In their most desperate hour, at a time when all Jet hands ought to be on deck with a season on the line Sunday in Oakland, Vinny Testaverde threw Paul Hackett overboard yesterday.

The relationship between the veteran quarterback and the conservative offensive coordinator can be described in three words:

The Big Chill.

In a nutshell, Testaverde felt that Hackett left him out to dry at the end of the disgraceful 14-9 loss to the Bills in two ways:

Hackett was late getting the play in.

Hackett only gave Testaverde one designed play for the final 13 seconds prior to a signaled clock (spike) play and thereby left him unprepared for a last-gasp prayer to Kevin Swayne once he chose the foolish option of dumping the ball off to Curtis Martin.

Asked what he would do differently, Testaverde dropped the following bombshell:

“I think I read somewhere where I have the authority to change the plays, where I didn’t know that yesterday. But I do know that today, so maybe things will be different in the future. And having probably a better feel on the field than maybe what coach Hackett has, then, yeah, maybe I’ll change the play.”

What did you say when you talked to Hackett about it?

“I haven’t talked to him about it yet,” Testaverde said.

Happy New Year!

After an entire spring and summer and 15 games, the quarterback and coordinator have five days to get on the same page.

“Everybody knows . . . it’s no secret that with 13 seconds you should have at least two shots, possibly three, depending on how the plays unfold,” Testaverde said. “But we had one legitimate shot and one shot that was kinda ad-libbed. Not good enough.”

Hackett moved swiftly last evening to prevent the ship from sinking.

“I think our relationship has been very smooth,” Hackett said.

He reiterated that Testaverde does indeed have the option to change the play. He said he “miscalculated” in assuming two plays could be run in 13 seconds and next time would send more receivers deep.

“Now we know we need 15 seconds in that situation,” Hackett said.

Here is how Testaverde recounted the maddening, pathetic ending:

“I was over at the sideline waiting for the play to come in,” Testaverde said, “and Eric Price is the one that talks with coach Hackett and gives me the play. And as I’m waiting, I’m hearing the ref calling me in, and usually we have a chance to discuss what we like and things like that, but that wasn’t the case.

“As I was running on the field, Eric gave me the play, and as I hear the play I’m thinking in my mind, ‘What exactly does he want me to get done here?’ My analysis and my conclusion of my thought process was that, ‘Coach Hackett thinks we have enough time to get two plays off.’ Which we actually did. Except that the second play we got off, we were unprepared for.

“We wanted to actually [spike] the ball and stop the clock, but as we’re lining up, I see guys aren’t set yet and I’m looking at the clock, and in a last-ditch effort I’m trying to give Kevin Swayne a route to run just to have somewhere to go with the football.

“And when we call out clock play, everybody just freezes and I clock the ball in the ground and we stop the clock. But as the clock ticked to one, I knew I could not throw it in the ground because it would have eventually went to zero and the game would have been over. So I just stepped back, and nobody blocked, nobody ran a route except for Kevin . . . We were unprepared in that situation for that play.”

Testaverde said that he didn’t throw the dumpoff away because he thought he could get his teammates, caught between a clock and a hard place, lined up in time to spike it and then get another play from Hackett. He didn’t target TE Anthony Becht on a post because the tight end ad-libbed his route.

Edwards downplayed the notion of a quarterback-coordinator rift.

“Wherever I’ve been, it’s never been, with the quarterback and the coordinator, it’s never what they call a honeymoon,” Edwards said. “There’s always some squabbling, and that’s just competitive guys.”

Honeymoon’s over, before it even began.