11/01 — The Jets have reached the midway point of their season today with a 4-4 record overall and a 1-3 mark in the division. After a 3-0 start, which included a signature home victory over the Patriots in Week 2, the Green & White have lost four of five heading into their bye week.

“We’re putting ourselves in a tough situation. You lose three division games — that’s tough,” said OLB Calvin Pace after the Jets dominated the Dolphins on the stat sheet but dropped a 30-25 decision at the Meadowlands. “We’re starting to get in a situation where you need help from other people and you never want to do that. Never.”

“Obviously we have a ton of work to do,” added Jets head coach Rex Ryan. “We put ourselves in a hole here.”

Many Jets were asked if they had been humbled by their latest experience. Braylon Edwards, acquired in a trade from the Browns after the Jets’ first quartet of games, said enough is enough.

“Since I got here, we’re 1-3. We’ve had enough humbling experiences to start to move forward and get on a roll,” said the tall wideout who caught four balls for 74 yards against the ‘Fins including a one-handed 19-yard scoring reception. “We don’t need to be humbled any more — we need to go out with a vengeance.”

Fans don’t want to hear it on a night like this, but the Jets aren’t far away from being a good team. The defense played winning football in seven of the team’s eight games to date, they have the No. 1 rushing attack in the NFL and rookie QB Mark Sanchez (20-of-35 for 265 yards, two TDs throwing and one rushing) shows promise.

But you have to put together complete games in this league and it’s awfully difficult to win when your rookie QB has two turnovers that result in touchdowns (at New Orleans — loss one), when your defense gives up over 400 yards and three fourth-quarter TDs (at Miami — loss two), when the rook tosses five interceptions in one contest (vs. Buffalo — loss three), and then your special teams yield two 100-yard TDs on kickoff returns and a lost fumble by a rookie back is taken to the house (vs. Miami — loss four).

“Our M.O. is good. We can run the football and Sanchez is coming around a little bit," Ryan said. "With Cotchery and Braylon in there at wideout and Dustin Keller today, I feel confident about our passing game and I’ve always felt confident in our defense. On special teams, which usually is a huge strength for us, we have to pick it up, obviously.”

Ryan wants his players away from football over the next week and then the season’s third quarter will start. Games 9–12 shape up like this for the Green & White: vs. Jacksonville (3-3 before playing at Tennessee), at New England (5-2 and on its bye week), vs. Carolina (2-4 before playing at Arizona) and at Buffalo (3-5 after losing at home to Houston).

“The only way to come out of it is we have to come out with our hair on fire. That’s the only way we can make the playoffs,” Ryan said. “We have a hell of a schedule coming up, too.”

“It’s not an ideal situation,” Pace said. “You always want to go into the bye with a win. It’s tough to sit at home for a week and you can’t play obviously when you have a taste of losing in your mouth.”

Ryan said his club’s record "should be better than what it is right now.” And he’s right, but the Jets have to be more complete and the first half of the 2009 season is over.

“There’s something big for this team down the road. There’s something big,” said veteran DE Shaun Ellis, a member of the defense that sacked Chad Henne five times, Ronnie Brown once out of the Wildcat, and held the ‘Fins to 104 yards — the fourth-lowest opponent output in 50 years of Jets football. “We’re going through this for a reason and it’s going to start going our way down the road. I don’t know what it is, but we’re being tested. It’s going to look up. We’re going to turn it around.”

Don’t expect them to quit. They have too much character and too much pride. Sure, they might appear a little wobbly right now, but the fight's still got a second half.

“We still have a lot of football left,” said Thomas Jones, who ran for 102 tough yards this afternoon. “Nobody in this locker room is down on themselves, no one on this team has given up at all.”

“If my back’s on the wall, I’m punching, I’m punching somebody,” Ryan said. “I’m bringing everything I got and our team will to. I believe that.”