Players shaking hands and giving and getting slaps on the backs are normal to see before and after games. But at halftime?
Yet Jets safety Ed Reed got a few well wishes, from Baltimore WR Jacoby Jones and TE Ed Dickson, even as he left his side of the field to go to the visitors' locker room at M&T Bank Stadium at the end of the first half during our 19-3 loss to the Ravens on Sunday.
"It's always special, man, being here," said Reed, who made his second start as a Jet and his second start for an opponent on this field this year after making 175 regular-season and playoff starts here as a vaunted member of the Ravens from 2002-12. "You hate to be on this side of the fence, but somebody wins and somebody loses. It's a child's game we play. We had fun. We've got to make our corrections and be ready to play next week."
Reed made contributions to the game with five tackles and a first-quarter pass defense — unofficially his first PD of the season — against Jones in the end zone. But one time he wasn't able to break things up was on Joe Flacco's 66-yard touchdown pass to Jones at the end of the third quarter.
"They made a play," Reed said. "Jacoby caught the ball. He adjusted to the ball really well. He made a play. ... We know what mistakes were made and that's all that needs to be said and needs to be done. We need to make our corrections on it."
Head coach Rex Ryan didn't want to delve into the details of that play, either, until he had reviewed the video Sunday night and today.
"The deep ball, we're playing quarters coverage. That was kind of a Ripley's Believe It or Not. It's hard to figure that out," Ryan said.
In response to a later question, he said: "I'm not going to get into the specifics of it, but you almost should have four guys across there. I'm not going to pin it on any individual, but it's certainly not on one guy, it's certainly not on Ed Reed. He'd probably be third on that list. But I'm not going to get into the main culprit or whatever. All I know is we've got to get better."
Extra Points
Muhammad Wilkerson was credited with two sacks of Flacco, giving him 10 for the season. That makes Mo the first Jet with double-digit sacks since John Abraham had 10.5 sacks in '05. ... Calvin Pace also had one of the four Flacco sacks, giving him seven for the season. ... Sheldon Richardson split a sack and also was involved in a game-high nine tackles, three of which were for losses.
With Bilal Powell in the lead (41 yards on 11 carries), we finished with 102 rushing yards on 28 carries, while our run defense continued its excellence by allowing 67 yards on 31 carries (2.2 average). In all 11 games this season we have had more rushing yardage than our opponents, a franchise-long streak.
Jones' catch was part of his 249-yard all-purpose game. He had four catches for 103 yards, stepped in for Tandon Doss with five punt returns for 108 yards, and added two kickoff returns for 38 yards. That's the most all-purpose yardage by a Jets opponent since Percy Harvin's 272 yards for Minnesota in 2010. ... CB Corey Graham joins Buffalo's Jairus Byrd, Tennessee's Alterraun Verner and New England's Aqib Talib as Jets foes who had two interceptions in a game this season.
