Either fans get too excited after a big win (Super Bowl, baby!) or bring the doom and gloom after a close victory or a loss (They’re not going anywhere!).

Expect more of the latter in New England Monday following the Patriots’ mediocre 23-16 victory over the Jaguars on Sunday.

And some of the criticism, especially when it concerns the offense, will be warranted.

It was one thing to fall behind the excellent 49ers, 31-3, at home, but it was quite another to trail the Jaguars, 13-3.

The Patriots trailed the past two weeks a combined 44-6 before rallying for a 7-point loss, and then a 7-point victory that went down to the final tick on the clock.

“We played pretty terrible out there,” said quarterback Tom Brady. “We’re lucky to win. Just a poor effort overall. Didn’t compete. Execution was terrible.”

Said guard Logan Mankins: “Some weeks you’re good, some weeks you look like crap like we did today.”

Still, a win’s a win, and this one at EverBank Field got the Patriots into the conversation once again to have a first-round bye in the playoffs.

The Texans were blown out, 23-6, at home by the Vikings. A Houston loss next Sunday at the Colts or Denver being upset at home by the Chiefs, coupled with a Patriots victory at home against the Dolphins, would give the Patriots a seat on the couch wild-card weekend.

Awesome. Terrific.

On the offensive side of the Patriots’ locker room, a playoff update was met with the same excitement Bill Belichick shows when meeting with the media.

“We’ve got a lot of problems going on here right now that we need to correct, and not worry about what’s going on out there,” Mankins said. “If we would have beat them by 30, I’d say we were watching that, but we have enough to take care of in our own locker room than to worry about others.”

The Patriots’ offensive house is definitely messy and needs to be cleaned up.

Here are the chief areas of concern heading into the regular-season finale:

Hits on Brady — He’s taking way too many, and it needs to stop. Brady got dinged on his throwing hand by Jaguars end Jason Babin with 5:38 left in the first quarter. He awkwardly held the hand in his pocket during his postgame news conference, and was favoring it otherwise after the game. Hand Watch will commence this week.

Brady was sacked three times by the Jaguars and hit nine other times, a total of 12 knockdowns. That is the most times Brady has hit the turf since the start of the 2010 season. The only games close were the nine accumulated last week against the 49ers and two weeks prior against the Dolphins (Sunday’s opponent).

Against the Jaguars, the Patriots allowed three sacks, seven hurries, and nine hits. Entering the game, the Jaguars had averaged 1.1, 6.1, and 3.2 in those categories, according to ProFootballFocus.com.

But not only was the Patriots’ pass-blocking operation — and that includes Brady (knockdown after holding the ball too long) and running backs Brandon Bolden (knockdown), Shane Vereen (sack), and Danny Woodhead (knockdown) — unusually poor against the Jaguars, it continued a recent pattern.

Brady has been knocked to the turf 45 times in the last five games. In the first 10 games, he was knocked down 37 times.

“Any time Tom gets hit, it’s too much, and the fact is that he got hit, so there’s more that we need to do,” center Ryan Wendell said.

Unfortunately, the offensive line’s recent performance has detracted from what was shaping up to be a terrific season for the unit. Even now, it’s still very good. A line that had everyone worried because of the losses of left tackle Matt Light and right guard Brian Waters has comparable numbers to last year’s unit through 15 games: 26 sacks (28 in ’11), 92 hurries (84), and 56 knockdowns (46).

“You’re always concerned when you don’t play well, you want to play better,” Mankins said. “I think this week we’re going to try to get things straightened out. Hopefully, we can turn it around.”

Injuries to key players — The Patriots need a bye, if for no other reason than to get some key players healthy on offense, particularly tight end Aaron Hernandez.