Precisely how it wasn't drawn up.

"It was a one-man route to L.C. on the slant," Favre said, referring to Laveranues Coles. "Jerricho doesn't even have a route on the play."

Favre laughed. "A busted play," he said. But a play, he said, that "set the tone."

The Jets did a lot of tone-setting on their first possession, a nine-play, 76-yard drive that Favre ended by throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Thomas Jones.

"Not that we couldn't have gone on to win the ballgame had we not gone down and scored," Favre said, "but it sure sent a message that we were capable of scoring against this defense."

Favre went 6-for-6 for 72 yards on the drive, all of them short passes, the game plan against a fierce Titans pass rush that entered the game ranked sixth in the league with 28 sacks. It was an array of screens, slants and crossing routes requiring three-step drops to keep Favre upright.

Favre executed the game plan to near-perfection, going 25-for-32 for 224 yards with two touchdown passes and one interception. It looked similar to his previous game, the 34-31 OT win over the Patriots in which he went 26-for-33 for 258 yards with two TDs.

"It was very effective, with the short passes, getting the ball out of Brett's hands real quick, not allowing our pass rush to get up the field," Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said. "They had a great game plan."

Coach Eric Mangini didn't put a number on it, but he said a portion of Favre's completions came when he audibled out of the play sent in from the sideline. It is another indication of Favre's increasing comfort level with the Jets' offense.

"Some of those quick passes came on called running plays," Mangini said. "That's one of those things that Brett's special at, his ability to assess the coverage, look at the fronts, figure out whether or not he thinks a run's going to work versus throwing a slant to J-Co or Laveranues. When you have that ability like he does, it makes it challenging defensively."

The Jets are officially on a roll, and Favre, 39, who after quite a few games earlier this season looked significantly older than that, exuded youth and exuberance yesterday.

"We've been faced with, it seems like each week, a bigger game than we had last week," Favre said. "And that's the position the Jets want to be in. That's the position that every team wants to be in and every player, I would think. This is what it's all about. It's just nice to be on the winning end of it."

First impressions

The Jets have scored on their opening possession in the last six games:

OPP. RESULT PLAYS YARDS TIME

Titans TD 9 76 4:35

Patriots TD 10 62 5:34

Rams TD 8 80 4:33

Bills FG 6 42 1:47

Chiefs TD 10 73 6:10

Raiders FG 9 58 3:19