Jets’ Saleh: ‘Starting from the first series of the year all the way to now, it’s just been a constant battle’

The New York Jets season effectively ended on Sunday after they were routed on the road by the Dolphins 30-0.

With the loss, the 5-9 Jets are officially eliminated from playoff contention.

Following a promising performance against the Texans last week, Jets QB Zach Wilson, who threw for over 300 yards against Houston, struggled against Miami, but it wasn’t all his fault; the Jets could not protect Zach Wilson on Sunday, and he was sacked four times; Ultimately, Wilson would leave in the second quarter with a concussion.

A year with many expectations ended when Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles on the first series in Week 1 against the Bills.

After the loss, Jets head coach Robert Saleh called missing the playoffs “disappointing.”

“Starting from the first series of the year all the way to now, it’s just been a constant battle,” Saleh said. “I do appreciate the heck out of our guys. We still got three games left to finish strong. As bad as we feel now, we got to remember we felt pretty good last week, too. We got a good Washington team coming in that’s going to be licking their chops, so we got to go and take care of business and get ourselves ready to play that one.

Jets corner Sauce Gardner added on missing the playoffs: “It’s definitely frustrating. Beginning of the season, that’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to be able to compete in the playoffs. I don’t know what to say for real.”

New York’s other corner, D.J. Reed, is frustrated about missing the playoffs, frustrated about the loss, and frustrated about his performance against the Dolphins.

“Just frustrated, man, especially with the way I played,” he said. “I’ve definitely played better. Got to get it done. I came into the game this whole week, I ain’t felt well, but that’s no excuse. I’m out there; got to get the job done. Just frustrated with the work we put in, how hard we worked. That’s not the outcome – getting goose egg and getting beat by 30 is definitely not the route that we thought was going to happen today.”

Jets wideout Garrett Wilson was noticeably frustrated on the sidelines on Sunday as he was not much of a factor after having only three catches for 29 yards.

“I got to be out there 60 minutes, trying to figure out the way to make those 60 minutes productive on the offensive side if possible.” he explained. “That time’s still ticking away, and you start pressing, not pressing, but you feel it ticking away. Just trying to figure out how to get something going. A lot of times it comes off like I’m saying something, but reality of it is I just talk with a lot of emotion sometimes, especially when I’m playing the game I love and not getting the results that we want.”

This season of frustration for the Jets has basically ended with a frustrating blowout loss. How fitting.