Head coach Eric Mangini is waiting for medical tests and plain old eyesight to help him determine how his quarterbacks will align at practice and for Sunday's game at Tennessee.

“You like to have a good idea by Wednesday. You have the rest of today and tomorrow and you go from there,” Mangini said at his day-after-the-game news conference today at the Jets' training complex.

“It’s really a case of just seeing,” Mangini said. "Like yesterday, when you have an injury like he had, you have to look at it as how that injury can impact his performance. At that point I made the decision that Chad, who isn’t dealing with an injury situation, was better for us. I thought he did a really nice job.”

After starter Kellen Clemens was sidelined with a rib injury in the first quarter of Sunday loss to New England, Chad Pennington — who has been the Jets starting quarterback for the better part of the last seven seasons — came off the bench and quarterbacked most of the rest of the way in the 20-10 loss to the undefeated Patriots.

The extent of Clemens’ injury remains undetermined. The players did not practice Monday.

“It's not the end of the week, so I don't know what's going to happen throughout the course of the week. So to say one way or the other at this point, where it's Monday, we're getting in information, haven't had any practices, haven't done anything, it's just hard to say what the week's going to bring,” said the second-year coach. “Every injury's different, so to say it's going to be this or that at this point, without information or practice or any of that stuff, it wouldn't be a fair assessment.”

Clemens’ injury happened on the offense’s second snap and his only passing attempt. On that play, Pro Bowl DE Richard Seymour rushed through the protection at the Jets 4-yard line and slammed Clemens awkwardly down on his left side as the ball was released.

Due to the pressure, Clemens forced the throw toward Brad Smith at the left sideline, trying to avoid a sack and a safety. But the weak throw was picked off by DB Eugene Wilson and taken 5 yards in for the easy six points.

“Seymour was on him pretty quickly,” Mangini said of Clemens’ decision to try to throw the ball away. “I think he had the right idea in trying to get it out of bounds. You see that a lot, where the quarterback anticipates having a beat more or being able to extend their arm out, or whatever the case may be, and they let it go. Just the way that the contact was made, it couldn't get there. When it drifts like that, Eugene was in a nice position. Sometimes that happens, especially when you have contact as quickly as he did.”

Smith, a wide receiver/quarterback, replaced Clemens for the first three snaps of the Jets’ next offensive series, then Pennington came in for a third-and-18 situation and found WR Jerricho Cotchery for 16 yards. After Smith threw an incomplete option pass intended for tight end Chris Baker on fourth-and-2, Mangini stuck with Pennington for the majority of the remainder of the game.

Chad would go on to complete 25 of 38 passes and 186 yards, topping league-leading QB Tom Brady by 46 yards.

“Chad did a really nice job in the role that he has, to have limited reps and come in and execute all the different things we asked him to execute,” said Mangini. “There were quite a few packages that we had, in order to try to get some things going offensively. That to me is classic Chad.

“But I'm pleased with both of those guys,” Mangini added. “I think [Kellen] has done a good job with things that we asked him to do. Obviously, there’s things that need to improve.”

Two of the Jets' three wins came with Clemens as the starter, but the second-year signalcaller from Oregon has been experiencing growing pains. The QB has just four touchdown passes to 10 picks on the season for a 59.0 passer rating.

“It’s always important for us to play the best players and look at the situation of the best players for that week and that doesn’t change,” Mangini stressed. “When you’re dealing with a situation like this, you have to see how that plays out and that’s what we’re doing, just gathering information and letting the week unfold.”