SEATTLE (AP) - Jamal Adams sat on the opposing bench, looked up at the scoreboard and felt empathy for his former team.
The already miserable season of the New York Jets may have hit a new low on Sunday.
“I hope they get it right,” said Adams, the 2019 All-Pro safety for the Jets and current Seattle Seahawks standout. “I know some of the guys are frustrated. Really everybody over there, they’re pretty frustrated. Just got to keep going. It’s a marathon, man, not a sprint.”
There was very little good in the Jets’ 40-3 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday. The 37-point difference was the worst of an already miserable season for New York and the worst since a 41-3 loss to New England in 2016.
It was just the 15th time since the merger in 1970 the Jets lost by 37 or more points.
“We’re prideful regardless of our situation, so we’re going to go out there and give it our all every single Sunday, every single game that we play,” Jets QB Sam Darnold said. “Our pride and what we play for and how we play, that’s not going to be a question.”
Days after firing defensive coordinator Gregg Williams followigng the collapse at the end of last week’s loss to Las Vegas, the Jets (0-13) showed little resistance on defense and little excitement on offense as they lost their franchise-record 13th straight.
Jets coach Adam Gase didn’t want to speculate whether there was a hangover from a week ago, when New York lost in the final seconds to the Raiders. But the performance against Seattle was a forgettable effort.
“I would hate to say that that was a reason for anything today,” Gase said. “Today, we didn’t take advantage of any opportunity we had. I felt like the guys did a good job of bouncing back and to come to practice and do a lot right as far as execution goes, good energy. Traveling to the West Coast, I thought they handled it the right way and went about it the right way.”
After showing life and the chance of picking up a first victory against the Raiders, the Jets reverted into a familiar trend of mistakes and missed chances.
Darnold and the New York offense were stagnant, getting held to three points for the second time in three weeks. It was the fifth time this season they were held under double figures. While Seattle was well on its way to victory, the Jets managed just 20 yards of offense and never ran a play in Seattle’s half of the field in the second half.
Darnold was 14 of 26 for 132 yards. The Jets managed only 69 yards rushing.
“They were doing a good job of disrupting our flow,” Darnold said. “They were doing a really good job of stopping the run game. And then when we needed to pass the ball, we couldn’t do it efficiently enough to win the game.”
And when the Jets did get into scoring range - in the first half only - kicker Sergio Castillo let them down. Castillo was fine at the start, hitting from 45 yards to cap New York’s opening drive. It was the seventh straight game the Jets scored on their opening possession, the longest streak in franchise history and the longest active streak in the NFL.
But from there, Castillo missed from 37, 41 and 43 yards, all in the first half.
“After the first kick, I felt pretty confident kicking that 40-plus,” Castillo said. “I just didn’t follow through on a couple ones and it just was one after the other. I have to do better in bouncing back, and that’s on me.”
The Jets became the ninth team since the merger to start a season with 13 straight losses. Three of those went on to have winless seasons. The challenge of snapping that skid won’t get easier with a visit to the Los Angeles Rams next week, the co-leaders in the NFC West along with Seattle.
“You’ve got to show up on Sundays ready to play,” said Jets safety Marcus Maye, whose interception was one of New York’s few highlights. “You go throughout the week with the game plan. Come Sunday, you’ve got to execute. You’ve got to know it’s live bullets. I mean, you’ve got to show up on Sunday ready to play.”
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