EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- No one is going to confuse the New England Patriots as the Comeback Kids, not in the Tom Brady era anyway.

Playing from behind isn't their style. Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis calls nothing but short, safe passes. Except for David Patten, the Patriots don't have great speed at the receiver position. And when Brady goes shotgun, the offensive line has to readjust because center Damien Woody can't fling a ball 5 to 7 yards behind him, so Woody has to move to guard and guard Mike Compton has to handle the snaps.

	Tom Brady completed 20 of 28 passes for an efficient 213 yards.

"But it does work," Brady said with a smile following an improbable 17-16 come-from-behind victory over the Jets at the Meadowlands on Sunday.

Jets halfback Curtis Martin described why the Patriots could overcome a 13-0 halftime deficit and move into the AFC East playoff race.

"I was sitting on the bench and thinking things are going pretty good," Martin said. "They aren't expecting what we are going to do, so I'm thinking that the next play would be the knockout punch. But it wasn't. We just kept jabbing and jabbing. You can't let a team like that stick around like that because if you don't make those plays, they may make them."

But come back they did. The Patriots have come back from an 0-2 start to be 7-5. The offense came back from the loss of Drew Bledsoe in Week 2 when Mo Lewis hit him so hard it opened a blood vessel in his chest. Brady has won seven of 10 starts and most of the fans in the New England area. Watching the events of Sunday at Giants Stadium only confirms that the future of the Patriots is in Brady's hands, not Bledsoe's.

A last-minute anecdote only reiterates that fact. With 1:46 remaining in the game and the Patriots leading 17-16, Brady came over to the sideline to discuss a crucial third-and-2 play at the Patriots' 41. The Jets used their third and last time out, so the Patriots knew that if Brady could get the first down, the game was over.

For a quarter, Brady's ribs were throbbing from falling on a football during a third-quarter play.

"Tom wasn't too excited when I told him what the play was," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said.

The play called for Brady to bootleg for a first down over right guard. Ouch.

"Are you sure that's the play you want?" the bruised Brady asked Belichick.

"Just run the ball, get the first down and win the game," Bledsoe snapped to Brady, knowing the success of the play would further leave the Patriots' franchise quarterback buried deeper along the bench.

"I needed a yard and a half and I got a yard and three-quarters," Brady said later about the play that dropped the Jets to 7-4 and into second place in the AFC East.

What Brady does best is jab a defense to death. Long passes aren't part of the Brady playbook. In the first half, the strategy looked awful. Brady completed his first four passes, but gained only 44 yards, 18 coming on Troy Brown's receiver screen. Brady followed with five consecutive incompletions.

The Patriots limped into the locker room traililng 13-0. Brady was a woeful 5-for-11 for 53 yards. Throw in two sacks, and he netted 39 yards passing and 67 yards in total offense. He also was just 1-for-6 on third-down conversions.

	“	We're a totally different team since the last time we played the Jets. We have a different swagger. ”
		— Terrell Buckley, Patriots cornerback

Belichick and his staff took control of the game during the 12-minute intermission. Weis gave an emotional pep talk to the offense. He focused on getting better blocking from the offensive line. When Brady tried to be aggressive in the first half and attempted even a five-step drop, Jets defensive end John Abraham would overpower rookie left tackle Matt Light and crash into Brady. Coaches demanded tighter blocking in the second half.

And the defense, which is the true heart of the Patriots, decided to pick up its performance.

"The Jets came out firing in the first half," cornerback Ty Law said. "They used receivers making double moves, flea-flickers, deep passes and everything. We tried to figure what kind of key can we get out of them, but it was tough. As a defense, we just played our game. We played get-in-your-face defensive coverage."

Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde, who was 15-for-23 for 164 yards and one touchdown in the first half, went 4-for-10 in the second half for 20 yards and threw two interceptions. Momentum changed when linebacker Mike Vrabel grabbed an interception that was tipped at the line of scrimmage by defensive tackle Brandon Mitchell.

Then the antithesis of the Comeback Kid went to work.

"The Jets were backing off in their coverages," Law noticed from the sidelines. "They were scared of David Patten's speed and they tried to double Troy Brown on the short stuff. When you play soft, though, and give a receiver 7 to 9 yards, if you throw those 5-yard routes, I don't care who you are, you are going to get nitpicked. I don't care if you are Michael Johnson, you ain't going to get there to stop the receiver."

No matter who the receiver is. On a third-and-2 at midfield, Weis wanted something short. Patten had been sidelined two plays earlier on a hard hit by safety Victor Green. Enter Fred Coleman on third down for his first play of the season.

Coleman, the former Chicago Enforcer receiver of the XFL who was signed Nov. 8, replaced Patten. He turned a backside slant pattern into a 46-yard gain to the Jets' 4. Two plays later, Antowain Smith scored on a 4-yard run to cut the lead to 13-7. It was the only play Coleman was used.

"Who heard of Fred Coleman before today?" Belichick said. "I think it will be the same way every week with guys stepping up."

The Jets looked as though they were ready to deliver the knockout blow. Martin gained 30 yards rushing on two plays to set up a 50-yard John Hall field goal, but football teams don't deliver knockouts with field goals. The Patriots had life.

In the Patriots' ensuing series, Brady didn't throw a pass that traveled longer than 15 yards, but his first five passes moved the chains. After plays for 4,10, 1 and no yards, Smith turned a crossing pattern into a 40-yard gain. Four plays later, Marc Edwards scored on a 4-yard touchdown run and the third-quarter deficit was now 16-14.

The game-winning field goal drive featured no pass that went for more than 17 yards.

"We used a lot of short passes out of the empty backfield," Brady said. "When we go shotgun, we have to juggle the line. We also had a lot of late substitutions, so we were getting the play off with little time left on the time clock."

But it worked, so the Patriots are back in the race.

"We're a totally different team since the last time we played the Jets," said cornerback Terrell Buckley, who sealed the victory with an interception. "We have a different swagger."

And a different quarterback. The Patriots have become the Brady Bunch.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.