The last time Jay Feely went 4-for-4 in a game, as he did Sunday against the St. Louis Rams, was in 2005 when, playing for the Giants, he kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime against their division rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles.
It was an important Week 14 win on the road that helped propel the Giants to the NFC East title.
Now Feely is trying to perform similarly for the Jets.
"I'm happy to be part of this team," Feely said before today's practice. "Last week was a lot of fun, not only the way I played, but the way our team played as a whole and to be a part of that. So hopefully we can carry that forward this week."
The Jets find themselves in an equally important game this week as they travel to Gillette Stadium for Thursday night's game against the New England Patriots. The winner will lay claim to sole leadership of the AFC East heading into Week 12.
"It's such a huge game against New England for first place and that's why you play," said Feely. "You want to play in those kind of games."
With the Patriots' 12th-ranked defense and the Jets 10th-ranked defense, it's not unthinkable that the game could potentially come down to field goals.
Stephen Gostkowski has performed well against the Jets, with his only field goal miss coming on a Bryan Thomas block of a 29-yard attempt in Week 2 of 2006. Since then he's hit 24 straight kicks vs. the Green & White — 12 field goals and 12 extra points.
Feely certainly has the leg to make long kicks, as he showed last week when he equaled his career long from '01 and the Jets' franchise long with his 55-yarder vs. the Rams. He also nailed a 53-yarder at Dolphin Stadium vs. the Jets last year.
It's as if Mother Nature likes to make Jets Pats games even more interesting, as there always seems to be inclement weather conditions when the two teams meet. This week looks to be no different with rain predicted to begin in Foxboro, Mass., in the afternoon.
But how might the possibility of precipitation effect Feely's approach to the game?
"Not really much at all," he said. "The wind is much more of a factor. You've got to account for the wind, but with rain, if it was a grass field and it was going to be slick and you'd slip, then you'd have to account for it. But with the FieldTurf field it really doesn't matter."
Feely revealed that he and kicker Mike Nugent have been having kick-off competitions at the end of practices the past few weeks.
And adding intrigue to the Jets kicking situation, head coach Eric Mangini alluded to the possibility of a change at kicker during today's news conference.
"Nugent will travel with us," he said of Nugent, who hasn't played since injuring his right thigh in Week 1 at Miami. "We'll make a decision tomorrow."
But regardless of the coach's decision, Feely will be ready to play if his number is called.
"You can't worry about things that you can't control," said Feely. "Whether they play Mike or they play me is out of my hands, so all I have to do is focus on things that I can control – how I practice, how hard I work, how I perform and not worry about those other things."
