It is the nature of Paul Tagliabue’s NFL of Parity that a team such as the Jets could jump out to the best start of its 45-year history, five wins in five tries, and still have everyone wondering just how good they were.

After all, their five wins had come at the expense of the Bengals, the Chargers, the Dolphins, the Bills and the 49ers, who have a combined record of 8-23. And even at that, none of the Jets’ wins were easy. Last week, for instance, the Jets conceivably stood just a Tim Rattay interception in the final minute from a loss to the lowly 49ers.

Were the Jets truly a contender, or merely a pretender taking advantage of the NFL’s weak sisters?

The answer is, we still don’t really know. But we do know this: Like the 20 previous teams to have played the New England Patriots over the past two seasons, the Jets were not quite good enough yesterday.

The final score, 13-7 New England, was indicative of the kind of game it was, and at the same time, misleading in terms of providing a yardstick of how far this Jets team has come this year, and how much further it can go.

In its way, New England, which has not lost a game since Week 3 of last season, is not unlike the Jets. The Patriots rarely win big, and they never win pretty. Even last December, when they picked off Chad Pennington a humiliating five times, the final score was a deceptive 21-16.

And yet, the Patriots are really nothing like the Jets. They are a lot like another champion from the region, Rocky Marciano. Like the Patriots, Marciano never looked good winning. But he didn’t care, because he never lost. And his opponents, as a rule, walked away feeling pretty good, too, because every last one of them, all 49 of them, felt as if things would end differently if they were given another chance.

Undoubtedly, the Jets feel the same way about the Patriots, and they’ll get a rematch on December 26 in Giants Stadium. But in the same way that no one ever quite understood what Marciano was doing to his opponents, the subtle charms of the Patriots often go unappreciated. On both sides of the ball, they are unspectacular but stifling.

The Pats quarterback, Tom Brady, looks like he should be working behind the bar at Starbucks. The featured back, Corey Dillon, will make nobody’s list of the top 10 running backs in the league. You run through the names of 13 wide receivers before your eye hits David Givens, the first Patriot among the AFC leaders. Most of the Patriots’ big names – Ty Law, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest – play defense, but as a team, the Patriots rank below the Jets, both offensively and defensively. All they do is win, under the guidance of the best coach in the game, Bill Belichick.

“We try to limit our mistakes,” said Brady, who, like Pennington, played a solid if workmanlike game.

But if there was a difference in the game aside from the six-point margin of victory, it was Brady’s ability to get his team into the end zone in a two-minute drill to end the first half, and the Pennington’s inability to do likewise at the end of the game.

Brady’s drive came after the only Jets touchdown of the game, a one-yard run by Pennington that capped a 13-play, 78-yard drive that ate up half the second quarter. That gave the Jets a 7-6 lead, and with 62 yards of real estate between them and the end zone and just 109 ticks left on the clock, it seemed as if the Patriots would leave well enough alone until the third quarter.

But, working without a huddle, Brady quickly moved the Patriots 38 yards on two passes, giving New England a first down at the Jets 24 with 48 seconds left. Four plays later, it seemed as if the Patriots would have to settle for a field goal when Brady missed Kevin Faulk on a second-and-nine. But a roughing the passer call on Jets tackle Dwayne Robertson gave New England a reprieve, and Brady took advantage by firing a strike to David Patten for what would prove to be the final score of the game.

The Jets, who had been led by Pennington to victories in the final drive of their last two games, had a chance to do it again with eight minutes left in the game. Starting at their own 14, Pennington moved the Jets to the Patriots 30, even diving for a first down on a fourth-and-inches on the Jets 24, a gutsy call for the normally ultraconservative Jets coaching staff.

But then came their final gasp, a fourth-and-8 from the New England 30 when Pennington, with plenty of time but nowhere to go, hit a Patriots defender in the back with a pass ostensibly intended for Wayne Chrebet.

“The plays were there to be made,” Pennington said. “We just didn’t make them.”

That wasn’t the worst Jets mistake of the game, only the final one. Earlier, Jerald Sowell had fumbled without being hit, setting up a Patriots field goal, and a little later, a penalty for 12 men on the field gave New England a first down after they had punted the ball away. Given a second chance, the Patriots drove for another field goal.

“I thought our team took a little step forward today, and we’re gonna learn from this,” said Jets head coach Herm Edwards. “We didn’t quite get it done.”

That makes Edwards and his team no different from the last 20 teams who tried to beat the Patriots. No doubt he and they believe things will be different next time.

Mr. Matthews is the host of the “Wally and the Keeg” sports talk show heard Monday-Friday from 4-7 p.m. on 1050 ESPN radio.