Having been around Eric Mangini on a regular basis for the better part of the last three years, I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever seen him quite like this.

Normally robotic, scripted and dreadfully dull and unquotable, Mangini spent most of yesterday's news conference cracking jokes, pushing back at criticism of the Jets' struggles in West Coast games, and telling reporters he felt like "a proud parent" when many of his seven Pro Bowl players were focused more on winning Sunday in Seattle than booking flights to Honolulu in February.

Mangini even won a friendly wager with Jets PR man Bruce Speight about which reporter would ask the loaded question about whether there was more pressure on the coach now that the Jets have a league-high seven Pro Bowl selections. As soon as a reporter in the front row asked the question, Mangini turned to Speight, smiled, and said, "See? I told you she'd be the one to ask that. I knew it."

Wow.

With Mangini doing a little Rodney Dangerfield and Tom Coughlin going Richard Simmons with a few jumping jacks during his own presser yesterday at Giants Stadium, it's New York Coaches Gone Wild. Just in time for two massive games on Sunday for the Jets and Giants.

Mangini faces the biggest two-game stretch of his career, yet he was as loose as I've ever seen him. And no, there were no mind-altering drugs at work. When someone asked him if there was a sense of anxiety in the building because of the magnitude of these final two games - games that will decide whether the Jets will go to the playoffs for the second time in his three seasons in New York, or whether they will miss out and invite plenty more Mangini criticism and questions about his qualifications for the job - the coach rattled off another one-liner.

"We haven't gone out and purchased a bunch of Zoloft," he cracked. "The guys are excited. They enjoy where we are at this point in the season. It's a great opportunity. Now we have to seize that opportunity."

Especially Mangini. With a team featuring a $140-million offseason makeover and the addition of the most famous quarterback in the game, the pressure's on more than ever. A run to the playoffs, and Mangini will be closer to the coach he was in Year 1, when he led the Jets to a surprise trip to the postseason. A season-ending collapse, and he won't hear the end of it.

If he's still working here, that is.

The way he was behaving yesterday, Mangini expects to be here for a while. Which means he's feeling pretty good about a 9-5 record, a share of first place in the AFC East, and destiny in his own hands. If the Jets win out, they're in. At Seattle. Home to Miami. On the West Coast, where the Jets are 0-3 this season. And home to Chad Pennington's Dolphins in what could be a winner-take-all game at the Meadowlands.

The season's on the line, but Mangini was embracing the moment, not recoiling from it. Even in the midst of intense criticism for the team's inability to put away pitiful West Coast teams in three straight tries. Lose in San Diego. Lose in Oakland. Lose in San Francisco.

Heck, Mangini was even getting the business from the media after Sunday's narrow escape against the Bills. One more West Coast loss, and the vitriol will only get louder.

"There's no magic pill to playing well on the West Coast," he said.

He even tried to mix things up by scheduling the flight on Saturday instead of Friday, but that didn't work, either. Why not, if it's only a charter flight?

"Feel free to ask the airline," he said.

Exasperated after a series of questions about the Jets' record out west, Mangini finally said, "We are actually playing a team on the West Coast. We're not playing the West Coast."

I've seen Mangini in these tight spots before, and this wasn't his usual demeanor. He tends to be as uncomfortable as he sometimes looks on the sideline chewing gobs of gum as his team struggles. His attitude can be so flat-line that I once described it as "a creepy sense of detachment."

Not yesterday.

When I asked him how he's processing the criticism he's taken over the last two seasons, Mangini wondered if perhaps I was included in that group of skeptics. Why, yes.

"I don't spend a lot of time on it," he said. "It changes so dramatically. You get a nickname one year, and then you get a revised nickname the next year. Some are nice. Some are not so nice."

From Mangenius to Mangidiot, the coach has experienced the highs and lows.

Right now, he's in between. What happens the next two weeks will determine which nickname applies. He understands there is no in between.