Sunday's 34-17 home loss to the Broncos took care of that.

"I'll tell you what, it's a wakeup call," said receiver Laveranues Coles, who had only two receptions Sunday - one for 4 yards, one for no gain. "Any time you get in a situation like this where you lose a ballgame, you're all hurting."

Coles cited the end of the Jets' five-game winning streak as reason for everyone to look inward.

"From top to bottom, again, the coaches are going to take a look at themselves and what they're doing. The players need to take a look at what they've been doing and the approach they've been taking into the ballgame," Coles said.

Players reported to work yesterday to view the carnage on video. It reminded several of them of the last time the Jets lost, a 16-13 overtime defeat Oct. 19 in Oakland.

"The same things that hurt us in the Oakland game hurt us yesterday," linebacker David Bowens said. "Tackling, penalties, turnovers - those little intangible things that lose a game."

Bowens said he didn't think the Jets were capable of such a performance. Not that he or his teammates had taken on an aura of infallibility, but they did think many of their most glaring early-season mistakes were in the past.

"I thought it was behind us and we went out there and from the opening drive, it seemed like we weren't clicking," Bowens said. "And defensively, they put us in some formations that we've had trouble with and we didn't adjust fast enough. Those things hurt us. But the things we got from the film today is those things are correctable."

There was one positive from the afternoon. At the same time the Jets were laying their egg in the Meadowlands, the Patriots were in the process of losing to the Steelers in Foxborough. The Jets (8-4) still have a one- game lead in the AFC East over the Patriots and Dolphins.

Of course, the Patriots' loss made some players pine for what could have been: a two-game division lead over the Patriots with four to play.

"Obviously, looking back and seeing they lost, as well ... to have a two-game lead at this point of the season would have been big, but at the same time, we just have to worry about what we can control," tight end Chris Baker said. "We have four games coming up, and we're in control of that. If we take care of business there, we'll be fine."

Right guard Brandon Moore said that what the Patriots or any other teams are doing is irrelevant.

"It's a blown opportunity from the standpoint of what we were trying to accomplish and what we had been doing," Moore said. "We weren't worried about what the Patriots were doing or even you guys [reporters] last week talking about what the Giants were doing. We have enough problems of our own trying to deal with our own stuff."

The locker room emptied quickly after Sunday's loss, and the players who remained spoke mostly in quiet, disappointed tones. Yesterday brought the reminder that this still is a first-place team with a road game against the 4-8 49ers on Sunday.

"Obviously, we would have liked to have won that game and played better, but at the same time, we're 8-4 and we'll be OK," Baker said. "It's one game of the season."

Coles said: "It's not like our season is over because of one game, but I think it gets us to realize that, OK, we can be smacked on the butt ourselves. At this point, we need to wake up, get back to the drawing board and figure out what we did wrong and try to correct it for this week coming up."

Sunday

Jets at San Francisco

4:05 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2

Radio: WEPN (1050), WABC (770), WRCN (103.9)