Everything was set up yesterday for the Jets to pick up an easy win and get their record back to .500. They were playing the winless Buffalo Bills, featuring a rookie quarterback making his first career start.

But the Jets’ defense allowed that rookie quarterback, Trent Edwards, to pick apart the secondary with short, accurate passes. The offense, meanwhile, was devoid of big plays, and the Jets lost 17–14.

Edwards, playing in place of injured Bills starter J.P. Losman, completed 22 of 28 passes for 234 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. He was poised and accurate and generally didn’t look like a rookie.

That points to the biggest problem with the Jets’ defense: It can’t pressure opposing quarterbacks. Although Edwards was sacked twice (giving the Jets more sacks yesterday than they had in their first three games combined), on most plays he had time to get comfortable in the pocket. The Jets gave the Bills’ receivers a big enough cushion that Edwards routinely hit short passes right in front of the secondary.

The last of Edwards’ many short completions was the costliest for the Jets. It came with 7:01 to play and the Bills facing fourth-and-goal while nursing a 10–7 lead. At first the Bills lined up for a field goal attempt, but after calling timeout, they sent the offense back on the field. With the Jets’ defense stacking the line of scrimmage to stop the run, Edwards faked a hand-off and found tight end Michael Gaines for a one-yard touchdown. That score gave the Bills a 17–7 lead.

No one on the Jets’ defense deserves all the blame for a lackluster performance, but rookie cornerback Darrelle Revis had a particularly tough day. Matched up against Josh Reed, a mediocre Bills receiver, Revis struggled in coverage. Reed caught four passes for 64 yards, and all four catches went for first downs. Revis redeemed himself with an excellent play with less than two minutes remaining, breaking up a third-down pass to Reed and giving the Jets one last chance. But the offense blew that opportunity — just as it did for much of the game.

Quarterback Chad Pennington finished with a stat line that looks fine at first glance (32-of-39 for 290 yards), but the Jets’ offense was so conservative that Pennington completed short passes almost exclusively. Even in long-yardage situations, Pennington threw short: On two of the Jets’ first three drives, they had to punt after Pennington completed passes on third down that didn’t gain enough for the first down.

Only late in the third quarter did the Jets finally open up the passing game. On a seven-play, 78-yard drive, Pennington hit Jerricho Cotchery for two 28-yard completions. That drive ended with a five-yard touchdown catch by Laveranues Coles, tying the score 7–7.

But that was the extent of the Jets’ big-play offense. Pennington completed only one other pass of more than 20 yards, and the Jets’ longest run went 12 yards. Although the Jets had an 11-play, 64-yard drive concluding with a Leon Washington touchdown run, that drive consumed too much time, late in the fourth quarter, with the Jets down by 10. In the closing moments the Jets had a chance to try a potential game-tying field goal, but their final drive ended with a Pennington interception on a badly thrown pass.

It wasn’t all bad for the Jets. One highlight was the play of left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, who for the second consecutive week did a terrific job protecting Pennington. And despite his shortcomings passing, Pennington made the heads-up play of the year when he pretended to spike the ball to stop the clock with seconds remaining in the first half but instead completed a 16-yard pass to Coles. It was reminiscent of the infamous fake spike that Dan Marino pulled on the Jets in 1994, but it did the Jets no good, as Mike Nugent’s field goal attempt on the next play clanged off the upright.

That near-miss was one of many missed opportunities for the Jets on a day when they could have made a definitive statement about their place in the AFC East but came up short. As the calendar turns to October, a 1–3 record is short of where the Jets expected to be at this point, and it’ll be a tough three months to make a run at the playoffs.

Mr. Smith is a writer for Footballoutsiders.com.