Patriots 49, Jets 19: 'Nightmare' game for Jets puts playoff hopes to sleep

New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan called Thursday night's embarrassing 49-19 loss to the New England Patriots "a night mare." Question is, can the 4-7 Jets wake up or has their 2012 season been put to sleep for good.

"That was a nightmare of a game, to say the least," Ryan said. "You turn the ball over five times and then blow coverage. We just got beat. I know we’re better physically on defense than how we played. The five turnovers….that team is a good enough that they don’t need help. We did both – we helped them, and they clearly outplayed and outcoached us."

[Complete recap]

The Patriots broke open a scoreless game with five second-quarter touchdowns, including three in less than 60 seconds -- a sequence aided by a series of mistakes by the bumbling Jets.

"I thought it was almost impossible to score 35 points in a quarter, but they found a way to do it. You have to give them a ton of credit. That’s a great football team," Ryan said. "Like I said, they don’t need any help, and when you don’t protect the football…35 points in a quarter is ridiculous."

The playoffs would appear to be a pipe dream for the Jets at this point, and Ryan said Thursday he is "not thinking about that."

"We just have to play as good as we can. That’s the bottom line. We have to play as good as we can, and we’ll see what happens. That has to be what we do," Ryan said. "We have five games left. Let’s see how good we can possibly play and how good we can coach."

Will these be the final five games of Ryan's tenure as Jets' coach? The restless, booing crowd at MetLife Stadium might have been offering an opinion on that. Ryan, of course, had a different take.

"I don’t blame them. I don’t blame them for booing me," Ryan said. "I think our team will play a heck of a lot better and I don’t believe anybody will ask that question (if he will be fired) by the time the year’s over."