firepower, as they demonstrated against the Bills. But the mark of a good team -- dare we say the Patriots? -- is consistency. Right now, the Jets aren't a good team. They're dazed and deflated, searching for a way to save their season.
Yes, already.