A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

If Jets don’t get victory in next three weeks, it may never come

How low can they go? The Jets are off to their first 0-2 start in a decade. A loss Sunday to the Dolphins would give them their f irst 0-3 start since 2003, when the Jets opened with four straight losses. In 1996, the Jets lost eight straight to begin the season before getting their lone win that year.

So, how many weeks will it take for these Jets to get a win?

Well, they begin a three-game stretch this week with games that feel like possible wins. They get the Dolphins at home, followed by a visit from the Jaguars to MetLife Stadium and then a trip to Cleveland for what might be the “Sam Darnold Bowl” against the Browns.

The 45-20 thrashing by the Raiders on Sunday was expected, and winning in Buffalo in Week 1 felt like a long shot. But this is the stretch that gives the Jets the best opportunity to get a win: The Dolphins are 1-0 after slipping past the winless Chargers; the Jaguars (1-1) will be coming back from London; and the Browns are, well, the Browns.

After the Browns game, the schedule gets much harder with games against the Patriots, Falcons, Buccaneers and Broncos looming.

If the Jets come out of Cleveland at 0-5, the 0-16 chatter is going to really begin.

While the Jets are not talking about their record, they know that if they have any hope of turning this season around, it begins with this stretch of games.

Todd Bowles wants to see if his team can fix the mistakes it has made in the opening two losses.

“I think we’ll learn a lot,” Bowles said of the next few weeks. “We’ve learned a lot in the two weeks that went by. We’ll learn a lot more about them in two weeks on whether we can correct these mistakes. I’m pretty sure we can.”

The Jets looked like a homecoming opponent Sunday for the Raiders, who looked like they could score at will early and late in the game with a brief period in the middle where they slipped up.

The Jets failed to make tackles on two big runs — touchdowns of 43 and 52 yards — and the defense that was expected to be a strength of this team has looked like a liability.

“I feel like we can correct these little things by working together, staying together and believing in one another,” nose tackle Steve McLendon said. “Then, we will get things right. With this upcoming week, we understand what kind of game this is, another division game and it’s a must-win for us. I think we’ll correct things this upcoming week.”

Bowles said they will f ix the tackling this week. They better. The Dophins’ Jay Ajayi is the next good running back the Jets have to face after they’ve dealt with LeSean McCoy and Marshawn Lynch.

“I know my team,” Bowles said. “I know the locker room. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been around these guys quite a bit and I have every confidence in the world in them.”

Last season, the Jets fell apart in Week 3 after a loss to the Chiefs. This offseason has been all about sticking together as a team and not pointing fingers at one another. If the losses continue to mount, the locker room will be tested.

“It’s a little bit of a test, but one of the things we’ve been working on all offseason is holding each other accountable and kind of growing as a team,” center Wes Johnson said. “We don’t look at it as a test in terms of becoming divided or anything like that. We just want to win. We’re going to do our best to go out and beat the Dolphins.”

In this bizarro season where Jets fans are celebrating losses because it gets them one step closer to the No. 1 pick, the players are still trying to win games. They want to get that goose egg out of the win column as soon as they can.

“This is a good challenge coming up for us because it’s another division game for us,” McLendon said. “We’re still in the thick of things. If we go out and get a win this week, I feel like it will help us go in the right direction with the right feeling coming in this locker room. We’d rather be looking, after these next two games, at 2-2 than 0-4.”