09/16 — There are a lot of disappointed fans to go along with the players and coaches today after the Jets couldn't get the comeback deal done in their 20-13 road loss to the Ravens this afternoon. But there was also reason for hope. As head coach Eric Mangini said, "I told the team I'm really proud of the way they fought."

So other than Justin McCareins, who grimly but classily stood in front of his M&T Bank Stadium locker and answered questions about two last-drive passes that he didn't catch, it was a fairly optimistic locker room. One phrase I heard several times was "We're OK."

"I think we made a lot of strides," said Jerricho Cotchery, who stood out in the loss with a career-high 165-yard receiving game fashioned on 50- and 44-yard plays in the game's last seven minutes. "The second half was one of those halves we needed to make progress. I told a lot of the guys I feel like the talent is here. We've just got to continue to make strides."

"We're OK. It's not a two-game season. It's a 16-game season," said TE Chris Baker, who made another one of his eye-opening catches, a 3-yard fingertip, toe-touching grab that cut the Jets' deficit to those seven points with 3:12 to play. "You have to build somewhere. It's obviously going to hurt having to go back on the train now. We have our 24-hour rule. We're going to suffer a little today and tomorrow, then move on to Miami."

A major question for the Dolphins will be who's quarterbacking. Kellen Clemens struggled against the Ravens' vaunted pass rush for most of three quarters, but then the second-year man from Burns, Ore., started making plays all over the field.

"As the game grew on, I got more and more comfortable," Clemens said after finding out sometime before kickoff that he was Mangini's choice over Chad Pennington and his sore ankle to give the Jets "the best chance to win today." "My play in the first half was not what it should've been. In the second half, things slowed down, I calmed down and we were able to move the football."

Clemens' teammates and coaches focused on his toughness quotient when asked what impressed them to most about his showing.

"He showed some great toughness and excellent poise in his first game," Mangini said.

"Everyone knows he's got talent," Cotchery said. "Today what a lot of people saw was his toughness."

And Pennington said, "Kellen's a gutsy player, and it was a gutsy performance by Kellen as well as our offensive guys."

Pennington praised the Jets' medical and training teams for getting him ready to play, and Mangini said had Clemens had to leave the game, Pennington would have gone in as the No. 2 QB. But once Mangini made his call, Pennington said, "I don't ever question Coach's decisions. He's the head coach. He makes the final decisions. And we as players have to make those decisions work. Once I found out what position I'd be in, I focused on helping Kellen as much as I could to play in the game."

For those in a QB-controversy frame of mind, Mangini was asked point-blank if Pennington when healthy is still his No. 1 QB, and the coach didn't flinch. "Yes," he said, "Chad is the starting quarterback."

Oh-and-two is a hole historically difficult to climb out of in the NFL. But Mangini said his and his team's approach will be the same as it would've been if the Jets opened 2-0 or 1-1. (You didn't expect it to, right?)

"We'll handle it exactly the same way regardless of what our record is," Mangini said. "It's always going to be the same approach."