Now the Jets' defense stinks, too

Was it the game plan, the execution, the talent, the hot weather, the opponent, the long flight, the lack of help from the offense, the Pacific Ocean air, the alignment of the stars?

"We had a combo platter," Jets coach Rex Ryan said after his beloved defense lived down to the standard set by the offense -- if not worse -- in a 31-0 rout by the Chargers Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium.

Ryan blamed himself for the scheme but added that the players' execution of it wasn't good, either.

And then there are the Chargers, 4-1 and building an early MVP resume for quarterback Philip Rivers. If Rivers does win the award, during his acceptance speech, he should be sure to thank the Jets for their contributions.

He was 20-for-28 passing for 288 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, but it would have been worse had he not been so far ahead that he was happy to hand the ball off for much of the second half.

When a reporter asked Jets safety Calvin Pryor what it was like to watch the defense being torn apart by Rivers, he said, "He wasn't taking us apart. He passed for 288."

Well, yes, but he threw for 244 of those in the first half. Pryor conceded that was a fair point. "It was difficult at times," he said, "but we just have to fight through it."

The Chargers rushed for 162 yards, 114 of them by Branden Oliver, who also had 68 yards on four receptions. And this: The Chargers were 12-for-18 converting third downs, including 9-for-10 in the first half.

"Everybody wasn't on the same page, having mental breakdowns, finding ways not to get off the field," Pryor said.

Ryan was particularly angry about a 52-yard run by Oliver, saying, "We don't set the edge. You had everybody in the world coming over from one side. That was an embarrassment. If you don't know what you're doing responsibility-wise, that lies on my shoulders."

The day's lone bright spot, Ryan said, was the play of Phillip Adams, who filled multiple roles and secured the Jets' lone interception in five games when he outleaped Keenan Allen for a pass in the end zone.

"He's aggressive when he gets up in the air," Adams said of Allen, "so I had to try and snatch it from him, because he was going to try to grab it out of my hands."

This was early in the second quarter, with the score 7-0. On the next play, Jets running back Chris Johnson fumbled the ball back to the Chargers at the Jets' 20-yard line.

As the locker room cleared out, the final words from the defense came from tackle Sheldon Richardson during a loopy, somewhat testy four-minute exchange with reporters. He declined to reply to some questions that he seemed not to like and others that he indicated might get him in trouble if he answered honestly.

Was he angry? "I'm not angry, I'm calm," he said.

So what went wrong? "They executed, we didn't. They made plays, we didn't. That's the only thing that happened. They scored more points than we did. They won. Ballgame. Holla at y'all."

And with that he was gone. Next up: Peyton Manning.