10/26 — The Jets fans who showed up for today's 28-24 victory over Kansas City were on hand for a double helping of franchise history, and I don't mean just the 40th anniversary ceremonies to honor the Super Bowl III team at halftime.

The win today was the first time ever that the Jets or their Titans ancestors ever rolled up a minus-3 turnover differential in a home game — and won. After losing 44 (and tying one) of those games with a minus-3 or worse, the Green & White finally broke through today. Historic.

Let that sink in. It's kind of the worst of times and the best of times. Brett Favre throws three interceptions of the what's-he-doing? variety while the Jets defense and specialists can't turn the 1-5 Chiefs over even once.

"I'm always concerned about it," Favre said of the picks, which now total an NFL-leading 11 through today's early games. "They seem to follow me everywhere I go. I thought I'd left those behind."

Instead, No. 4 brought three more with him today and he heard the boos from Jets Nation.

"I don't blame them ... it was a little premature, as we see now."

And that's why it's the best of times. I'm like the players, not the fans, when it comes to these U-G-L-Y-you-ain't-got-no-alibi wins, these "Shrek"-tories. I'm not giving it back. I'm not going to ask for a discount. I'm not calling Elias Sports Bureau to get the W changed to an L. I'm not apologizing.

"Ugly, pretty — we'll take 'em all," said linebacker David Bowens, who got another heavy dose of reps after David Harris' second-quarter injury departure. "I'll sleep tonight."

But I'm like the players and the fans when it comes to mistakes. If this Jets team is going to make some joyful noise this season, things need to get fixed and fast.

The turnover matter has to be killing head coach Eric Mangini. How many times has he preached, as he did again today, that turnovers are "usually the biggest, most important statistic in the game"? Just some snapshots from Jets history shows that. Here are the records for the Jets, from 1960 to present, for minus-3 games and worse:

And yet the Jets are minus-6 for the season, minus-8 in the three games since the bye.

"Turnovers are the great equalizer," said Mangini. "It's the first point we stress. ... We have to do a better job protecting the ball. Until we do that, we're going to continue to put ourselves in a difficult position."

Mangini stressed that every TO is not all on the QB, but he did say that "obviously the quarterback will share the bulk" of the blame. Whatever he told Favre before, during and after this game, it sounds as if the message is sinking in for the Old Gunslinger.

"I realize making mistakes on my end puts this team in jeopardy — it puts any team in jeopardy," Favre said in the middle of a response to the third question at his news conference in the interview room podium. "That's the last thing I want to do. I think the more you worry about those, it seems like the more likely they are to happen. To answer your question, it's a concern, it's always a concern. Believe me, I'm doing my best to try to eliminate them. But I'm also trying to do my best to help this team win."

On the other side of the ball, I suggested to nose tackle Kris Jenkins that all things considered, he was probably happy to get out of here with a victory today. Jenk wasn't buying any of it.

"I don't really feel good. We've got a lot of work to do," he said. "I think we really got exposed this week. I think we have more potential than we show sometimes. I think we have the potential to be a whole lot better than what we present sometimes. That's why even though we won, I'm not satisfied."

So there it is. The Jets, while giving credit to the Chiefs' effort, aren't happy with their exposure in Week 8, and they will hear about how unhappy they should be when they reconvene this week.

But meanwhile, the offense has had back-to-back 400-yard games since 1998, the defense yielded 80 rushing yards and pitched four three-and-out drives, three consecutively in the second half, and teams, well, teams had Leon Washington. Enough said.

"We're 4-3. What more can you ask for?" tackle Damien Woody said. "We're a game out of first and we're going up to Buffalo to play the team in first. At this point last year here, it was a whole different story."

I won't take away any of that from the Jets after this interesting day in franchise history.

More Turnover Trivia

The other minus-3 victories in franchise history, all on the road, each have a little something going for them besides the Jets being lucky and good.

The Jets finished their otherwise forgettable 1980 season with a 24-17 victory at Miami in the great NBC "Silence Bowl" experiment — the game broadcast featured game sound and no announcers except to go into and out of commercial breaks (5 giveaways, 2 takeaways).

The other two came within 10 weeks of each other in 2001, in the first season at the helm for Herm Edwards, who of course was on the visitors' sidelines with the Kansas City Chiefs today.

In Week 7 at Carolina, reporters dubbed the Jets' 13-12 win over the Panthers as the proverbially ugly win. Herm and his staff ran with that ball, putting up posters from the first Shrek movie and spreading pointy green ears around the second floor of the Hofstra training complex (4 GAs, 1 TA).

In Week 16 they traveled to Oakland needing a win to make the playoffs. John Hall nailed a 53-yard field goal with 59 seconds to go, out of Tom Tupa's great hold of a rare off snap by James Dearth, that earned the Jets a 24-22 victory — and a return trip to Oakland for a Saturday night AFC Wild Card date (3 GAs, 0 TAs).