HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Six turnovers in one game seemed bad enough. But hey, at least the Jets scored in that one.

The Jets followed up a terrible 30-3 loss to Carolina with another embarrassment in Denver, losing 27-0 in an even lousier performance. The Jets have 11 turnovers in two games, and have found a way to sink to the same level as the awful Rich Kotite-led teams of 1995 and 1996.

Granted, the Jets are missing many of their best players – including the top two quarterbacks on the depth chart – but coach Herman Edwards has preached limiting mistakes since he took over as coach in 2001.

Those words seem to have been ignored lately.

Brooks Bollinger was to blame against Carolina with four interceptions in a span of six passes that turned a close game into a blowout, but he hardly had time to do much wrong in Denver.

Bollinger was knocked out in the first quarter with a concussion, making way for 42-year-old Vinny Testaverde, who lost his starting job after aggravating a calf injury against San Diego earlier this month. Testaverde looked rusty, fumbling the exchange from center Pete Kendall on his second play of the game.

Something as basic as getting the snap from center has proven difficult this season. The Jets have lost six fumbles that way. Testaverde added three more turnovers before he hurt his ankle and Kliff Kingsbury entered with 1:11 left.

Edwards said yesterday that Bollinger will start against New Orleans this weekend, but isn’t sure who will be the no. 2 quarterback because Testaverde is still sore. No matter who is under center, Edwards wants fewer mistakes from his team.

“We’ve got so many turnovers I can’t count them anymore,” Edwards said. “The turnovers are killing us. They’re staggering. We talk about it, don’t do it in practice and then we do it in the game.”

The Jets (2-8) have 27 turnovers through 10 games, eclipsing the previous high of 21 under Edwards set in 2001, a year they made the playoffs. Testaverde has 12 of those turnovers in 43 possessions – six interceptions, six fumbles – since joining the team after Jay Fiedler and Chad Pennington got hurt.

He might be wishing he stayed retired. After Testaverde got hurt, the Jets were forced to use their fifth quarterback of the season for the first time since 1989 and third time in team history. Tight end Doug Jolley, who went to BYU as a quarterback before switching positions, is the emergency no. 6 signal caller.

“I hate to say this, it could happen before the season is over,” Edwards said. “I don’t know, everything else has happened, so why not? I just hope what’s happening to us, that after this year it’s going to go away and it’s never coming back here, because I don’t wish it on anybody.”

The Jets are on pace for their worst season since Kotite led the 1995 team to a 3-13 record. With no points against Denver, the Jets failed to score for the first time since that season, a 12-0 loss to New Orleans.

“This is an NFL team’s nightmare, what we’re going through,” running back Curtis Martin said.

Because the Jets are missing so many players on offense, the plan going into every game is to play conservatively and try to limit mistakes. Once the turnovers happen and teams capitalize on them, the Jets have very little chance to win.

It doesn’t help when the defense comes out flat to start the game, as it did against Denver. The Broncos had back-to-back scoring drives lasting over 9 minutes to start the game, staking themselves to a 10-0 lead. Then Justin Miller fumbled a kickoff, Denver recovered and scored a touchdown to make it 17-0 – an insurmountable deficit for this team.

When asked after the game whether he was embarrassed, defensive end Shaun Ellis said, “This game didn’t start the embarrassment. It’s been embarrassing.”

***

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Adding depth to the offensive line was an off-season priority for the Giants, and their efforts are paying off in spades.

In Sunday’s 27-17 win over Philadelphia, backups Jason Whittle and Bob Whitfield stepped in when starters Shaun O’Hara and Luke Petitgout were injured. The Giants hardly missed a beat.

They’ll need similar performances in the coming weeks as they enter the meat of their schedule tied with Dallas for the lead in the NFC East.

The line’s play has been one of the chief reasons the Giants (7-3) are eyeing a playoff spot for the first time since 2002, but rarely has the unit been tested as it was against the Eagles. Petitgout left the game with swelling in his knee and was replaced at left tackle by Whitfield. Then, center O’Hara injured his ankle and gave way to Whittle midway through the third quarter.

Whittle and Whitfield were on the field when Eli Manning threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to help the Giants beat the Eagles for the first time in four games.

“They’re veteran football players, and they can go into the game and perform at a high level,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “Both guys went in the game and really contributed.”

Whittle, a seven-year pro acquired last year from Tampa Bay, is a coach’s dream: He has played guard, center and long-snapper in the NFL. In his 14th year, Whitfield is longer in the tooth but has proved he can still hold his own at left tackle.

Whitfield and right tackle Kareem McKenzie were two of the Giants’ offseason pickups who received less fanfare than fellow free agents Plaxico Burress, Antonio Pierce and Jay Feely. But they have filled in the gaps on a unit that has been inconsistent in recent years due to injuries, inexperience and players being forced to play out of position.

Along with guard Rich Seubert, a former starter who is fully recovered from a leg injury that forced him to miss last season, the Giants can rely on a trio of players that came into this season with 26 combined years of NFL experience.

“Depth was something we sought coming out of camp, and I feel strongly about it,” Coughlin said.

This season, the line stayed healthy until Sunday, has been effective at protecting Manning and has paved the way for running back Tiki Barber to gain 967 yards through 10 games, putting him on pace to surpass his club-record 1,518 yards of last season.

The contributions Sunday weren’t restricted to run- and pass-blocking. McKenzie alertly picked a fumble by Manning out of the air to keep a drive alive in Eagles territory in the first quarter, and practically the entire group ran down another Manning fumble that squirted loose and bounced back to the Giants’ 18 early in the second quarter.

The latter play came with the Giants holding a 3-0 lead and could have changed the game’s momentum.

“[Guard] Chris Snee did a good job making a block on a Philadelphia player to prevent him from getting the ball,” Coughlin said. “That was a huge play in the game.”