Bowles Insists Team Won't Let Loss Linger

NEW YORK — This isn't exactly where the Jets expected to be right now. At least, not this way.

Todd Bowles' bunch is 1-2 after an embarrassing flop in Cleveland, falling 21-17 on Thursday night to a Browns team that hadn't won since 2016. Two losses in five days have New York looking for answers and hoping things don't quickly spiral before the season is even a month old.

“It's a 24-hour rule and you've got to have tough skin,” Bowles said Friday morning. “We're a tough-minded team and it's not going to drag. We've got a couple of days to get some rest and get some guys back and get healthy and move on to Jacksonville next week — no different from if we had won the ballgame.

“We'll be fine that way. I think we're mentally tough.”

Judging from the mistakes, penalties and missed opportunities in the Jets' losses to Miami last Sunday and then at Cleveland, the team hasn't backed up its coach.

That assessment will certainly be tested, though. New York's upcoming schedule includes some tough defenses — at Jacksonville, vs. Denver, vs. Indianapolis, vs. Minnesota and at Chicago — that will be licking their chops at the prospect of facing rookie quarterback Sam Darnold.

“Going in, watching the schedule after he won starting job, I thought this would be his toughest game from a scheme-coverage standpoint because of the things they do on that side of the ball,” Bowles said. “I thought he handled that well.”

It's not that the No. 3 overall pick has been bad. Darnold hasn't been particularly great, either.

In the Jets' two losses, he has one touchdown pass and four interceptions, al- though the two against Cleveland came late in the game while he was trying to rally New York to a comeback.

“It's not acceptable the way that I played tonight and I know that, but also take it like a man,” Darnold said after the game. “I feel like I'm responsible for some of the stagnant offense that we had. I just have to play better. That's really it.”

Darnold was 15 of 31 for 169 yards on Thursday.

“He has a fire within that you really can't see, but I thought he competed his butt off yesterday,” Bowles said. “I thought yesterday was one of his better ballgames from a mental standpoint and a toughness standpoint and a grit standpoint.”

But Darnold was easily overshadowed in front of a prime-time crowd by Baker Mayfield, the No. 1 overall pick who energized the Browns while leading them to their first win since Dec. 24, 2016.