Jets’ helpless defense growing increasingly frustrated as effort falls short

C.J. Mosley was one of the last players to emerge from the showers after the Jets’ 34-13 loss to the Dolphins Friday at MetLife Stadium.

The linebacker and team captain sat at his locker stall in just a towel and had his head in his hands for an extended period of time in moments of reflection. 

Like most of the Jets defensive players, who must be feeling helpless at the moment with the team on its third quarterback and an offensive line that’s played well into double digits personnel through 11 games, Mosley is at his wits end. 

“It’s been tough, it’s been frustrating,’’ Mosley told The Post. “But if you’re going to change the culture and change the losing into winning, it’s going to be a lot more cries than laughs. And we’re still in that moment where we’ve got to figure it out. 

“It’s hard. We could lose every single game these next couple weeks. We don’t know our future. We want try to put ourselves in position to win every single week. As a defense, we want to come out there expecting to be the best team on the field, but the best way [we] can do that is keep coming to work.’’ 

The Jets defense, which was on the field for 69 Miami offensive plays and 35:41 of possession, forced three Dolphins turnovers including a pick-six by cornerback Brandin Echols, which cut the Miami lead to 10-6 just before halftime. 

And yet it still wasn’t nearly enough. 

In the end, the Jets defense wasn’t good enough.

It allowed 395 yards of offense to the Dolphins and allowed Miami’s two receivers to gain more than 100 yards — Tyreek Hill had nine catches for 102 yards and a TD and Jalen Waddle had eight catches for 114 yards. 

That’s not characteristic of what was the No. 5 ranked pass defense in the league, led by cornerbacks Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed. 

The worst for the Jets defense was third down, with the Dolphins converting an obscene 68.8 percent (11-of-16) as the Jets defense could not get itself off the field. 

And, when your offense has scored two touchdowns in its past 56 possessions, no team can survive that. 

“Any time you force three turnovers, you’re doing the right thing,’’ defensive tackle John Franklin-Myers said. “We just can’t let them score 30 points. Personally, I don’t think we played that well. We played better in the first half and the second half kind of got away from us. We’ve got to be better.’’ 

Gardner seconded that assessment. 

“We’ve just got to be better,’’ Gardner said. “We don’t want receivers having over 100 yards. I don’t know what to say about [that]. We can be better for sure. They’ve definitely got weapons all around. That’s just a team you want to make sure you’re locked in — especially going up against guys like Tyreek and Waddle.’’ 

Jets head coach Robert Saleh tried to be diplomatic about his assessment of the defense, which is playing without an offense, but … 

“I’m disappointed the way we finished in the fourth [quarter] there,’’ Saleh said, referring mostly to the 34-yard scoring run by Miami running back Raheem Mostert, who went in virtually untouched. “I know guys were selling out trying to get the ball — especially on that last touchdown run. But they’re battling, took the ball away three times, scored on defense, gave us a chance there. 

“It’s a high-octane offense (Miami is ranked No. 1 in the NFL averaging 30.5 points per game), so I felt good about the way the defense played. I just didn’t like the way they finished.’’