If the final few weeks of this disappointing Jets season are mostly about the development of their young players, yesterday’s loss represented a step backward.

The most important of those young players, quarterback Kellen Clemens, briefly helped the Jets make the game interesting during a strange final few minutes, although hardly anyone stuck around to see the ending on a rainy day at the Meadowlands. But the Jets’ 24–18 loss to the Cleveland Browns, while not unexpected, was a disappointment, because until the final, desperate few minutes, Clemens and the Jets’ offense could accomplish nothing against a weak Cleveland defense.

Clemens padded his statistics late and finished with 24 completions on 41 passes for 286 yards, with no touchdowns, two interceptions, and a fumble. To understand how bad the Jets’ offense was yesterday requires more than raw statistics, though. It also requires an understanding of how bad the Browns’ defense has been all season. Entering yesterday’s game, the Browns had allowed 338 points, the most in the league, and had routinely allowed opposing quarterbacks to put up huge numbers against them. Until scoring 12 points in garbage time yesterday, the Jets made that terrible Browns unit look like the 1985 Bears.

Because he’s seen as, potentially, the future of the franchise, Clemens is the player every Jets fan keeps an eye on. This means there will be some Jets fans who feel optimistic about the three fourth-quarter scoring drives, as well as way the Jets used their full complement of timeouts and an onside kick to score twice as many points in the last four minutes as they scored in the first 56 minutes. But those late drives were more about Cleveland’s defense packing it in late in the game than about Clemens making plays. For most of the day yesterday, Clemens was inaccurate and confused. He has a lot of work to do.

But Clemens was far from the only problem with the Jets. The biggest problem was up front, where the Jets’ offensive line was consistently dominated by the Browns’ defensive line. That was particularly clear at the start of the second quarter, when the Jets threw away a golden opportunity to take an early lead. After having first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, the Jets’ offense walked off the field with nothing to show for it. On first and second down, running back Thomas Jones tried to run between center Nick Mangold and right guard Brandon Moore, but on both plays, Mangold and Moore failed to open any space, and Jones was stuffed. On third down, Clemens threw a short pass that was intercepted in the end zone.

The good news for the Jets was that the defense kept the excellent Browns’ passing attack in check — mostly. That fruitless first-and-goal from the 1-yard line was set up when Jets’ safety Kerry Rhodes stepped in front of Browns tight end Kellen Winslow to intercept a Derek Anderson pass. It was Rhodes’ fourth consecutive game with an interception, and if the Jets were a better team, Rhodes would be mentioned among the best defensive players in the league.

Less impressive than Rhodes was Jets’ rookie cornerback Darrelle Revis, who had a tough day while matched up against one of the best receivers in the NFL, Cleveland’s Braylon Edwards. Although Edwards caught only three passes, they were three of the biggest plays of the game: a 14-yard catch on fourth down that kept Cleveland’s first scoring drive alive, a 45-yard catch on the third play of the second half, and a four-yard touchdown that gave Cleveland a 14–3 lead in the third quarter.

Revis had an opportunity to redeem himself on a play when Anderson threw a pass too high for Edwards to catch. The ball bounced into Revis’s chest, but Revis couldn’t grab it and missed a chance for an easy interception. Disappointing games from young players such as Clemens and Revis are the worst kinds of games for the Jets, because at 3–10, there’s nothing left for the Jets to do this season other than develop their young talent so they don’t have more seasons like this one in the near future. Next up for the Jets is a trip to New England to play the Patriots, who improved to 13–0 by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday. That will be another learning experience for the Jets’ young players. But it won’t be a pleasant one.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.