NFL

JETS NEED WIN – AND HELP – TO DODGE DISASTER

If the Jets beat the Dolphins on Sunday and still don’t make the playoffs, the Brett Favre experiment will be a failure.

If Chad Pennington comes into the Meadowlands and beats his former team to win the AFC East, trading for Favre and releasing Pennington will be, for the Jets, a complete disaster.

That sounds about right for the Jets fans, who have no doubt been stewing over this scenario since Gang Green’s embarrassing 13-3 loss to the Seahawks last Sunday.

“When you’re a first-ballot Hall of Famer and you’re not putting up the performances everyone expects and the guy you replaced, Chad Pennington, is playing as well as he is, the pressure is going to be amped up,” said CBS analyst Boomer Esiason.

The Jets were the toast of the AFC after their 34-13 win over the then-undefeated Titans in Tennessee five weeks ago, and New York was abuzz with talk of a “Subway” Super Bowl.

But three Jet losses and one very lucky win (against the Bills) later, Favre & Co. need to beat the Dolphins – and have either the Patriots lose to the Bills (to win division) or the Ravens fall to the Jaguars (to win wild card spot) to make the postseason.

“I kept telling people this is not going to be an easy transition,” Esiason said of when the Favre trade was made.

“It hasn’t been. He’s had his moments where he’s played really well, but he’s had his moments where he’s throwing interceptions that defy logic.”

While the Jets have ridden the up and downs of Favre’s arm, Pennington and the 10-5 Dolphins have won eight of their past nine games. And with one more victory, Pennington will have led a team that went 1-15 last season to 11 wins and the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs.

“If Chad wasn’t on that team, they would have had four wins, if they were lucky,” said Esiason, who quarterbacked the Jets from 1993-’95.

“As far as the mental part of the game, he’s on the same level as Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. It’s unfortunate the Jets didn’t see it that way, because he really is a great player.”

Esiason said he doesn’t believe all the blame should fall on Favre’s 39-year-old shoulders. The cries for coach Eric Mangini’s job will be getting louder if the Jets don’t make the playoffs.

“I would be really hard-pressed to look at Eric and say I respect that guy if he didn’t apologize after the loss in Seattle, because some of the decisions he made were indefensible,” Esiason said. “It almost looked like he panicked at times.”