The best that can be said for the Jets’ 31–24 victory over the Detroit Lions is that it was precisely the kind of game they’ve found ways to lose over the last couple of years.

They very nearly found a way to lose this one. Leading 24–10 with 7:54 to go in the final period, the Lions, just inside the Jets 30-yard line, elected to go for it on 4th and 11. The Lions are the worst team in the league on converting fourth downs, but that may be because, until yesterday, they hadn’t tried it against the Jets. John Kitna fired a 17-yard sideline pass to Mike Furrey and put the Lions back in business. Seconds later they scored on a shovel pass from Kitna to Kevin Jones, cutting the lead to 24–17, and suddenly the horrible possibility that the Jets could lose was very real.

The Jets then proceeded to make a case for why this game would be different by gouging out 62-yards in eight plays to retrieve the two touchdown lead. Then they let the Lions come down the field 67 yards in 11 plays to score again and — for Jets fans — revive fresh memories of recent disasters. This season, the Jets have looked ugly in defeat and not all that pretty in victory: In the last three games they won, their opponents, with a chance to win or tie, were holding the ball at the gun. The Jets had arguably their best possession of the season with 2:25 left to go against Detroit, running down the clock and letting Chad Pennington walk off the field with the ball at the finish.

Pennington had a good day, 16 of 22 for 190 yards, one TD, and one interception. Leon Washington had a better one. With his guards pulling and offering him the option of going off-tackle or cutting wide, he rushed for 129 yards and the first two touchdowns of his career. Kevin Barlow added 50 yards on 12 carries and, for the first time this year, Eric Mangini and his staff called for not one, but two end-arounds. The first to the right with Laveranues Coles for ten yards and the second to the left with Jerricho Cotchery for fifteen, forcing the Detroit defense to unclog the middle and cover the flanks.

All in all, it was one of the smoothest and most consistent offensive performances the team has put together thisseason, even if it was at the expense of a wretched Lions defense and even if the Lions were playing without their first string defensive tackles, the two Shauns, Rogers and Cody. Unfortunately for the Jets, it came on a day when the defense was sloppy and uninspired, giving up just under 390 yards or about 70 more than the mediocre Lions offensive unit had been averaging in compiling a 1–5 record before meeting the Jets.

Kitna dropped back 37 times and was sacked only once, which is a weakness the Jets have not addressed since letting John Abraham go to Atlanta. The truth is that if the Lions hadn’t drawn six flags on offense for 42 yards (the Jets had just one penalty on offense for negative five), Detroit might have pulled off the upset.

Not that it really would have been all that much of an upset. So far the Mangini Jets have yet to establish what kind of team they are and have demonstrated no outstanding strengths to offset several glaring weaknesses, particularly the lack of a pass rush in the late moments of a close game. Next week the Jets go to Cleveland to face a Browns team that might be even worse than the Lions. They will be expected to win that game, and if they do, they will have a winning record at the midway point of the season. This is no mean achievement: Last year the Jets were so inconsistent (and, to be fair, injury riddled) they couldn’t have been expected to win two consecutive games against anyone.

Following that game, Mangini gets a break — a week’s bye will give him time to take stock of his team and what they have to build on down the stretch. My guess is he’ll find that his offensive line, though smallish, has finally come together both as a run blocking and pass protection unit. He’ll have an extra week to prepare his team for the two toughest games of the season, back-to-back matches with maybe the best teams in the two conferences — the New England Patriots in Foxboro and the Chicago Bears at the Meadowlands. The Jets need to win at least one just to keep playoff hopes alive. If they lose both, their season is, for all intents and purposes, over. It’s really that simple.

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”