FOXBOROUGH n All right. Enough. We get it. Matt Cassel is making remarkable progress as the backup to Tom Brady. Each week he keeps getting better, and last night he took the team on his back and almost carried it to a win.Almost ? The Patriots still lost, 34-31, in overtime to their bitter rivals, and because of that, they?re in second place in the AFC East, and face a six-game conclusion to the season that doesn?t seem to have a lot of automatic wins on it.This isn?t a knock on Matt Cassel. He did all he could ? and then some. If you saw Cassel in preseason, when he could hardly complete a pass, and saw him last night you wouldn?t even think it was the same quarterback.But whatever he did, and however he did it, it wasn?t enough. He didn?t have a whole lot of help n particularly from his defense and special teams personnel who were n in a word n horrid.The defense couldn?t get off the field, either on the Jets? last regulation series, when they slice through the Patriots to score the go-ahead touchdown; and then couldn?t get off it again in overtime, when the Jets had a third and 15, from their own 15, and gave up a 16-yard completion from Bret Favre to tight end Dustin Keller.Inexcusable.Also inexcusable was Leon Washington?s 98-yard kickoff return in the second quarter that helped allow the Jets to build up a 24-6 lead before the Patriots woke up and turned the game into a thriller.If it was Cassel laying the egg out there, you wouldn?t call it understandable, as he?s been at this long enough now so that we should expect a competent game out of him.But he was fine. His teammates, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired.One thing you have to wonder is whether the Patriots, as they are currently constructed, are a step too slow on defense. Penalties such as the one on Mike Vrabel down at the goal line, late the fourth quarter, when he was called for defensive holding ? those are penalties players take because they?ve lost their man.(Vrabel wouldn?t elaborate on what happened; apparently he didn?t agree with the call and didn?t want to get fined for saying something).But it was costly. Very costly. The penalty happened on a third-and-6 from the Patriots 7, it was an incomplete pass, and it would have made the Jets kick a field goal. Instead, the Jets got an automatic first down, the Patriots had another penalty, and New York scored.And what do we make of Dan Koppen, snapping the ball out of the reach of Cassel, who was in the shotgun, while the Patriots looked to be driving down the field in the third quarter. Cassel wound up kicking the ball even farther back while he tried to pick it up and wound up losing 24 yards.Awful.We had dropped passes, a crucial fumble by Ben Watson (what HAPPENED to all that potential?) and n of course n blown coverage on that third-and-15 in overtime ? a play that you knew would either win it or lose it for the Pats.To man, the Patriots understand their stirring comeback was only possible because the dug themselves the hole to begin with.This is the second week out of three that the Patriots came away from the game with the satisfaction of knowing they fought the good fight.But time?s running out. There are only six games left, and if the Patriots want the satisfaction of making the playoffs without the league?s MVP quarterback; without Rodney Harrison; without Adalius Thomas, they?d better stop winning moral victories and start winning some real ones.Steve Krause is sports ed