Jets coach Paul Maurice hinted they were experiencing fatigue heading into the playoffs.
"You've got to be careful with excuses. We got beat," Maurice said. "I don't think we had that sustainable gas for the whole series. I didn't feel we had it coming into it."
Maurice said the schedule down the stretch played a part. The Jets played 11 of their final 18 regular-season games on the road, with at least one game in four North American time zones.
"I think the team that we had last year ran about seven or eight straight home games in March and didn't enjoy the East Coast and the West Coast three times each in the last whatever it was, since the All-Star [Game]," Maurice said. "We were hoping that we could recover, that three days would be enough, a flight day and then two days to get into it."