Jets All the Way?

Being a losing team anywhere is a drag, but it’s especially hard in New York. Just ask the Jets, who stumbled out of the gate with four losses in five games and were subject to scathing criticism, relentless second-guessing and ruthless scrutiny.

Not to mention what was being said outside the locker room.

“The ship is sinking,” Curtis Martin said after a loss to Jacksonville.

“We’re real predictable,” John Abraham said after a loss to Cleveland.

“We stunk,” Josh Evans said, looking back at a 2-5 start.

Even Gang Green alumni were grousing. During a stop in Los Angeles, legendary quarterback Joe Namath told The Times he couldn’t believe the Jets had the second-highest payroll in the league.

“How? Why? How did they get in that position?” asked Namath, whose critique made headlines in New York such as “Broadway Schmoes” and “Namath Blue over Green.”

Even if some Jets gave up on the season, the season never gave up on them. San Diego was the first to fall, then Miami, Detroit and Buffalo.

Just like that -- bada bing, bada boom! -- the Jets were back in the playoff race. They are on a four-game winning streak, one game behind the first-place Dolphins in the AFC East.

The Jets (6-5), who play Monday night at Oakland, have adopted a mantra first uttered by third-year quarterback Chad Pennington, who replaced Vinny Testaverde four games into the season: “Why not us?”

Explained Pennington, “We’ve always had the attitude of, why not us? Even when we were 2-5, it was, why not us? Why can’t we make history? Now that we’re 6-5 it’s, why not us? Why can’t we finish it off and make the playoffs?”

The Jets are 10-3 on the road since the arrival of Coach Herman Edwards, and that’s a good sign, considering three of their final five games are away from the Meadowlands.

Martin is coming off consecutive games in which he rushed for more than 100 yards, and Pennington has directed an offense that has averaged 29.8 points during the winning streak. The Jet defense has held opponents to 12.5 points a game over that span.

The same Jet defense that averaged 13 missed tackles in its first five games has averaged only three in its last six. Early in the season, that defense surrendered 200 yards rushing in three consecutive games. In the last six games, no team has rushed against the Jets for more than 108.

Four games into the season, Pennington replaced Testaverde after a three-game losing streak in which the Jets had been outscored, 102-13. Although his relationship with offensive coordinator Paul Hackett has been strained at times, Testaverde accepted the benching with typical grace.

“As you get older, you tend to understand why certain things happen,” the 38-year-old quarterback told reporters. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m getting a raw deal.”

The lift Pennington provided was immediate and obvious. In his first start, at home against Kansas City, he made an impression during introductions by head-butting teammates as he ran onto the field. The Jets lost that game, 29-25, but they showed flashes of the offensive pyrotechnics in the offing. Running back Martin sensed something good was happening, telling reporters: “I definitely don’t think the season’s lost.”

Pennington was even more optimistic, saying he envisioned the team going 10-6 or better. People around him -- reporters, and maybe even some players -- stifled guffaws and dismissed the comment as youthful enthusiasm run amok.

The Jets got back on track with a victory over Minnesota, then took a step back by frittering away an 18-point lead to Cleveland and losing, 24-21. Many people point to that as the low point of the season. It certainly had a desperate feel to Jet General Manager Terry Bradway, who has a weekly radio show on which he fields calls from fans. It’s a true test of his patience.

“I’m a glutton for punishment,” Bradway joked. “With the exception of that [post-Cleveland] week, it’s gone pretty well. The listeners do appreciate the fact that I take their calls and try to answer their questions. But that night, they wanted to fire me, fire Herm, fire the equipment guy. Anybody wearing a Jets shirt, they wanted to fire.”

A funny thing happened to the Jets when they hit rock bottom. They bounced. They washed away the Cleveland loss by crushing then-hot San Diego, 44-13, then maintained the momentum with victories over the Dolphins, Lions and Bills.

“We dug ourselves such a deep hole at the beginning of the season,” Bradway said. “We feel like we’re still in that hole and we’re still digging.”

In Pennington’s seven starts, he has a completion mark of 73.7% with 11 touchdown passes and three interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 108.8. During that seven-game stretch, he has not thrown three consecutive incomplete passes.

“The thing about Chad is, he knows how to play the game,” Bradway said. “He doesn’t get frustrated or flustered, even when things aren’t going well.”

But the switch to Pennington cannot entirely explain the turnaround. Was it a coaching breakthrough during the bye week after the loss to Kansas City? The move to more of a two-back, ball-control offense -- vastly different from the spread offense the team ran with Testaverde? Was it that the defense, which has six new starters this season, needed time to come together? The improving condition of Martin, who had been slowed by a sprained ankle earlier in the season?

These days, the Jets aren’t caught up in trying to find an explanation. They’re only concern with one question:

Why not us?

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Jet Streams

The Jets haven’t resembled the team that lost four of its first five games, as shown by the points per game:

*--* Record Avg Pts Scored Avg Pts Allowed 1-4 10.0 26.6 5-1 27.3 17.2

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