10/01 — The Schottenheimer family could just pull the Jets out of their September swoon.

We all know about offensive coordinator Brian, who received strong support from head coach Eric Mangini at today's news conference. But Mangini opened his presser with a conversation he had last week with father Marty, the former San Diego Chargers coach who way before that was an All-America linebacker at Pitt and a seventh-round pick of the 1965 draft by the Bills — the same draft that brought Joe Namath to the Jets.

"I was asking Marty how he'd gotten to 200 wins, why he was so consistent year in and year out," Mangini said. "He started explaining that when he was a player he didn't play as much as he'd have liked to. But he got in one game against Namath. Joe was a friend of his."

You can almost hear Marty pick up the narrative in his forceful, expansive, John Wayne-esque voice:

"The first play, I got to blitz and I had a clear shot at Namath. I felt like I should win in that situation because of Joe's knees and his mobility.

"But I whiffed. Namath got the first down.

"I stayed in for the rest of that drive. The next drive, they ran right at me and I got pushed back. The drive after that, I got beaten in coverage. What I realized was, I hadn't let go of that first play, that I missed him on that very first play. And I applied that lesson to all my teams. I told them the play you're playing is the most important play. You can't get caught up in what happened before, because almost every single game is going to come down to a handful of plays and the difference between winning and losing is very small."

Picking up the story back in Mangini's voice, the Jets coach said he related Schottenheimer pere's conversation and showed the Jets players a handful of plays from the 17-14 loss to the Bills.

"It wasn't a function of assigning blame to any of the players involved in those plays," he said. "It was showing how at any point a slight difference in execution might have affected the outcome of the game."

Mangini also said he told his team he'd been on successful teams that started 1-3 and acknowledged that some of his players could say the same.

"The answers are in that room," he said, repeating a mantra he offered in the minutes after Sunday's game concluded. "There's no magic pill, no magic offense, no magic defense, no magic special teams. ... We're focused on getting the corrections from today and moving on to the Giants."

A Short History of 1-3

I thought I might have been able to shelve a discussion on NFL playoff math after the 0-2 start, but now the question is how likely is it for a team that starts 1-3 to reach the postseason? The answer: Only slightly better than it is for an 0-2 team.

Since the expansion to 12 playoff teams in 1990, 120 teams have lost three of their first four. Only 19 of them righted their ships and sailed into the playoffs. That's a 15.8 percent success rate, less than one in six.

But wait. Mangini was on the staff of the 2001 Patriots, who opened 1-3 and went on to win the first of their Super Bowls. And those Jets he referred to remember well the 2002 season when the Green & White started 1-4 and 2-5 before recovering to become AFC East champions.

Is that still possible this season, when the Patriots appear poised to run away and hide from the rest of the conference? The answer to that one is: It doesn't matter. You take them one day, one week, one game at a time as the coach preaches and you never start worrying about prayers being answered.

Combine that with the philosophy of Eagles coach Andy Reid among others — "You're never as good as you think and never as bad as you think in the NFL" — and maybe some Jets fans on the ledge today will come back inside and get through the week ahead.

Passing Fancies

Jerricho Cotchery, Laveranues Coles and Leon Washington each caught eight passes from Chad Pennington on Sunday, a fact that is more interesting than it may sound. The only other time in franchise history that three receivers had eight-plus receptions in a game was the Christmas Eve game at Baltimore in 2000 with Richie Anderson (11), Dedric Ward (8) and Curtis Martin (8) turning the trick with Vinny Testaverde throwing them the rock.

The Jets also figured in the last time this has happened in the NFL, which was last year's win over Houston, when David Carr hooked up with Andre Johnson (10 catches), Eric Moulds (10) and Wali Lundy (8).

Pennington's 15 consecutive completions comes up three short of the franchise record that was set by Boomer Esiason over a two-game span against the Dolphins and Patriots in September 1993. Other noteworthy Jets passing streaks: Ken O'Brien hit 17 straight against Atlanta in 1986, Pennington completed his first 14 passes at Miami to end the 2003 season, Glenn Foley hit 14 in a row in relief of Neil O'Donnell vs. New England in 1997, and Vinny Testaverde had 13 in a row in the 1998 AFC Championship Game at Denver.

Inside the Jets

Tonight's "Inside the Jets" radio show from Charlie Brown's restaurant in Garden City, N.Y., will feature Washington and cornerback David Barrett. Host Bob Wischusen kicks off the festivities at 7 p.m.