11/14 — Less than 24 hours after one of the most dramatic victories in franchise history, Jets head coach Eric Mangini talked about the impact his future Hall of Fame quarterback is having on the AFC East leaders.

"Brett instills confidence in the group," Mangini said of Brett Favre. "There's a sense of ease when he has the ball because you feel like he's going to get it to the right place and if the play doesn't look the way it's supposed to look, he's going to make something happen that makes it right."

Favre was nearly perfect in the Jets' 34-31 OT win over the Patriots. He completed 26 of 33 passes for 258 yards with a pair of touchdowns and didn't remotely come close to a turnover. When the Patriots came back from 24-6 and 31-24 deficits to force ties, an admittedly nervous Favre didn't appear shaken up at all.

With adversity at its zenith, Favre responded with two 14-play scoring drives — the latter setting up Jay Feely's 34-yard field goal, a boot that gave the Jets a 7-3 record and sole possession of first place in the division.

"He has great poise and he's able to focus through that stuff and execute," Mangini told reporters during a conference call late this afternoon. "You feel good when he has the ball."

The Patriots, nemeses of the Jets in recent years, played a gutsy game Thursday. Despite being down a number of starters — including perhaps the NFL's best player in Tom Brady — and spotting the Jets a big lead, they battled valiantly.

Mangini, a former Pats defensive assistant whose relationship with New England head coach Bill Belichick has been the topic of much scrutiny, was asked if this game had any extra personal meaning.

"The most satisfying thing is the complementary football and the ability to finish the games," he said. "And they're not always going to be finished in any kind of textbook style, but the key thing is to finish and be able to come away with a win."

The Jets surrendered 511 yards to a Pats club playing catchup all night. They got three sacks of QB Matt Cassel and Mangini indicated today that you're playing with fire when you blitz the Pats because they have a number of weapons who can beat you with YAC — most specifically Wes Welker. That's why the game plan was not pressure-happy.

Mangini also said the Jets took the right philosophical approach late in the fourth when they attempted to hold onto their 31-24 lead. Cassel, with no timeouts and just 1:04 to work with, marched the Pats 62 yards to the end zone, including the 16-yard bullet to Randy Moss that forced OT.

"We were going to be able to protect the sideline, jam the receivers, and really the only open area was short and in the middle of the field where you want them to catch all the balls because that keeps the clock going," said the Jets' third-year head coach.

Mangini gave a nod of respect to Cassel and Moss for the connection on that last play. The Jets actually called a timeout to get in the defense they wanted and were subsequently beaten by super execution.

"Even if a guy would read away from one of the man players, the zone players could pick him up. I don't know how he got that ball in there and how Randy made the catch," Mangini said. "It was an incredible throw and an incredible catch."

But the Jets were more incredible in the epic battle. Mangini was pumped about the lift he got from his special teams as Leon Washington scored on a kickoff return, the coverage team was fantastic against a dangerous return unit, and Feely continued his solid play.

You can count on Feely being here for a while even when Mike Nugent is ready to roll.

"He's done a lot of good things. I'm real happy with him and I'm not opposed to keeping two," said Mangini.

On the plane ride home early this morning, Mangini sat up front with GM Mike Tannenbaum. And in the back of the plane, amidst smiles and laughter, his players were working on getting better.

"As happy as everybody was with the victory, still the attention was shifted to the things we need to get corrected," he said. "That to me is really important — appreciating the victory but starting the process of honestly evaluating that this stuff needs to get corrected or we have to do this stuff a lot better. To hear the players talk about that is really important."

With six games remaining in the 2008 regular season, the Jets have control of their destiny. They're on a four-game win streak and will get some time to rest before traveling to Nashville for a date with the tough Titans a week from Sunday. With an improving Favre in charge, we could be in for a special winter ride.

"Each week we get a little bit better because we're working together. We continue to refine the plan, we continue to refine our core concepts," Mangini said of working with his quarterback. "Every practice that he gets with the receivers, the tight ends — every practice we get together is a plus."