09/29 — Head coach Eric Mangini had several housekeeping matters to discuss at the top of today's afternoon news conference. First on the list: Jesse Chatman's four-game NFL suspension is over.

"Jesse will be able to work through the week with an exemption," Mangini said. "Starting next week, we'll have to make some kind of decision in terms of the roster."

The coach also announced that veteran punter Ben Graham has been released for the second time in two weeks.

"When we signed Reggie Hodges, we liked him coming out and the things he did here," Mangini said. "Unfortunately, his early stages here and not being able to have an opportunity, we wanted to give him that opportunity and see how that is."

As for Graham's good net but lack of hang time in his two games since his first release, the coach said: "You always want to have the combination of hang time and distance."

OL Will Montgomery, waived when Graham was re-signed before the Chargers game, is back on the active roster. Also, WR Paul Raymond has been released from the practice squad.

As for Mangini's post-victory players of the game, the winners are: Offense — Brett Favre; Defense — Calvin Pace; Special Teams — Vernon Gholston ("Having four tackles was really a positive day for him"), and Practice Player — C.J. Mosley ("He did a great job of simulating Darnell Dockett for us").

Card Game Matters

Many fans were thrilled with the Jets' defense in the first half of their 56-35 win over Arizona on Sunday, not so thrilled with the "D" in the second half. Same with Mangini, who said in response to a question at his news conference that he was playing anything but a "prevent" to try to slow the Cards down.

"We knew they had used that personnel grouping quite a bit," Mangini said about the Cards' "10" package (one RB, no TEs) that put up 376 yards of offense and all 35 points in the second half alone. "Knowing that it was going to be a no-huddle situation, we felt really good about the fact that we'd spent a lot of time working on their 10 personnel.

"Whether it was zone blitzes with safeties, zone blitzes with two edge guys, zone blitzes with linebackers, dropping eight and playing three-deep, dropping eight and playing two-deep — we did all those things.

"You don't want to take anything away from Kurt Warner and the excellent receivers they have," the coach said. "But you've got to be able to execute more effectively than we did. ... It was a combination of us not executing well and them executing very well. We've got to get a lot better."

That's what bye week's are for.

Mangini was also asked about going for the two-point conversion with 1:54 left to make it a 21-point game. That call was also tied to the Cards' offense.

"They had pretty much walked up and down the field and scored at will," he said. "I remember at Cleveland, we were playing the Bengals in 1995. There was 1:04 left and they scored quickly, then they scored again to force overtime. Between fast strikes and onsides kicks, the way those things were going, I just made the decision to make it a three-touchdown came in order to tie rather than to win."

The coach also discussed the helmet-to-helmet collision between Jets S Eric Smith and Arizona WR Anquan Boldin at the goal line with 27 seconds to play. I'll have a news story about the hit, with comments from Mangini and Smith, up on the site shortly.