FOXBORO -- Did that feel like a win to you?

Be fair: From a big-picture perspective -- Super Bowl or bust, which is exactly how we should measure this team as long as he's the coach and he's the quarterback -- the things that worried you about the 2012 New England Patriots after the loss in Seattle didn't go away after the 29-26 win over the Jets on Sunday. 

Or, more accurately, the fatal flaw that will lead to the demise of the 2012 New England Patriots still exists. The worst secondary in football was on full display once again.

All week long fans (and a great many in the media) mocked Mark Sanchez, and not without justification. He entered the game on Sunday with the lowest completion percentage in the NFL (49.7 percent), in fact the lowest by any quarterback since JaMarcus Russell in 2009. Sanchez was 30th in the league in passer rating and had thrown for a total of 415 yards (on 78 pass attempts) over his last three games.

Any serious list of the five worst starting quarterbacks in the NFL has to have Sanchez' name on it, right? The consensus around here this week was this and it seemed plenty sensible: Stop Shonn Greene and there is no way that Mark Sanchez can beat the Patriots. 

Well, Shonn Greene averaged 3.4 yards per carry before being knocked out of the game courtesy of an absolute blast from Brandon Spikes (a clean hit, despite Rex Ryan's f-bomb buffet at the officials). Mission accomplished from a run defense that has been one of the NFL's best.

But Mark Sanchez -- who is, by every statistical standard a truly horrid quarterback, a guy who is inevitably going to be a backup -- went up and down the field against the Patriots. 

Sanchez finished with 328 yards passing -- fourth most of his career -- and completed nearly 70 percent of his passes in the loss. Think about it: The most inaccurate passer in the league had his most accurate game since Nov. 29, 2009. 

And it's not as if he has Mark Duper and Mark Clayton at his disposal, either. Without Santonio Holmes -- not exactly Jerry Rice circa 1985 -- the Jets have Dustin Keller (OK), Jeremy Kerley (47 career catches), Stephen Hill (a rookie with eight catches heading into Sunday) and Chaz Schilens (the 226th pick of the 2008 draft, 70 catches in four seasons in Oakland) as the skill players to whom Sanchez was forced to throw passes. 

But just like Russell Wilson (another candidate for the five-worst list and another guy who carved up this secondary), Sanchez kept the Jets in the game. Six pass plays over 20 yards -- the Patriots now have allowed 39 plays over 20 yards, most in the league -- is alarming against an elite offense, almost incomprehensible against the Jets. 

Sanchez made mistakes, sure -- mediocre quarterbacks have a tricky habit of doing that, and we saw it with a woefully underthrown ball to a wide-open Hill in the end zone that was intercepted by Alfonzo Dennard and a couple of wide-open misses to Hill and Kerley -- but he picked this group apart in the fourth quarter, leading the Jets from a 23-13 deficit to overtime. A 14-play, 91-yard TD drive included a 21-yard completion to Hill against Dennard, a 19-yarder to Kerley on Devin McCourty that had a holding penalty against Ras-I Dowling (one of three flags against Dowling for holding) declined, a third-and-7 completion to Hilliard against Arrington for eight yards, 11 more yards to Kerley on McCourty, and the TD to Keller with Tavon Wilson lost in coverage. 

On the next drive -- after a three-and-out from the Patriots -- Sanchez went deep over the middle to Keller for 21 yards, moving into New England territory with under four minutes left. But the Jets suddenly got conservative and settled for the field goal to tie the game. Same thing happened after the McCourty fumble. The Jets had first-and-10 from the Patriots' 18-yard line and didn't attempt a pass against this secondary. Inexplicable stuff from Tony Sparano, really.

But let's be very clear about this: Mark Sanchez put the Jets in position to beat the Patriots on Sunday. Tom Brady was terrific when it mattered most -- and I'm still not sure what Rex Ryan was expecting when he rushed three guys in that final drive of regulation -- but that was obviously going to happen again. This idea that Brady was in some rapid decline because he made a couple of dopey decisions in Seattle was the extreme wing of the Boston Overreaction Party at its worst. But Sanchez was, for a great majority of the game, every bit Brady's equal with a hell of lot less to work with.

In the end, Jermaine Cunningham and Rob Ninkovich made the biggest play of the game (though credit also should go to Stephen Gostkowski) and Sanchez showed us why he's Mark Sanchez, coughing up the ball to lock up an ugly win for the Patriots. 

But how confident were you at that point in overtime, up three points, that the Patriots would be able to stop Sanchez and Kerley and Hill (who had a monster drop late in regulation) and the rest of the C-list offense? Weren't you expecting a repeat of last week, with Sanchez throwing to Pick Nameless Receiver over Pick Underachieving Cornerback or Safety for the game-winning score?

Give the Patriots defenders credit -- they made the play. Same with Gostkowski and same with Brady. I don't think anyone is truly concerned about the offense or special teams or even the front seven of this defense.  

The secondary, however, is a very real concern. Kyle Arrington, McCourty (at safety for most of Sunday with Pat Chung out) and the rest of this group have regressed from 2011. Blame coaching, blame players, blame Obama or Romney, but it's a reality. They are allowing huge plays at a record pace, and doing so against quarterbacks that usually can't get close to average. 

The Patriots won on Sunday, but the secondary still is losing the battle. And for this team to get to where it wants to go, that will have to change and change dramatically.