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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - For a team that fancies itself as a legitimate Super Bowl contender, Sunday's outcome was a rude awakening.

"It's a little discouraging," New York Jets' linebacker Jonathan Vilma said with a touch of understatement after a 38-14 whipping administered on their home field by the New England Patriots. "You always want to play better in the first game, but it's not the end of the season for us. We have 15 games left. It's just a matter of going back, regrouping and getting ready for Baltimore."

But whether that regrouping will include quarterback Chad Pennington, at least for the short term, is still in doubt. Pennington will be examined further today to see if the damage he suffered to his right ankle while being sacked early in the third quarter will be sufficient to take him out of action.

In a scenario eerily reminiscent of another Patriots-Jets opener in the Meadowlands, Pennington went down in a heap under the rush of Patriots' tackle Jarvis Green with 10:06 left in the third quarter. Pennington struggled to get up because of the injury, fell to the turf, got up again, hopped off the field on one leg and fired his helmet in disgust to the ground.

History repeated? The fear among the Jets' faithful was that they were witnessing a re-enactment of the Jets' opener against the Patriots in 1999, when Vinny Testaverde suffered a season-ending Achilles' tendon tear in the game, punter Tom Tupa replaced him for the rest of the 30-28 New England victory, and the hopes of those highly-touted Jets were dashed as a result.

But Pennington was not to be deterred, and he re-entered the game for a drive that started with 6:56 left in the quarter. Wearing a dark protective boot on his right ankle and hobbling noticeably, Pennington still engineered a nine-play, 70-yard drive that ended in a 1-yard touchdown pass to Laveranues Coles.

"I was trying to rely on my experience (from past injuries) and trying to stay focused," Pennington said. "Even though I felt unstable, I felt like I was seeing things well throughout the game. I could still get the ball to our playmakers."

Jets' coach Eric Mangini said he would never have put his signal-caller in harm's way if he wasn't convinced that he'd be OK.

"With any injury," Mangini said, "we have doctors on the sideline who I talk to, who will examine anyone, whatever the case may be. We go by those discussions and discussions with that player before we put that player back in.

"It's very important to us to put the player in when we do feel he is able to return to the game," he added.

But with seven minutes left, both Mangini and Pennington decided the starter had had enough. Kellen Clemens finished up with the outcome no longer in doubt.

"In that situation, you know what you're getting," Mangini said. "They're playing the pass aggressively, so that means (the Patriots) are rushing and want to have the quarterback be able to move over in the pocket."

In other words, the Patriots want to kill the quarterback in that situation, something Mangini and the Jets can't afford to let happen.

"Down 31-14, I had to, for the first time, be brutally honest with myself as far as injuries are concerned," Pennington said. "Without the threat of the run, I'm kind of a sitting duck back there. I just didn't feel like it would be smart for either me or my teammates for me to go back in with six minutes left."