NFL

Coach-center spat highlights Jets offense’s urgency

DENVER — As the Jets concluded their final meetings on Friday before leaving for the Mile High City, center Nick Mangold and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer were working through a difference of opinion. Mangold wanted more freedom to alter certain calls at the line of scrimmage. Schottenheimer didn’t think it was necessary.

Mangold figured he’d earned the right to have that kind of flexibility being a Pro Bowl veteran and all. Schottenheimer apparently disagreed.

“He’s holding me back,” Mangold said in the Jets locker room after apparently failing to get his way.

On the scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 2 as far as any internal rift is concerned. But it does suggest the search for making the Jets offense as dominant as its defense is an ongoing process with no shortage of opinions on how to get there.

There has been plenty of concern this week over whether cornerback Darrelle Revis will play against the Broncos (2-3) today at Invesco Field. But it really shouldn’t matter if the Jets offense does what it’s supposed to do against a banged-up Broncos defense that allowed 415 total yards, including 233 rushing, in its 31-17 loss to the Ravens last week.

Today’s game is all about the Jets offense, or at least it should be. We’ve seen enough of Rex Ryan’s defense to know it’s going to hold its own even against a Broncos offense that ranks fourth in the NFL averaging 384.8 yards per game. It’s time for the Jets offense, ranked tied for 15th at 337.2 yards per game, to start putting all its talented pieces together and become as feared as the team’s defense.

“Obviously, when you have a defensive head coach and the top-rated defense in the league coming from last year, you know that you have to pull your weight,” Schottenheimer said. “We think we’ve done a good job of that, but we’re just getting started. We’re not pleased with where we’re at.”

The Jets offense knows it got lucky on Monday night. It produced zero touchdowns on four visits to the Minnesota red zone and was vulnerable to a Brett Favre comeback. The Jets exhaled only after cornerback Dwight Lowery intercepted a Favre pass and returned it 26 yards for the final touchdown with 1:30 to play.

It’s a scenario that can’t often be repeated if the Jets (4-1) want to be as good as they believe they can be. This isn’t the 2000 Ravens, for whom the offense was simply window dressing for a Super Bowl team. With LaDainian Tomlinson looking better than anyone expected and a receiving corps that now includes Santonio Holmes, the Jets shouldn’t be a team that needs to be saved by its defense.

Today’s game could be a springboard to the rest of the season. With three starters and two reserves out on the Denver defense, the Jets should be able to dominate especially with their running game even in the mile high altitude.

“If we’re dehydrating our running backs, I’ll take it,” Ryan said. “[Denver] gave up 200-something yards to Baltimore last week. They don’t want to [give that up again] because that’s an embarrassing thing for a defense, so they’re going to try to put them all down there. Sometimes, it leads to big plays with the passing game and the running game.”

That’s what the Jets are supposed to be built to do: beat teams with the ground-and-pound and with big plays in the running and passing game. It’s why inefficiency in the red zone is unacceptable. Quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh emphasized that point on Friday with a lecturing tone that caught the players’ attention.

“It definitely woke people back up,” guard Brandon Moore said. “Being average is not the way we want to be perceived. We know we’re better.”

Today, they can prove it.

george.willis@nypost.com