FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The New York Jets might have set football back several decades Monday night, when quarterback Geno Smith threw the ball just 13 times in a 16-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins. However, coach Rex Ryan continued to insist Tuesday that trying to win a game without using a quarterback wasn’t the Jets’ intention.

“You guys seem to think that the game plan was for us to just throw 13 passes,” Ryan said during a conference call. “That wasn’t the game plan. The game plan was to try to establish the run. And when you have that kind of success running, that helps the football team, and that’s why we stayed the course.”

The Jets stayed the course despite diminishing results in the second half, when they rushed for just 67 yards on 20 carries. The Jets racked up 210 yards on 29 carries in the first half, when Smith dropped back to pass just six times. New York took a 10-3 lead into the locker room.

Even with the Dolphins stacking the box throughout the second half, Smith dropped back just four times — and took two sacks — in the Jets’ first five series before he threw five passes during a comeback attempt in the final two minutes.

Ryan said Tuesday the Jets stayed conservative partially because of the special teams penalty that pinned the Jets at their own 5-yard line in the first minute of the fourth quarter. But what about the other four series?

“It certainly affected our play-calling,” Ryan said, referring to the penalty. “Again, we weren’t trying to just put Geno Smith back there 13 times.”

Whether they were trying to or not, the Jets managed to do something that hadn’t been done in 35 years. Smith’s 13 pass attempts were the fewest by a Jets quarterback who played a complete game since Richard Todd was 9-for-13 in a 14-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings in, coincidentally, a Monday night game on Oct. 15, 1979.

Smith will get many more chances to hand the ball off this week: Ryan said Tuesday that Smith would remain the starter for Sunday’s game against the Vikings.

“We are just trying to find a way to give us a chance to win the football game,” Ryan said. “And I thought we did that. It’s just unfortunate we came up short.”

REPORT CARD VS. DOLPHINS

–PASSING OFFENSE: F — Can you fail a player when his team does everything it can to take the game completely out of his hands? Sorry Geno Smith, yes we can. Smith finished 7-for-13 for 65 yards and an interception, yet he was nearly picked off two other times, and two more incompletions were potential big gainers thrown beyond the reach of WR Percy Harvin. Smith also took two big third-down sacks in the second half. The first knocked the Jets out of field-goal position, and the second cost them three points when K Nick Folk’s 45-yard attempt sailed just wide of the left upright. Then there was the game-sealing interception in the final minute. So to summarize: Smith has no pocket presence, locks in on his first target, is inaccurate and works for a coaching staff that has zero confidence in him to do even the most basic of things. No wonder the Jets kept running the ball even after the Dolphins put nine in the box in the second half. The “leading” wideout Monday was WR Eric Decker, who had two catches for 18 yards. Afterward, he didn’t deny his wife’s contention, made Monday during a radio interview in New York City, that he is depressed. Could you blame him?

–RUSHING OFFENSE: A — Anyone with the capability of carrying the football carried it Monday night, when eight players combined for 277 yards — the eighth-best rushing effort in franchise history. RB Chris Johnson (17 carries for 105 yards) looked rejuvenated, especially on a 47-yard run in the first quarter in which he changed direction multiple times and dodged more than one tackle. RB Chris Ivory (16 carries for 62 yards) had his highest carry and yardage totals since Oct. 16, but was utilized too often on sweeps instead of pounding him off tackle. WRs Percy Harvin (six carries for 27 yards), Jeremy Kerley (two carries for 38 yards) and Greg Salas (one carry for a 20-yard touchdown) combined for 85 yards on sweeps and outright option pitches. It was an impressive collective effort, but it also was evidence that an NFL team in 2014 simply cannot win a game without a functional aerial offense.

–PASS DEFENSE: C — The Jets didn’t allow a passing touchdown for the first time this season but were still vulnerable to big gains, especially via intermediate routes. Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry (eight catches for 68 yards) got open at will. WR Mike Wallace had six catches for 69 yards, but he had four of those catches for 48 yards in the first half against CB Marcus Williams. CB Darrin Walls shut down Wallace the rest of the way and recorded his second career interception by grabbing a Ryan Tannehill pass that bounced off the foot of RB Lamar Miller. The Jets should have had two interceptions, but LB Calvin Pace dropped a potential pick-six late in the first half. The Jets once again could not stop a tight end — this time backup Dolphins TE Dion Sims had four catches for 58 yards, including a 20-yard grab to set up Miami’s first field goal and catches of 17 and 14 yards to set up the game-winner.

–RUSH DEFENSE: B-minus — Yin and yang: While the Jets were racking up 210 first-half rushing yards, they limited the Dolphins to just three carries for 15 yards, one of which was a 10-yard scramble by Tannehill. However, Miami established the tone in the second half against the well-rested Jets, who gave up five runs of at least 5 yards to RB Lamar Miller, including back-to-back gains of 9 and 13 yards at the start of a third-quarter drive that ended with a field goal. Miller also had the game-tying, 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: F — Disastrous. Folk, who missed two field goals in the first 11 games combined, missed two usually makeable field goals (48 yards and 45 yards). P Ryan Quigley, who had a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown against the Bills the previous Monday, had a punt partially blocked in the third quarter. Worst of all, the Jets committed four penalties on punts, including two by WR Saalim Hakim that cost them points. The Jets had to begin a second-quarter drive at their own 6-yard line after Hakim was flagged for an illegal block above the waist. The subsequent drive ended with Folk’s first miss. In the fourth quarter, Hakim was penalized for defensive holding, which gave the Dolphins the ball at the Jets’ 39-yard line. Miller scored six plays later. Simply put, bad teams can’t give points away on special teams.

–COACHING: B-minus — Watching Smith play quarterback, it is impossible to blame head coach Rex Ryan and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg for wanting to run the ball as often as possible and then some. Still, the Jets probably would have benefited from a little play-action, and the Dolphins gave them almost no choice but to try and pass by stacking the box in the second half. Ryan and defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman had the Dolphins completely flummoxed in the first half. Who knows how the game goes if the Dolphins don’t get decent field position following Folk’s miss late in the second quarter? Ryan again had the Jets ready to go as a decided underdog following a lopsided loss. The good news for him is he only has to try to conjure up miracles with a depleted roster for four more weeks.