The difference in the Jets' 31-24 loss at Detroit was a tangible 7 points.

But for HC Aaron Glenn the difference is more intangible and visible as he held up a right thumb and index finger to show reporters after the game, saying: "Right here, it's this gap we have to close, and that's from a coaching and players' perspective."

Playing minus injured WR link-placeholder-0, and then dealing with in-game injuries to RB Breece Hall (thigh) and LG Dylan Parham (knee) the Jets displayed what Glenn calls "competitive stamina" is rallying from 14 points down with at the start of the fourth quarter to get even over a frantic span of 7 minutes.

With 11:17 to play, QB Geno Smith found TE Jeremy Ruckert (5 catches, 39 yards, 1 TD) in the end zone with a 4-yard scoring pass. The Jets' 2-point conversion, however, failed. On the Lions' next possession, the defense stood tall and stone RB Jahmyr Gibbs on fourth-and-1 at the Green and White 45 with Kingsley Enagbare making the stop to give the Jets another opportunity.

Smith, who had a monster day completing 31-of-37 passes for 321 yards and 3 TDs helped to keep the Jets in the game on the quick drive.

"He's [Glenn] done a great job preparing us," Smith said. "There's always a lot of things that we can do better, and most importantly, we need to win these games." He added: "We have a lot of resilient guys and we have a lot of really good players, but again, we need to finish games."

The resilience showed. After RB Braelon Allen's short gain, Smith and Garrett Wilson (a team-leading 10 receptions for 107 yards, 1 TD) collaborated on three-straight completions (4, 6 and 15 yards) to get to the Detroit 42. The drive appeared to stall, but on fourth-and-6 from the 23, Smith found Wilson along the right sideline.

D.J. Reed committed a defensive pass interference call, but Wilson caught the ball and after video review it was ruled he scored. The Jets tied the game on Smith's 2-point bullet pass to WR Sterling Shepard, whom the Jets had signed earlier in the week.

"These guys are going to fight, and it's a belief system also," Glenn said. "Our guys believe all the work that was put in in OTAs and training camp, man. We're right here [showing thumb and index finger again], and our guys know it's this gap right here that we got to close."'

On their next series, Detroit went 65 yards in 4 plays with Gibbs catching a pass in the flat from Jared Goff and taking it into the end zone.

Afterward, Jets veteran LB Demario Davis spoke directly to Glenn's postgame post-mortem.

"I don't think there's such a thing as moral victory," Davis said. "I believe you're able to find victories that are not necessarily on the scoreboard. When you build something, you got to be able to find those small wins that are in there. And one of those things is our formula for victory.

"I believe in what Coach AG is preaching in terms of what we got to do to win games. And when we don't do it we don't win games, all we got to do is go back and look at our blueprint. We go look at our blueprint, and when we're watching the tape, we're going to see, hey, here's where we execute on our keys, here's where we didn't. And if we lose games and we executed on all our keys, then we can live with that. But if we lose games and we didn't execute on our keys, that's the margin for error. That's the gap, and we're going to figure out what we didn't do, and we're going to work on."