EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- He flashed the same boyish smile we've seen ever since he became the Jets starting quarterback, and said exactly what he's been saying all season.

	Chad Pennington was the NFL's highest rated passer last season.

"We're not focused on coming close," Chad Pennington declared. "Championships, that's what this game is all about."

This time, nobody snickered or sneered.

Pennington and the Jets, who beat the Green Bay Packers 42-17 at Giants Stadium on Sunday to win the AFC East, head into their wild-card matchup against the Colts playing as well as any team in the league.

"This is special," said Pennington, who threw four touchdown passes. "We have a chance to make history. But it's up to us."

It wasn't up to them yesterday, not until Adam Vinatieri's field goal capped the New England Patriots' improbable comeback against the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium, bringing cheers from the Jets fans in Jersey, hundreds of miles away.

"That gave us a boost, the fans going crazy," Pennington said. "I don't think our performance totally depended on that, but it gave us a boost."

It gave the Jets the chance, finally and unbelievably, to control their own fate.

Beat Green Bay and Brett Favre, and the Jets would win just their second division title since Super Bowl III and the NFL-AFL merger. Lose, and they'd be out.

"Green Bay was playing for home-field, and that's a big advantage for them with Lambeau and all," Wayne Chrebet said. "But we were fighting for our lives."

Pennington and his team took control early, then roared out of the locker room in the second half to finish the comeback from their 2-5 start.

"This is the best moment of my career," Curtis Martin, their running star, said. "We've been through so much. You learn to appreciate things. We were at the bottom of the league, laughingstocks of the NFL. To win the division, to climb out of that hole, that was special."

"I've been to the Super Bowl," he said. "There's something about this year that's special. I believe it's because of the struggle.

Credit goes to Herm Edwards, the coach who kept them relentlessly focused on winning the next game, and to Pennington, who made it happen.

"I remember after our second game being right here in this room," Edwards said yesterday, his eyes moist. "Someone said the season was over. I wasn't smart enough to know that. And the players weren't dumb enough to believe it."

He benched Vinny Testaverde and put his team in Pennington's hands, and that made the difference.

"Chad, he led this team," Martin said. "We were getting blown out, but he came in and said, 'We're going 9-0 and making the playoffs.' It was like watching a little kid who has big dreams. You say to yourself, 'He doesn't really know what it takes to get there.' But there's something about him."

Edwards and Pennington changed the culture around the team. The same old Jets would have found the most painful way to blow the opportunity, the way they did even for Bill Parcells.

But now, twice in two seasons, they have played a win-and-in game, and made it.

Last year in Oakland, they beat the Raiders on a 53-yard field goal in the final minute of the final game of the season.

This time, they needed even more. They needed the scores to break their way. And it happened, with the Patriots' comeback.

Now, the Jets head into the playoffs as a very dangerous team.

	“	We're not focused on coming close. Championships, that's what this game is all about. ”
		— Chad Pennington, Jets quarterback

"We're playing as good as any team in this league," said Sam Garnes, the New York native who contributed a key interception yesterday. "Or better."

Four years ago, when Testaverde was the quarterback who came off the bench to lead them to a division title, they were never the best team in the AFC, and wound up losing to the defending champion Denver Broncos in the conference final.

This time, there isn't another team out there that should scare them. There isn't another team that just seems impossible to beat.

They bounced back from an embarrassing loss to the Bears, the kind of game that seemed to bite so many contenders in the league this year, and beat up New England and Green Bay, good football teams, to get where they wanted to go.

"A streak helps," Chrebet said. "It's like the NCAA Tournament. Once you get in, it's anybody's tournament to win. You just need a three- or four-game streak at the right time and you're there."

They are confident, playing follow-the-leader.

"We're playing good football," Pennington said. "The scary thing is we can get much better."

In the room behind him, his teammates were making happy noises, strutting around in the championship T-shirts and caps.

"There's satisfaction that we're division champs, after all the adversity," Pennington said. "But we're still hungry. We want do do more. This game is about putting your name in stone, sealing your legacy as a team."

And then, he repeated his mantra:

"We're not focused on coming close. We're focused on the championship."