09/26 — Chad Pennington put it great during today's late-morning news conference: "I think the danger ... is in getting enthralled with the stats."

The Jets quarterback meant the three-game stats compiled by the Buffalo Bills, the Jets' Sunday opponent at Ralph Wilson Stadium. These Bills are battered and bruised and the numbers show it.

Take the rankings. This week Buffalo checks in 32nd and last in the NFL in a whopping six key NFL categories: overall and passing yardage and points on offense, overall, rushing and passing yardage on defense.

I've been charting league rankings week by week since the mid-Nineties, and this is a bottoming-out like I've never seen before. Since the NFL became a 32-team league in 2002, only two teams had as many as four last-place rankings among the Elite Eight yardage and point categories in a given week: New Orleans after Week 13 in 2004 and San Francisco after Weeks 5 and 14 in '05.

But, of course, that's the trick this week. The Green & White faithful will offer their comments on the Radar, ESPN, the Fan and assorted fan Web sites about how trouble-free this game should be for the Jets. But if the players and coaches buy into that mindset, they'd be on the highway to L.

The tone in the Jets' locker room today is that Coach Mangini has sold them on the concept that these Bills could be due. On offense, Marshawn Lynch has played well in the first three games of his pro career, Trent Edwards with a full week of first-team reps under his belt for the injured J.P. Losman is a scary wild card, and WR Lee Evans might still be running after last year's 77-yard TD reception at the Meadowlands. DEs Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay have given the Jets fits in recent meetings. The Bills' special teams are truly special.

"Across the board, they present problems, and it's a difficult place to play," Mangini said. "We've got a long week ahead of us."

"If you look at this team, their opponents are 8-1 combined," Pennington said. "We're playing a team that plays extremely tough at home, extremely hard. They've just been dealing with some injuries.

"These guys, they've experienced the roller-coaster of emotions. That's tough to deal with as a team. But from their standpoint, they haven't quit, they haven't given up, they haven't asked why. They just continue to play hard. We've got to make sure we're ready."

Here's one more number to help the Jets get ready: By coming in 32nd in offense and defense, the Bills are also last in the NFL in yardage margin. The Jets are 31st.

Chris B and Mike T

One more note about Chris Baker's strong supporting role in Sunday's Miami win. If you've slowed down the video of the game, you know that the wedge that sprung Leon Washington on his 98-yard kickoff-return jaunt comprised Baker and former Dolphins Darian Barnes and David Bowens.

Baker blew out Miami's Lamont Thompson as he stormed down the sideline. Meanwhile, Barnes turned his man to the left and Bowens blocked his man to the right — and Leon shot the rapids through those blocks and past kicker Jay Feely to go wire-to-wire virtually untouched.

Add that to Baker's glue-fingered 3-yard TD grab and in-line blocking and there's a lot for Mike Tannenbaum to talk about on Thursday's "First and Goal" show on SportsNet New York. Baker will be the featured topic for the GM and host Steve Overmyer. The show will air at 4:30 p.m. on SNY.