EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- On the field after the game, shook 's hand and said something Manning was probably uncomfortable hearing. "It's been an honor," Ryan told Manning.Perhaps Ryan was just verbalizing what most opponents think about Manning's career. But it sounded, unmistakably, like Ryan was saying his farewells after the dropped to with the to the , not because Ryan expects Manning to be gone after this season, but because Ryan knows his own future is now much more fragile than that of a 38-year-old quarterback.The remarkable second act of Manning's career -- the QB threw Sunday and is now just two short of tying Brett Favre's all-time record -- provides more than just a one-day sting for the . The team's current road to ruin was paved early on in part by its unrequited ardor for Manning when he was released by the nearly three years ago. After Manning made it clear he would not even listen to a wooing by the , Terry Steinbach Jersey the team's braintrust inexplicably felt it owed an apology, giving him a ki s-and-make-up contract extension that tied the franchise to a failing quarterback and hamstringing its chance to nimbly move on.It can't be known if the would have targeted a different quarterback in the draft or free agency last year if Sanchez were not still there, if he did not have to be there because of that contract. But after watching the ' offense squander a good-enough defensive performance against Manning on Sunday, it is clear the team has still not pulled itself out of the quarterbacking quagmire it has inhabited since 2011, continuing to field a defense tethered to a sputtering offense. was not the only -- or even dominant -- reason the lost to the . But on a day when his only turnover came on , he was nowhere near good enough to elevate an offense that features no downfield threat, minimal run blocking and ham-handed receivers. His defining moment Sunday came not on the pick-six that provided Denver's final margin of victory, but on a more dispiriting three-and-out on the previous drive, when the , trailing by just seven points, still had a legitimate opportunity to stun the . The offensive deficiencies were especially glaring because the ' defense had been emboldened by a game plan that confused and throttled Manning (relatively speaking). Manning called some of what Ryan deployed unorthodox -- the split out their outside linebackers to jam receivers at the line of scrimmage, and dropped seven or eight players into coverage -- and the result was that New York held Manning's offense to just 24 points and forced eight punts. It produced what might have been the least dazzling three-touchdown day of the quarterback's illustrious career. And evident frustration for the . With just four days until the play the , the expectation was that the closer-than-expected lo s would engender Up With People Rex, who would laud the effort the gave in a game that everyone expected to be a blowout. Instead, it was Crestfallen Rex, who had the look and the sound of a man who knows he is just playing out the string, who knows he is hopele sly outmanned in the fights still to come. People love or loathe Ryan for his bluster, but nobody has le s of a poker face than he does, and his sad-eyed countenance Sunday afternoon said everything about the ' current fortunes and his view of where they are heading."Oh man," Ryan muttered under his breath as he approached a microphone.Then, he continued: "I thought our plan was fairly effective." And then: "It's not as easy as one man or one position. We just have to find answers as a team. It would be a lot easier if it was just one person or one position, but we have to get better as a team."It doesn't take much reading between the lines here. The thought they had a sound game plan that was sufficient to beat the -- and they did. But there are too many personnel deficiencies to execute it. The defense held up its end of the bargain. The offense did not. In the current five-game losing streak, Smith has led 54 drives. Just eight touchdowns have resulted.To the ' credit, that has not produced a locker-room split. But you don't need to hear sweat-covered bitterne s to divine what has happened. The holes in the roster have been no secret, but now they are being exposed in ever more painful ways, in the routs perpetuated by good teams () and in the achingly close lo ses to great ones (). It wouldn't have taken much more to upset the on Sunday -- maybe just a modicum of a running game to relieve some of the pre sure on Smith or someone who would could cover tight end so that he is not tempted to scream after he scores his second (easy) touchdown. It will almost certainly be another coach's problem to figure out next season, but owner Woody Johnson will also have to ponder whether general manager John Idzik deserves a chance to hire his own head coach or whether the team needs a seasoned personnel man to play whack-a-mole on roster rebuilding. For a primer on how to do the job, Idzik needed only look acro s the field to the ; John Elway first landed a quarterback, and then surrounded him with offensive weapons. Then, this past spring, Elway brought in defensive reinforcements. The now have the and the .Ryan is hardly blamele s in the ' collapse. His tunnel-vision focus on defense since the day he arrived has left the team badly out of step with the way the game is being played and -- when he wielded outsize influence during the draft with former general manager Mike Tannenbaum -- with a roster bereft of much young offensive talent. But Johnson is responsible for creating the doomed-from-the-start shotgun marriage of Idzik and Ryan, with their wildly disparate timelines. And whatever holes exist on the roster now and in the near future will be on Idzik's watch. Make no mistake: This team is failing from the top down. A suming he is fired after the season, Ryan will become the hottest defensive coordinator candidate in the league. Players like Manning and will tell you they are sick of facing him, as ringing an endorsement as a defensive coach can hear. No matter how many victories the can muster from here on out -- and even if among them is -- this is what the ' season has devolved into: a miserable march to the end, a protracted referendum on Smith's viability as an NFL quarterback, a televised audition for Ryan's next job opportunity. "That is not a 1-5 defense," Manning said Sunday afternoon.That might turn out to be Ryan's epitaph. And the first line on his resume.Follow Judy Battista on Twitter . Tony Phillips Jersey