SEATTLE — It took all of one play from scrimmage for the Jets’ defense to break on Sunday. 

Vaunted all year, ranked top five in the league in yardage and points coming into a win-or-out game against the Seahawks and there was Kenneth Walker, bursting through a hole and running for 60 yards. That opening blow was followed by an uppercut two plays later when tight end Colby Parkinson caught an uncontested ball in the end zone. And in an eventual 23-6 loss to the Seahawks that eliminated the Jets from the playoffs, the defense didn’t get off the mat until it was far, far too late. 

“It wasn’t necessarily shocking,” coach Robert Saleh said. “It was disappointing, because these are things we do in our sleep. Base fundamental football.” 

The Jets settled down after the first three drives, but that ended up being three drives too late. Forty-five seconds into the second quarter, they trailed 17-3 and giving up six points the rest of the way meant nothing. 

Seattle’s band of heroes was an unlikely crew. Parkinson, a fourth-round pick, had scored just one touchdown all year before catching the opener. Tyler Mabry, elevated from the practice squad for this game, catching another easy touchdown as covering tight ends in the red zone proved too much for the Jets. Geno Smith — left for dead by the franchise all the way back in 2017 — taking a flamethrower to a season that once looked so promising. 

Smith, who just might get the 8-8 Seahawks to the playoffs, finished with 182 yards on 18 of 29 passing with two touchdowns. 

Walker, who the Jets had no answer for until too late, had crossed the 100-yard threshold by the nine-minute mark of the third quarter and finished with 133. The 60-yard run to start the game was nothing less than a gut punch. 

“It’s a fight,” D.J. Reed said. “They punched us in the mouth first.” 

For the first half, at least, the Seahawks made it look easy, as if they were playing last year’s Jets, who finished dead last in the NFL on defense in yardage and points alike. These Jets looked different, and for so much of this season, they were. But in the end? 

The defense that made a name for itself by beating Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen earlier in the year couldn’t do enough against a cast of players whose biggest name, DK Metcalf, finished with just one reception for 3 yards. The group that led the Jets to 7-4 with a virtual lock on a playoff spot ended up partially responsible for the final, unceremonious collapse.