It seems like some in the media and blogosphere want to partly exonerate Antonio Cromartie for his brutal performance in the Jets’ 34-24 loss to the Raiders yesterday. I do not. Sure, at least one of his four penalties was probably a bad call, but most of them weren’t.

Cromartie finished second on the team with five tackles, but that’s generally a bad sign for cornerbacks. Darrelle Revis, for example, finished without a tackle. With Revis playing his typical dominant coverage, the Raiders obviously targeted Cromartie from the start — so much so that it became easy to forget Revis was even playing for long stretches of the game.

But worst of all, Cromartie followed a strong special-teams performance against the Jaguars with a backbreaking boot and bobble of a kickoff that led to the Raiders’ second touchdown in about a minute, a massive momentum shift that doomed Gang Green.

Not long later, Cromartie added injury to ineffectiveness, hobbling into the locker room with what is supposedly a bruised lung.

The Jets’ offense managed 24 points, impressive considering the sad state of their offensive line. Rookie center Colin Baxter played a hell of a lot better than he did against Jacksonville, but was physically overmatched by the Raiders’ strong defensive line on multiple plays.

It didn’t help that the rest of the Jets’ offensive line struggled, missing blocks and blowing assignments. The Raiders sacked Mark Sanchez four times. Most of the Jets’ best plays came on roll-out passes and runs outside the tackles, away from the overwhelmed interior linemen.

Sanchez had a good day, considering the constant pressure from the Raiders’ defense. But his lone interception came on an awful decision, throwing on the run to a multiply covered Derrick Mason in the end zone on a broken first-down play.