But a few more performances like yesterday's and that future will be among the mediocre.

Victimized by the unholy Football alliance of failing to get off the field on defense and not staying on it much on offense, the Jets dropped their second straight game, losing to the 49ers, 24-14, at Candlestick Park.

After winning five straight games to go to 8-3 and the forefront of the discussion in regard to AFC supremacy, the Jets now have to worry about avoiding a complete collapse and missing the playoffs altogether. Yesterday's loss, their third on the West Coast this season, found the Jets on the bad end of just about every meaningful statistical category. More importantly, the defeat dropped them into a first-place tie at 8-5 with the Patriots and Dolphins in the AFC East.

"We have everything in front of us," right tackle Damien Woody said. "Regardless of the fact that we've lost two in a row, we still have everything in front of us. For three weeks, we just have to buckle down and, man, just go for it."

That starts Sunday at home against the struggling Bills. Then the Jets go to Seattle, which nearly beat the Patriots yesterday, and a potential colossus looms on the final Sunday of the season, Dec. 28 in the Meadowlands against the Dolphins.

The bottom line, however, is if the Jets put together a couple more efforts like yesterday's, that game will mean more to the Dolphins than to the Jets.

And the cold fact is, after a week of stewing over and discussing the previous Sunday's 34-17 home loss to the Broncos as "a wake-up call," the Jets regressed against the 49ers (5-8), who are playing hard and motivated for interim coach Mike Singletary.

"It's discouraging to go out and play a team that's 4-8 and not perform well," tight end Chris Baker said. "It's discouraging, but we just have to get back to work tomorrow and try to fix the problems we have."

There are plenty of them.

The Jets were outgained 375-182 and lost time of possession by a staggering 39:49 to 20:11. Brett Favre threw for a season-low 137 yards, going 20-for-31 and failing to throw a touchdown pass for the fourth time this season.

"Situational Football, obviously, this week and last week wasn't too good. It starts with me," said Favre, who said several times the team isn't losing its confidence.

The Jets were 1-for-10 on third down; the 49ers were 8-for-15. The 49ers dominated first downs 25-10.

"A lot of things hurt us - penalties, we couldn't get off the field on third down - things like that hurt us," said linebacker David Bowens, whose third-quarter interception, the first of his career, helped set up Thomas Jones' 17-yard TD run with 5:24 left in the third quarter that tied the score at 14. "What we have to figure out is what we did to win those eight games and get back to that."

Bowens mentioned penalties, and there were plenty of those - only three for the 49ers compared to eight for the Jets, including a key holding penalty called against James Ihedigbo. It negated Leon Washington's 99-yard kickoff return for an apparent touchdown, which followed Joe Nedney's 32-yard field goal with 14:44 left that gave the 49ers a 17-14 lead.

"Any time you have a special-teams play like that called back, it's big," Woody said.

Not that Woody blamed the call for yesterday's loss. No one with the Jets did, as they knew the problems ran deeper than a questionable call.

Defensively, for the second straight week, the Jets couldn't get over the "Hill." The previous Sunday, Broncos rookie fullback Peyton Hillis gashed the defense for 129 yards. Yesterday, the formerly nondescript Shaun Hill continued the trend of opposing quarterbacks abusing the secondary. Hill had it easy as he was rarely hit, going 15-for-20 for 169 yards in the first half and finishing 28-for-39 for 285 yards with two TDs and an INT. Hill, whose 3-yard TD pass to Bryant Johnson with 6:05 left made it 24-14, was sacked twice.

The only highlight on offense - sort of - was Jones, whose TD run was his 12th rushing TD of the season and 14th overall, with both those numbers tying franchise records.

But Jones, like everyone else, was disappointed and looking for answers that coach Eric Mangini said "are in the room," meaning the locker room. "We lost two in a row, this one to a team with a losing record," Bowens said. "That's not satisfactory to us. We're better than that."

Nose tackle Kris Jenkins was philosophical in discussing the Jets' plummet from 8-3 and Super Bowl talk to 8-5 and goodness knows.

"We know what's wrong," Jenkins said. "We've just got to find the answer to it. That's it. When people didn't believe in us, we didn't listen to folks. Honestly, right now, it looks like when people are believing in us, we're not listening to them, either."

Three-game season

The Jets (8-5) are in a three-way tie for the AFC East lead with three games remaining. The schedule for the three contenders:

Dec. 14 Dec. 21 Dec. 28

Jets Buffalo (6-7) At Seattle (2-11) Miami (8-5)

Partiots At Oakland (3-10) Arizona (8-5) At Buffalo (6-7)

Dolphins San Fransisco (5-8) At Kansas City (2-11) At Jets (8-5)

Sunday

Buffalo at Jets

1 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2

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