Maybe I have not expressed my opinion well enough. For that, I apologize.
Here is my point. The Jets, a bad team, made a ton of mistakes. They played a bad game.
The Pats, a team with SB aspirations, failed to capitalize on many of those mistakes. That is why the score was close.
Normally, if a bad team plays a good team close, it's because the bad team plays a good game. The bad team has an atypical performance, playing above themselves. That didn't happen today. The Jets played a poor game.
If a good team plays a bad game, and they both play good games (by their standards), the good team should win handily. The only time it should be close is when a good team plays a bad game (by their standards), and a bad team plays a good game.
But that didn't happen. A good team played a bad team, and they both played poor games (by their standards). The good team should have beaten the bad team handily. But they didn't. They barely won.
That's my whole point. I am not sure if that expresses my thoughts better, but I tried. My point is, with how badly the Jets played, and how bad a team they are, a true championship contender would have destroyed them, even on a bad day.