EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Eric Mangini was impressed with his former team. As for his current team, well, the Jets weren't very impressive in a season-opening 38-14 trouncing at the hands of the Patriots yesterday afternoon at the Meadowlands.

"They have a lot of good players," Mangini said of New England, where he was an assistant coach for six years (the last one as defensive coordinator) to Bill Belichick before becoming head coach of the Jets last year.

"Whether it be wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, quarterbacks -- they do a good job across the board," Mangini said. "I thought they played well today."

The Patriots played very well, indeed, racking up 431 yards total offense while holding the Jets to 227. Randy Moss shredded the New York secondary for 183 yards and a touchdown on nine catches as Tom Brady completed 22 of 28 passes for 297 yards and three touchdowns, without either throwing an interception or being sacked.

Defensively, New England held the Jets to just 60 yards rushing (the Pats' leading rusher, Laurence Maroney, had 72) and sacked Jets quarterback Chad Pennington four times -- the last one, by Jarvis Green, forcing him to the sidelines.

The Patriots also hurt the Jets on special teams, as Ellis Hobbs returned the second half kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.

"It's difficult any time you give up a big play," Mangini said, "but it was the start of the second half. You can't come into halftime in one situation, and then come out and make it really difficult for yourself, as we did in giving up a long return.

"Having those big plays the Patriots had -- the kickoff returned for a touchdown, the long pass (51 yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter) to Randy Moss -- makes it tough. Any time you give up big plays, the momentum shifts, and then the approach dramatically shifts."

Moss' touchdown gave New England a 28-7 lead and forced the Jets to abandon their running game in an attempt to play catch-up football. The Patriots, on the other hand, were able to combine their running and passing games very effectively.

"They had a nice balance there," Mangini said.

The Jets, who figure to be the Patriots' prime challengers for AFC East supremacy, were left reeling -- particularly with Pennington's status up in the air for next week's game at Baltimore.

"I'm sure I'll see the doctors frequently this week and we'll see what happens," said Pennington, who returned with his right foot and ankle heavily taped to direct a 70-yard scoring drive, capped by a 1-yard TD pass to Laveranues Coles, late in the third quarter.

On the previous series, he had hopped off the field in obvious pain after being sacked by Green, and threw his helmet to the ground when he reached the sidelines.

"I was frustrated," he said. "I really never had a lower leg injury before, so I was just trying to walk it off. I'm not going to lay there, I know that. I'm going to walk off the field, try to get back into the game -- which I was able to do."

He came out of the game in the fourth quarter with the Patriots clearly in control.

"With six minutes left," said Pennington, "down 31-14, I had to be brutally honest with myself as far as the injury was concerned and say: 'Without the threat of a run, I'm kind of a sitting duck back there.' I didn't feel it would be smart for me to go back in."

Pennington said the Jets were beaten by a clearly better team.

"When you look at the game," he said, "they beat us in all three phases, and that's why the score ended the way it ended. We didn't have an edge in any phase. They had the kickoff return, they were very solid on offense, and were pretty stingy on defense.''