When Rex Ryan said on Friday that the Jets weren't putting Darrelle Revis on injured reserve because they didn't want to preclude his return for the Super Bowl, it was worth a chuckle.
After Sunday's 34-0 loss to the 49ers, it's hard to find the humor in the suggestion that this Jets season could include a trip to the Super Bowl. If Revis is going to be in New Orleans, he's going to need a ticket because this Jets team isn't a contender for the big game.
They were bad across the board on Sunday and one of the few seriously talented players left on the team suffered a serious-looking knee injury. Wide receiver Santonio Holmes went down without being touched, eerily reminiscent of the way Revis got hurt against the Dolphins, and fumbled the ball as he fell to the ground in pain.
49ers cornerback Carlos Rogers returned the ball 51 yards for a touchdown to make the score 24-0 and end any hopes of a Jets comeback. Those hopes were already of the million-to-one variety thanks in large part to the fact that Holmes' turnover was the fourth of the game for the Jets.
The first came on Tim Tebow's first pass of the season and also ended in injury. Tight end Dedrick Epps caught a high, flutterball from Tebow and took a big shot from safety Dashon Goldson that caused both a fumble and a knee injury for Epps.
Mark Sanchez got stripped on an Aldon Smith sack on a rare Jets possession that could have led to points and threw an interception on the first drive of the second half after his pass was deflected into Patrick Willis' hands. Sanchez was awful all day, finishing 13-of-29 for 103 yards in a performance that would send many teams reaching for the backup.
The Jets continued to resist giving Tebow any serious use, although he did serve as a blocking back on two first half passing plays, and that renews the question of just what the shirtless wonder boy is doing on the team in the first place. This isn't a roster talented enough to waste space on a guy who isn't going to be part of the effort to actually win games.
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This was a perfect moment to get Tebow into the game and figure out whether there's any reason at all to think that he can be part of that effort. Sunday was the definition of nothing to lose because the game was already lost.
Would it cause a quarterback controversy? Sure, but Sanchez' play on Sunday warrants something more than a resigned decision to just keep him in there.
You'd like to say that the Jets defense provided a little bit of a silver lining and they did do a pretty decent job against the mediocre 49ers passing game. There were a couple of sacks from the previously snoozy pass rush as well.
They were ransacked on the ground, however, and San Francisco finished the afternoon with 247yards on the ground. That tarnishes a silver lining pretty quickly for a team that really has nothing going right at the moment.
And we mean nothing. When the score was already 27-0 and there wasn't any doubt left in the proceedings, Robert Malone got a punt blocked to set up yet another 49ers score on a brief drive that included a pass to a defensive tackle.
It's not a formula for success and it certainly isn't a formula for a Super Bowl berth. With the Texans rolling in next week and the Jets awfully light on talent, it could well be the formula for a very high draft pick.
Josh Alper is also a writer for Pro Football Talk. You can follow him on Twitter.
