#The Jets haven’t totally given up

Last year, the Jets showed a fight in the second half of their season, and it translated to wins.

This year, the search for wins has only included those of the moral variety through 10 games, coming in flashes buried amid the losing. But they have been more prevalent in recent weeks as they slog to the finish line, with close losses to the Patriots and Chargers in the last two games.

The biggest challenge — finding a way to finish out a win instead of getting discouraged by the mounting losses — remains.

“It’s hard, this deep in the season, when you haven’t had a win yet,” coach Adam Gase said Monday on a conference call, the day after a 34-28 loss to the Chargers. “You lose a game on a last-second field goal [against the Patriots], you got an opportunity where at least you’re in striking distance there at the end [Sunday].

“The thing I can say about this locker room and these players, man, these guys work hard. They come to work on Wednesday, they take corrections, they try to improve from the week before. They’re trying to build that faith and trust in each other and trying to find a way to win a game.”

The Jets only have six chances left to avoid the ignominy of 0-16, but their best two shots at it have come in their last two games. In Week 9, they led the Patriots, 27-17, midway through the fourth quarter before falling apart. Sunday, the Jets were in a more familiar position playing from behind after going down, 24-6, at the half but nearly pulled off the comeback before falling short.

“We can definitely go out there and compete to win these football games, and we just have to have that mindset from the very first whistle,” Joe Flacco said after starting his fourth game of the season for the injured Sam Darnold. “We need to start believing that it can be done. The only way to do that is just to play good football and prove it to yourself. I think we had a lot of things that we can use to build off of over the last two weeks, but at some point, we’ve just got to make sure we make it happen.”

There have been encouraging flashes amid the losing, like tight end Chris Herndon finally coming alive Sunday with his first touchdown catch of the year. Rookie Denzel Mims has been getting better each week — including making contested catches and drawing pass interference penalties against the Chargers.

“When it comes to numbers, that really doesn’t affect me,” Mims said. “All I care about is winning. Of course I want to try to get a win so we won’t go 0-16.”

But while the Jets have shown improvement in recent weeks, they also may have missed out on their best chance to scratch across a win. After helping the Chargers improve to 3-7, the Jets’ next five games are against the Dolphins, Raiders, Seahawks, Rams and Browns — teams with a combined record of 32-17 — before a rematch against the Patriots in Week 17.

They might have Darnold back this Sunday against the Dolphins, but it will take more than his return alone to find the win column.

“It’s not the easiest thing when you haven’t really experienced what it feels like to get that done as a team, as the team that we have now,” Flacco said. “We just gotta keep taking it day by day and focusing on being where your feet are at. As long as you do those things, then things will start falling your way, and you’ll start playing the way you want to.”