EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. | One minute &#8212; 60 measly seconds &#8212; prevented Tyler Thigpen from the memory of his lifetime.</p><p>Thigpen, in one of the great quarterback upsets of all time, outplayed Brett Favre and came that close to beating him. Then came the final minute and Favre&#8217;s 15-yard touchdown pass to Laveranues Coles that lifted the New York Jets over Thigpen&#8217;s Chiefs 28-24 at the Meadowlands.</p><p>Thigpen may get few more chances for career moments like this. The Chiefs were preparing for three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Daunte Culpepper to visit Kansas City this week and perhaps sign a contract.</p><p>The Chiefs contacted Culpepper last week after losing starter Brodie Croyle for the season because of torn knee ligaments.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re still talking to him,&#8221; Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll see where it&#8217;s at.&#8221;</p><p>Even if Thigpen couldn&#8217;t deliver a victory &#8212; he pushed the Chiefs to the New York 31 on their final possession, but his fourth-down pass for Will Franklin was incomplete &#8212; he did bring them some hope until Culpepper is ready to take over.</p><p>&#8220;He played better than I thought he was going to play,&#8221; said tight end Tony Gonzalez, who could have been speaking for just about everyone who followed the erratic Thigpen earlier in the season. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care what anybody said, if they thought he was going to come out here and play the way he did, then they&#8217;re lying.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a credit to him. He just came out and said, &#8216;Who cares what the critics think?&#8217; He had good practices all week.&#8221;</p><p>Thigpen completed 25 of 36 pass attempts for 280 yards and two touchdowns, one to Gonzalez and the other to Mark Bradley. He threw no interceptions.</p><p>Favre was 28 of 40 for 290 yards and two TDs, but he was picked off three times. Brandon Flowers returned one for a 91-yard score.</p><p>Gone was the Thigpen who sprayed the ball wildly all over the field. He was replaced by a strong-armed, accurate passer who beat good coverage several times.</p><p>The Chiefs tailored their plays for Thigpen, who played in the spread offense in college at Coastal Carolina. They used a lot of one-back formations and went to the no-huddle frequently.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s obviously what I ran in college,&#8221; Thigpen said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just more comfortable. We&#8217;ll probably put a lot more plays in this week. We had a select few plays this week for that. I imagine we&#8217;ll broaden that up to where we can get out there and just get lined up, walk to the line instead of huddling up. It just gives you a change of pace where the defense can&#8217;t sub.&#8221;</p><p>Thigpen no longer has the specter of Croyle or Damon Huard hanging over him. Both are out for the season because of injuries, so the Chiefs couldn&#8217;t be tempted to pull Thigpen from the game.</p><p>Having ownership in the job seemed to help Thigpen.</p><p>&#8220;When he&#8217;s in the huddle, it&#8217;s his huddle,&#8221; said Dwayne Bowe, whose early-week prediction of a big game from Thigpen sounded like false bravado. &#8220;It was just his preparation. He&#8217;s been in my ear all week, telling me the things he&#8217;s seeing. He&#8217;s growing as a leader. He showed some poise out there. We came up short, but he got better.&#8221;</p><p>Still, Thigpen couldn&#8217;t outscore Favre. The game loomed as maybe one of the biggest quarterback mismatches in NFL history, a future Hall of Famer against a second-year player who began the season as a third-stringer and inherited the job only because of injuries.</p><p>Thigpen admitted to watching Favre when the Jets had the ball.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m always out there watching on the JumboTron, just watching what he does,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You always can watch another quarterback and pick up just one little thing.&#8221;</p><p>From Favre, he learned how to operate the two-minute drill. On the winning touchdown, Favre picked on reserve cornerback Dimirti Patterson, playing in place of the injured Patrick Surtain.</p><p>Still, the Chiefs were encouraged by Thigpen to the point they could see him eventually winning such a game.</p><p>&#8220;He gave us a chance to win,&#8221; Edwards said. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t turn the ball over. He didn&#8217;t do everything perfect, but I thought he played pretty good against a good defense.</p><p>&#8220;For a guy who&#8217;s only started two football games, he kept us in the game. He made some nice throws. It&#8217;s something we can build on.&#8221;