10/24 — The weather at today's practice matched the mood of the team: overcast. The Jets worked outside again, next to the training bubble they rarely use even in the foulest weather, although it appeared that the rain crawling across Long Island fell before and after practice, leaving the players, like the sky, grim and gray.

"It's tough, man. A situation like this, it's not good," safety Kerry Rhodes, serving Monday and today as an unflinching front man for his unit and his team, said with a laugh. "You're not having fun. It's tough. But you've got to fight through it."

And Eric Mangini is grappling with an issue that has bedeviled the Jets' defense this season.

"We've worked on tackling in five of the last six practices, and there's been some progress," the Jets' head coach said today. "There needs to continue to be progress there. ... It can be one guy on any given play that changes a play from what should be a big play to a nothing play or a nothing play into a big play."

Mangini then mentioned a few specifics:

"When you look at some of these runs, runs that should be stopped for 4 or 5 yards go 10 to 12 yards because we missed a tackle in the secondary. You list two 70‑yard passes, whatever those two passes were, one was on a hitch and the other one was on a slant. Historically, those passes are 5 to 7 yards. You miss a tackle and now it looks like you gave up a deep ball, but the reality is you could've tackled better on that play. We had a situation on third-and-2, a defender free in the hole, and we missed the tackle in the backfield. That really had nothing to do with the front. We should have been off the field. There have been too many plays like that."

Too many such plays contribute to creating a bit of bad franchise history such as this: In giving up 130 rushing yards to Kenny Watson and 102 receiving yards to Chad Johnson at Cincinnati, the Jets for the first time in franchise history have yielded a 100-yard rusher AND a 100-yard receiver in three consecutive games. Here are the totals:

This is one of those "sounds neat but what does it mean?" charts. Suffice it to say that if a defense is giving up 200-plus yards of offense to two opposing players every game, issues need to be addressed.

Rhodes explained why the tackling issue is ticklish for players.

"In this league you’re going to miss tackles," he said. "There are good players on offense that can make good plays and make you miss. They are here for a reason. Some tackles that we've missed, I think its just getting back to the fact that we’re losing. If we were winning and we had these missed tackles, it would be an issue but it wouldn’t be as magnified as it is. Everything gets magnified more when you’re losing.

"But we’re professionals and we have to work at it."

Which they'll be doing in advance of the Bills coming to town. Despite the 17-14 loss at Buffalo in Week 4, the Jets contained rookie RB Marshawn Lynch to 79 yards and Lee Evans had the most receiving yards, 72 on six catches.

There are no guarantees the Green & White defense will repeat this feat and come out of Sunday with a home win. And the Bills are feeling frisky these days, having beaten the Jets, then nearly upset the Cowboys on Monday night, then coasted through their bye week to hold off the Ravens last week.

But the Jets have to find a way. If the teaching and learning are going to kick in, this is about the time. Last season the "D" showed proof of life in the second half of Game 8 at Cleveland and used that as a springboard to improvements in virtually all areas over the second half of the schedule.

More Message Music

For those keeping score at home, two songs were played — loudly — during practice today.

"Fight Outta You" by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Key lyrics: "I would rather take a punch than not give you a shot. I'd rather find out who you are than who you're not."

"Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" by McFadden & Whitehead. Key lyric: "We're gonna get ourselves together. We're gonna polish up our act, yeah."

One Big Little Play

It's a hypothetical, of course, but had the Jets held on at Cincinnati, one of the overlooked plays from that game would have loomed large. It was the final play of the first half, when Shaun Ellis stunted around Dewayne Robertson and all of a sudden was powering his way into Carson Palmer's kitchen.

"I didn't think they were going to throw any flags on the play," Ellis said. Instead, referee Tony Corrente threw both of his flags. One was on guard Andrew Whitworth for holding Ellis. That was declined. The other was for intentional grounding by Palmer, because of the Big Katt's proximity.

Because the IG draws a 10-second runoff, the half ended not with a 60-yard Shayne Graham field goal try but with the Jets ahead, 20-10. Ah, well, like I said, hypothetical.

Look Who's a Bill

Buffalo just signed LB Blake Costanzo to their practice squad. Costanzo spent the last two training camps with the Jets and in between was voted All-NFL Europa before he was a final cut in September.