FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Near the end of a press conference that will go down in New York Jets history for all the wrong reasons, general manager John Idzik explained why he didn’t want to commit to Rex Ryan as his head coach for 2015, or even the remainder of the 2014 season.

“One question may beg the next,” Idzik said.

All Idzik did during his midseason state of the Jets address was beg more questions – namely, is he going to survive long enough to hire Ryan’s successor?

Ryan’s last gasp was likely expelled Sunday, when quarterback Geno Smith was benched after throwing interceptions on three straight first quarter series in a 43-23 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

The defeat was the seventh in a row for the Jets and the spate of turnovers – backup quarterback Michael Vick was intercepted once and lost two fumbles – played out in front of an empty stadium conjured up memories of the Rich Kotite Error.

As badly as his Jets tenure is ending, Ryan will get another head coaching opportunity, perhaps as early as next season. But Monday’s repetitive, meandering, short-on-answers press conference may have begun sending Idzik toward the same black hole that enveloped Kotite following his two-season, four-win stint with the Jets in 1995-96.

Idzik’s second formal interview session of the season actually began in promising fashion as the normally robotic general manager displayed rare emotion in discussing how difficult the Jets’ season has been for him.

“It’s gut-wrenching, it’s brutal,” Idzik said. “You feel like you’ve been punched in the face. It’s painful.”

But Idzik’s opening remarks quickly devolved into what amounted to a campaign speech in which he sounded like he was trying to convince Jets fans – and perhaps often-impulsive Jets owner Woody Johnson – that he was the man for the job.

Idzik said the Jets’ struggles are particularly personal to him because “the Jets are my team.” Idzik was a ball boy with the Jets in the 1970s, when his father, John Sr., was the Jets’ quarterbacks coach.

“The Jets are our team. And by our team I say it’s Jets Nation and us in this building,” Idzik said. “It’s very personal with us. Everything we do is very personal. So when you start out 1-7, when you start out in front of our home crowd 1-4 at MetLife, you start out losing seven consecutive games, that’s very personal.

“It hurts us to be 1-7, but more importantly, it hurts our fan base, the people that mean so much to us. And we vow to give them what they deserve. They don’t deserve this.”

Alas, Idzik offered no concrete explanation – either during his 20-minute opening address nor the subsequent 20-minute question and answer session in which a visibly uncomfortable Idzik squirmed often in his seat – for how the Jets got into this mess, or answers on how they’re going to get out of it.

In the process, he did little to quell the increasing skepticism that he is ill-prepared to rebuild the Jets – though in taking responsibility for the Jets’ poor start, he also mentioned his extensive NFL tenure as evidence of why things will get better.

“I’ve operated with very similar plans before, I’ve been successful in that,” said Idzik, who was a salary cap guru with Tampa Bay, Arizona and Seattle before being named the Jets general manager in January 2013. “And I have every bit of confidence that our plans works here in New York. It’s not manifested by our win-loss column right now. We’ve seen splashes, but we need to see consistency.”

Later, Idzik offered up numerous statistics that bolstered his belief the Jets are closer than their record might indicate, including their ability to score on several consecutive drives against Green Bay and New England and their time of possession advantage against New England on Oct. 16.

Then he said that he doesn’t want to use statistics because he doesn’t want to sound like an excuse-maker.

“I’m not big on statistics and explaining things,” Idzik said. “I think sometimes it can come off as excuses.”

Speaking of excuses, Idzik said injuries were to blame for the Jets’ issues at cornerback. Injury-prone draftees Dee Milliner and Dexter McDougle are both out for the season while journeyman free agent Dimitri Patterson went AWOL at the end of the exhibition season and was eventually released.

“Whenever a position is hit by three of the more prominent players, that figures into that position for the season, that’s going to have an impact, that will have an effect,” Idzik said.

Idzik spent much of the question-and-answer portion lapsing into familiar talking points about short-term focus (when asked about Ryan’s future) as well as the long-term (when asked about the $21 million in cap space).

“That room can be applied to extensions, it can be applied to free agency acquisitions,” Idzik said. “You can go in with some ammunition on both accounts. And that’s why I say that we like having that room for those purposes.”

The last question posed to Idzik was the most interesting: What was Johnson’s reaction to Sunday’s lopsided loss?

“I’m not going to answer for Woody,” Idzik said. “You’re better off asking him how he feels.”

Black Monday in the NFL is nine weeks from Monday. By then, Idzik and the rest of the world will find out how Johnson feels – and if Idzik’s midseason presser cost him his job instead of saving it.