10/21 — The Jets said they didn't see steam coming out of their coach's ears in their postgame Paul Brown Stadium locker room after they had just lost their fourth straight game, 38-31 to the Bengals, to fall to 1-6.

But even if they had, it wouldn't have made the spacious room any quieter and grimmer than it was when reporters came in to talk to them.

"He wasn't that ticked off when he spoke with us," LB Jonathan Vilma said. "If he was upset with you guys, we didn't see that. We didn't see the 'emotional Eric.' "

But with reporters minutes before, Mangini was as close to anger over a loss as he had been in any other game in his two-year tenure as Jets head coach.

"I'm just tired of giving the same speech," Mangini said at the top of his postgame remarks. "I'm tired of us playing in the first half and not playing in the second half, or playing in the second half and not in the first half. Today we had multiple penalties, a shanked punt, we can't get a snap right.

"It's just not good enough. Not good enough coaching on my part or on the part of the assistant coaches, not good enough by the players. I'm tired of giving the same speech, and it should hurt."

Whatever you thought of the Jets play as they lost their grip on this game, the outcome definitely hurt.

"I can't really speak out and say what I feel," linebacker Jonathan Vilma said the Bengals' 395-yard effort that included 177 rushing yards, a career-high 130 of them by Cinci backup running back Kenny Watson.

Why not, Jonathan?

"Really, there's no reason to let it out," he said. "I don't think it's going to help us win. It is what it is."

Next door, LB Victor Hobson was asked if there was any talk of more defensive changes after the game for next Sunday's home game against Buffalo, coming off its upset of Baltimore.

"No, but I'm sure we'll see it on Wednesday," Hobson said. Nothing good worth talking about? "Not from my end. Especially not with a loss."

WR Jerricho Cotchery was talking about the offense after it scored 23 points on its first five possessions, then nothing until the final Hail Mary TD to Cotchery and two-point conversion to Leon Washington to end the game, but he could've been talking about the team in general.

"That groove we were in, we lost it," Cotchery said. "It's tough. Our frustration's just reaching a different level."

The day also didn't pan out so well for center Nick Mangold, who returned home to Ohio and played in the stadium of the team he used to root for growing up.

"It's tough after a loss," Mangold said. "Any good feelings you had coming home and seeing your family are obviously negated by having that loss in there."

Mangold also had a rare error, the first errant shotgun snap of his two-year NFL career (although the fumble was charged to Pennington). Cincinnati recovered the loose ball to end a Jets march toward perhaps a go-ahead Mike Nugent field goal early in the fourth at the Bengals 49.

"It was a miscommunication, which you never want to see happen. It's a shame it had to happen as we were driving," Mangold said. "It's something you can't have happen. It was a miscommunication on my part. Chad obviously wasn't ready for the ball. I've got to make sure we're on the same page."

Pennington said the same.

"He thought I was calling for the ball and I didn't think I was calling for the ball," the QB said. "It was just a miscommunication is all."

Pennington fielded all questions at his postgame news conference, with a pensive look and occasionally a sad smile. Of the rumor that Chris Mortenson reported on espn.com before the game saying that Mangini had told Pennington he would "be on a short leash" in this game, he said: "I was never told I was going to be on a short leash, ever. That doesn't even sound like Coach Mangini."

But the speculation that Pennington is about to be replaced by Kellen Clemens as soon as Buffalo will continue with a fury — even Mangini acknowledged that it's "a topic of extreme interest."

And Pennington took the topic stoically.

"I think that's the nature of this business. When a team is struggling, the first place people look is quarterback," he said. "It's a team game, we're all in this together, but I understand the nature of the business. That's why I don't blink, and I'm not going to blink one way or the other."

But the Jets' starting QB when healthy from 2002 to present admitted to happy thoughts when he hit Laveranues Coles on a 57-yard touchdown pass to open the game, 45 yards of which were covered in the air, possibly the second-longest ball-in-the-air yardage of Pennington's career.

"It was fun. I did really enjoy it, absolutely. It put a big smile on my face," he said. "But it all went for naught because we lost."