Eric Mangini motivates his team by comparing players to boxers and their games to prizefights. Mangini’s Jets were knocked out of the NFL playoffs yesterday, but just advancing this far was a great accomplishment in a season in which no one thought they could have been contenders.

In falling 37–16 to the New England Patriots, the Jets lost to a better team. But unlike the last three years, when the Jets were vastly inferior and went 0–6 against the Patriots, this season the Jets beat New England once and showed real signs that they’re heading in the right direction, toward a time when they — not the Patriots — will be on top of the AFC East.

The best sign is Mangini himself. A year ago, when he was introduced as the Jets’ new coach, many fans and commentators were skeptical that such a young and inexperienced coach could succeed. But Mangini is clearly the right coach to lead the Jets. Nothing that happened at Gillette Stadium yesterday should detract from the turnaround he engineered, from a 4–12 season to a playoff berth.

Mangini didn’t have his best game yesterday, though. Perhaps trying too hard to outsmart his mentor and rival, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, Mangini sent his defense out in an unusual formation to start the game, with two defensive linemen, four linebackers, and five defensive backs. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady instantly saw a flaw in the Jets’ alignment, with cornerback Andre Dyson, hobbled by a knee injury, playing against receiver Jabar Gaffney. Brady hit Gaffney for three completions and 34 yards on the Patriots’ first drive, which resulted in a touchdown. Dyson spent the rest of the game on the bench.

The Jets’ defense also looked disorganized on New England’s second drive, which Brady recognized, calling for a quick snap that caused a Jets penalty for too many players on the field. Brady gave the Jets problems all day. Despite frequent blitzing, the Jets managed just one sack, and Brady used the time his offensive line gave him to complete 22 of 34 passes for 212 yards, with no turnovers.

The Jets didn’t pass as well as the Patriots yesterday, but they feel good about their passing game moving forward. Chad Pennington stayed healthy all season and is definitely the Jets’ quarterback for 2007. He has a good pair of receivers in his longtime target, Laveranues Coles, and one of this season’s true revelations, Jerricho Cotchery. After catching just 25 passes combined in his first two seasons, Cotchery caught 82 this season and added the Jets’ biggest play of the game yesterday with a 77-yard touchdown.

Elsewhere, though, the Jets have issues they need to address during the off-season. One is the lack of progress made by their left tackle, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, selected with the fourth pick in the 2006 draft. Ferguson started every game this season, but he was never more than adequate and had one of his worst games yesterday.

One of Ferguson’s missed blocks became the game’s key turning point. Down 20–13, the Jets had first-and-10 in New England territory and had the Patriots’ defense on its heels. But Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin knocked down a Pennington lateral, and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork picked it up and ran 31 yards, setting up a New England field goal. On that play Ferguson failed both at blocking Colvin — with a better block, he wouldn’t have been in position to knock the ball down – and at picking the ball up when it landed at his feet. The Jets were lucky that the enormous Wilfork, and not a faster Patriot, picked it up, but the damage from the play was done, and the Patriots never again felt threatened.

Ferguson isn’t the Jets’ biggest problem, just the most noteworthy because the team had such high hopes for him. A bigger concern is the run defense, which allowed 4.6 yards a carry this season, ranking 27th in the league. The Jets targeted defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen in free agency a year ago, and he turned in a disappointing season. They’ll need to make the defensive line a high priority again.

It’s unclear where else the Jets will look in the off-season. Rookie running back Leon Washington, who gained 50 yards on 11 carries yesterday, showed flashes of talent but had only two games with more than 60 rushing yards. The Jets could sign another runner to join Washington in the backfield, and they could also use more depth in the secondary and on the offensive line.

But it would be a mistake to spend the day after their playoff loss pointing out all the Jets’ flaws. With Mangini, the Jets have the most important piece in place. And that means next year they’ll have at least a puncher’s chance of knocking the Patriots out of the top spot in the AFC East.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.