FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Bill Belichick and Tom Brady won three Super Bowls with Eric Mangini on their side.

The Patriots coach taught his former student that maybe he can win another without him — especially with his quarterback in championship form.

Brady capped long scoring drives with short touchdown passes to Daniel Graham and Kevin Faulk, and Asante Samuel sealed it with a 36-yard interception return for a score with 4:54 left as New England beat Mangini's New York Jets 37-16 yesterday.

"We keep playing like that, we can make it a long ways," wide receiver Reche Caldwell said.

New England (13-4), the only team to win a playoff game in each of the last four seasons, will play at AFC top seed San Diego (14-2) next Sunday. The Patriots are going for their fourth Super Bowl title in six seasons.

"I think our players stepped up and just made a few more plays, and that was obviously the difference in the game," Belichick said.

The loss ended a surprising run by the Jets, who won their last three regular-season games to get into the playoffs. This was supposed to be a rebuilding season under Mangini, their rookie coach and Belichick's former assistant.

"You look at the big picture and say it was a good job on our part," Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. "But if you're competitive, if you're a player, you don't want to go 10-6 and lose in the first round of the playoffs."

Brady improved to 10-2 against the Jets (10-7), and played much better than in the teams' last meeting, when New York frustrated the quarterback with blitzes and won 17-14.

"I'm beginning to experience it on this side," Mangini said. "He's a great player. He can hurt you at all times."

New England, which has won seven of eight since that loss to New York, improved to 9-1 at home in the playoffs. The Jets made things interesting early, taking a 10-7 lead in the second quarter on a 77-yard touchdown catch and run by Jerricho Cotchery.

But it was all New England from that point in the teams' second-ever meeting in the playoffs, the last also a victory by the Patriots in 1985.

"We showed a lot of resilience and played well, but it's disappointing right now," Jets receiver Laveranues Coles said. "It hurts right now."

With the Patriots leading 23-16, Brady engineered a 10-play, 63-yard drive capped by his 7-yard touchdown pass to running back Kevin Faulk with 5:16 left.

Brady finished 22 of 34 for 212 yards and two touchdowns, while Jabar Gaffney had eight catches for 104 yards. The Patriots also outrushed the Jets 148-70.

New England also took advantage of a big mistake by the Jets late in the third quarter.

Chad Pennington's pass was knocked down by Rosevelt Colvin and picked up by Vince Wilfork, who rumbled 31 yards to the Jets 15 before being tackled by Cotchery.

The play was ruled a backward pass and a fumble, and the ruling was upheld after a challenge by Mangini.

Four plays later, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 28-yard field goal to give New England a 23-13 lead.

Mike Nugent's 37-yard field goal 3:21 into the fourth quarter made it 23-16.

The Patriots got things started early on Corey Dillon's 11-yard TD run in the first quarter.

Cotchery put the Jets ahead 10-7 with his 77-yard touchdown score, the longest in team postseason history, but Gostkowski tied it with a 20-yard field goal.

The Patriots got a a long 15-play, 80-yard drive late in the first half, capped by Graham's 1-yard TD catch.

"I just put it up there and tried to let that big guy make a play for us," Brady said.