Curtis Martin is far too well-mannered to say things he probably would like to say to those who have doubted him over the past couple of years.

Despite posting 1,000 or more rushing yards in each of his nine NFL seasons, including the past six as a Jet, Martin has had his ability and his future questioned by the fans, the press, his own coaching staff, and, this past off-season, by the man who hopes to replace him, Lamont Jordan.

Martin is not the type to say, “I told you so.” In fact, he is not the type to say much of anything.

So yesterday, like an old Western marshal who lets his guns do his talking, Martin used his legs to deliver a message to everyone who had doubted his future, and by extension, that of his team: Shut up. And stop worrying.

Martin, perhaps the most maligned football player of his stature ever to play in this town, gained a career second-best single game total of 196 yards to lead the Jets to a 31-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the season opener at Giants Stadium.

And “lead” is the operative word, because without Martin’s leadership yesterday, the Jets likely would have fallen to what would have been a tone-setting defeat.

But then, quiet leadership is nothing new for Martin, who has never been known to head-butt teammates on the sidelines or stand up on a bench in the locker room and deliver overheated oratory. Instead, Martin leads the old fashioned way: by example.

While Jordan was sulking over playing time and showing up in camp overweight and under motivated, Martin came in as he always does, chiseled and ready to go.

And unlike previous years, when head coach Herm Edwards held him out of exhibition games fearing he might burn him out or lose him to injury – last year he carried a ludicrous 13 times in the entire preseason – Martin got a comparatively heavy workload with 22 carries for 94 yards this preseason.

As a result, he came into yesterday’s game looking as if he had already played half a season. Last year, it took Martin seven games to break the 100-yard barrier. This year, it took him about 41 minutes.

In the process, he made the Jets offense look better, and better-balanced, than it ever has. He made Chad Pennington look as good as he ever has. He even made offensive coordinator Paul Hackett, who could turn an Indy car into a milk wagon, look competent, even innovative. Amazing what something as simple as a good ground game can do for a supposedly high-tech offense.

Pennington’s numbers were impressive – 20-for-27, 224 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions – but he was working against a defensive backfield clearly terrified of getting within breathing distance of a Jets receiver for fear of drawing a yellow flag. Plus, he had the benefit of using the pass as an adjunct to an unstoppable running game, which is football the way it used to be played back in the 1900s in the pre-West Coast Offense days.

On this day, Martin, 31 years old and with more than 10,000 yards on his odometer, was the one weapon the Bengals defense simply could not stop.

Considered a slow starter due to his performances in recent years – he gained all of six yards in the 2002 season opener – Martin laid that label to rest with 81 yards rushing in the first half, plus a three-yard TD reception that pulled the Jets even at seven.

Already, Martin had his best opener since he started 2000 with 110 yards at Green Bay in a 20-16 Jets victory. But it was in the second half, when Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer was threatening to ruin the whole day for the Jets, that Martin really drove his message home.

With the Bengals having pulled to within a touchdown, 24-17 with nearly 10 minutes left to play, Martin literally carried the Jets to what would be the winning score. He gained 44 yards in a 65-yard drive, capped by a 24-yard TD run in which he left his feet near the goal line, somehow holding the football over the plane of the end zone while his body was veering off toward the sideline.

By contrast, Jordan, the man who would be Martin, touched the ball just once all day, gaining five yards on a screen pass while Martin took a breather.

Curtis Martin didn’t need much rest yesterday, the same way he hasn’t needed to hear all the doubts and criticisms and griping. Many times, he could have answered his critics, publicly, or in the case of Jordan, privately.

It was just as well. The answer Curtis Martin delivered yesterday carried a lot more weight than anything he could have said to anyone.

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.