EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Chad Pennington walked to the line of scrimmage, scanned the Denver Broncos defense and made just the right call.

He read the blitz and saw Laveranues Coles isolated on Jimmy Spencer. And he knew where he was going to throw the ball.

	Pennington

Pennington dropped back and launched a pass into the Meadowlands wind, a pass that hung up just long enough for Coles to come back against Spencer's coverage and make an outstanding catch, then roll into the end zone for the touchdown that put the Jets ahead for good.

"Laveranues made an unbelievable play," Pennington said after the 19-13 victory that kept his team's playoff dreams barely alive. "I knew if I got it somewhere in the vicinity, he'd make a play, and he did. It shows the type of will and character that this team has."

Almost as much as the throw Pennington made to Wayne Chrebet for the 19-yard completion to jump-start that drive.

And that was impressive because of what just happened on the play before.

The Jets, trailing late in the third quarter, had just taken over on their own 36-yard line when Pennington threw a ball in the flat for Coles, his favorite receiver.

Denver linebacker Ian Gold stepped in front of the play.

"I knew it was coming," Gold said. "I cheated up to the line and I thought he saw me, but he threw it."

With nothing in front of him but the end zone, Gold let it go right through his hands.

"Denver did a good job of mixing their defense and coverages," Pennington said. "But you can't worry about things."

Pennington didn't. He just came right back and found Chrebet, the recent whiner who used to be Vinny Testaverde's favorite target, on a curl in front of Denard Walker.

And off they went.

	“	Denver did a good job of mixing their defense and coverages. But you can't worry about things. ”
		— Jets QB Chad Pennington

"It's easy to get over a near-interception," Pennington said, smiling. "You just breathe a big sigh of relief."

The Jets, fighting out of the hole they dug for themselves with a 1-4 start before Testaverde got hurt and was replaced with Pennington, are still on the fringe of contention.

All the early scores went the wrong way for the Jets on Sunday. New England beat Buffalo, Tennessee beat Indianapolis, Kansas City beat St. Louis.

There are too many teams in the mix now, too many teams to expect them to make it to the playoffs. But even if they don't make the playoffs, they're still arguably in better shape than they were last year, when they celebrated a last-minute win over Oakland in the last game of the season that just set them up to get blasted by the Raiders a week later in the first round.

Testaverde, at the end of a long and frustrating career, was as good as he was ever going to get, and that wasn't good enough to take them to a Super Bowl.

Pennington is good now, and getting better.

He is one of the NFL's young guns. He doesn't have Tom Brady's championship yet, or Michael Vick's electric game. But Pennington has a chance to be the kind of quarterback the Jets haven't had since Joe Namath, the kind who wins.

He showed that, from start to finish, on that third-quarter drive.

"That's the confidence we have in Chad," Edwards said. "We felt if we could throw on first down, we could get them out of their eight-man front. Paul Hackett did a great job of not getting away from that. And Chad did a nice job."

It was the first time he'd brought his team back from a fourth-quarter deficit in his nine-game career as a starter, coming back from a bad throw to start a touchdown drive.

"Nothing bothers Chad," said Coles, who caught six passes for 126 yards and became the Jets' first 1,000-yard receiver since Keyshawn Johnson was traded. "He's just focused on the next play. That's the kind of player he is. If you don't do that, it snowballs. And he realizes that."

The Jets have games against Chicago, New England and Green Bay in a season that has been all about Pennington ever since Edwards made the move.

"The best thing about our team," he said, "is that we can get better. There's a lot of room for improvement.

"I just have to trust myself and my guys. But I'm not worried about my development. We're focused on winning a championship. Not getting close. On winning."

It might be too late for this year. But next year, Chad Pennington will give them that chance.