Jay Feely and Reggie Hodges react after Feely's game winning field goal in Foxboro. Getty Photo.

The Result

It was a tale of two halves and overtime.  In the first half the New York Jets were the dominant team racing out to a 24-13 lead at halftime.  Brett Favre and the offense were clicking, the defense wasn’t letting the Patriots get anything going making them settle for field goals.  The New England Patriots came out in the second half and turned things around outscoring New York 18-7 which included a Matt Cassel to Randy Moss 16 yard TD pass with 0:01 left on the clock to tie the game at 31-31.

The Jets won the coin toss and marched down field in overtime getting the ball down to the New England 16 where Jay Feely kicked a game winning 34 yard field goal to win the game and give the Jets sole possession of first place in the AFC East with a 34-31 win at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

New York is now 7-3 while New England drops to 6-4 and the Patriots now have two losses in the division both coming at home.   

Scoring Plays

JETS 10 14 0 7 3 34
PATRIOTS 3 10 8 10 0 31

1st Quarter

  • NYJ – Favre 7 yard pass to Washington – Feely PAT
  • NE – Gostkowski 42 yard FG
  • NYJ – Feely 22 yard FG

2nd Quarter

  • NE – Gostkowski 31 yard FG
  • NYJ – Washington 92 yard kickoff return – Feely PAT
  • NYJ – Favre 15 yard pass to Cotchery – Feely PAT
  • NE – Cassel 19 yard pass to Gaffney – Gostkowski PAT

3rd Quarter

  • NE – Cassel 10 yard pass to Watson – Cassel 2 yard pass to Gaffney PAT (2)

4th Quarter

  • NE – Gostkowski 47 yard FG
  • NYJ – Jones 1 yard run – Feely PAT
  • NE – Cassel 16 yard pass to Moss – Gostkowski PAT

Overtime

  • NYJ – Feely 34 yard FG

Offensive Players of the Game

New England QB Matt Cassel was 30 of 51 for 400 yards 2 TD’s and 0 INT’s, he also rushed for 62 yards.  New York RB Thomas Jones had 30 carries for 104 yards and 1 TD.

Defensive Players of the Game

New England LB Jerod Mayo had 20 tackles and 1 passed defensed.  New York LB Eric Barton had 16 tackles.

Turning Point(s) of the Game

The coin flip for overtime.  The Jets won it and drove down field for the winning field goal and the Patriots never saw the ball.  The NFL really needs to address overtime, can you imagine if a Super Bowl were to end like that?

Offensive Leaders/Notes

Moss catches the game tying TD with 1 second left. Getty Photo.

In addition to Cassel the Pats also had a good performance from Wes Welker who had 7 catches for 108 yards, Ben Watson had 8 catches for 88 yards and 1 TD and Jabar Gaffney had 7 catches for 86 yards and 1 TD.  New York was led by Jericho Cotchery who had 5 catches for 87 yards and 1 TD and Dustin Keller who had 8 catches for 87 yards.

  • For a more offensive recap make sure you check out the live blog replay.
  • Cassel showed great poise tonight and he will make someone a good QB next season.  His mistakes are getting fewer and fewer and it’s showing in his overall play.

Defensive Leaders/Notes

Jarvis Green and Mike Vrabel make a stop. Getty Photo.

  • For a more indepth look at the defense make sure you check out the live blog replay.
  • Mayo was just amazing 16 of his twenty tackles were solo tackles including several big plays to help stop drives and one big one on the goal line.  This kid is a player.

Special Teams Notes

  • The return coverage is just awful they gave up a 92 yard return to Leon Washington for a TD and he averaged nearly 45 yards a return on 4 total returns. 
  • The KOR coverage has been very poor the last few weeks.

Coaching Decisions

  • NYJ – Challenge of incomplete pass on first drive in 1st quarter – overturned
  • NE – 4th/3 at NYJ 23 Cassel gets sacked at NYJ 30 in 2nd quarter
  • NE – 4th/1 at NYJ 21 Cassel runs for 2 yards for 1st down in 2nd quarter
  • NE – 4th/1at NYJ 16 Cassel throws 16 yards to Moss for TD in 4th quarter

Injuries

  • NE- S Ray Ventrone head injury on opening KO – did not return
  • NE – LB Jerod Mayo unknown injury – returned
  • NYJ – DE EllisSean Ellis unknown injury 2nd qtr – did not return
  • NE – C Dan Koppen left arm inury in 2nd qtr – returned
  • NE – CB Ellis Hobbs hurt on KO coverage to start 4th qtr – returned

The Officials

  • Gene Steratore was the referee.
  • Incorrectly called an incomplete pass for Jets in 1st qtr that was challenged
  • missed face mask in 2nd qtr on Kevin Faulk run.
  • booth review on final NE TD – upheld

Game Notes

  • Reports are Patriots CB Terrence Wheatley had surgery last Friday to repair torn ligaments in his wrist.
  • Inactives for the Jets: TE Bubba Franks (injured – hip), LB David Harris (injured – groin), S Eric Smith (injured – head), K Mike Nugent (injured – thigh), WR David Clowney, RB Marcus Mason, CB Drew Coleman and Brett Ratliff (3rd QB) .
  • Inactives for the Patriots: CB Terrence Wheatley (injured – wrist), LB Adalius Thomas (injured – forearm), RB LaMont Jordan (injured – calf), DE Ty Warren (njured – groin), CB Lewis Sanders (injured – hamstring), OL Wesley Britt, LB Eric Alexander (injured – hamstring) and QB Matt Gutierrez (3rd QB).
  • Note: The third quarterback can still enter the game at any time, but if he does so in the first, second or third quarters, the team can no longer use its top two quarterbacks the rest of the game.
  • Offensive starters for the Patriots:
    QB: Matt Cassel
    RB: BenJarvus Green-Ellis
    WR: Wes Welker
    WR: Randy Moss
    TE: David Thomas
    TE: Ben Watson
    LT: Matt Light
    LG: Logan Mankins
    C: Dan Koppen
    RG: Stephen Neal
    RT: Nick Kaczur
  • Defensive starters for the Patriots:
    DE: Mike Wright
    NT: Vince Wilfork
    DE: Richard Seymour
    LB: Tedy Bruschi
    LB: Pierre Woods
    LB: Jerod Mayo
    LB: Mike Vrabel
    CB: Ellis Hobbs
    CB: Deltha O’Neal
    S: James Sanders
    S: Brandon Meriweather
  • The Jets won the toss and elected to receive .
  • Wes Welker has 15 consecutive games of catching 6 or more passes.
  • Since replacing Tom Brady, Matt Cassel is now 5-4 as a NFL starting QB.
  • New England is now 65-16 in games played after November 1st since 2001.
  • The Jets have only won 2 of the last 13 games against the Patriots
  • New England is now 37-11 against the AFC East since Bill Belichick took over in 2000 and Belichick is now 14-7 all-time vs. New York. 
  • Eric Mangini is now 2-5 vs. New England as a NFL head coach.
  • The Jets are 3-5 at Gillette Stadium since it opened in 2002.
  • Patriots allowed an opening drive score for the first time since Week 17 in 2007 against the New York Giants.
  • Former Patriots and Jets QB Vinny Testaverde turned 45 Thursday. 

Post Game Press Conferences

Listen to what Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Matt Cassel had to say about the game.

At publication time the interviews were not posted.

Post game press conferences via patriots.com

Things To Work On For Next Week

Once again special teams especially the kick off return coverage it was pretty awful again.  The also need to work on pass coverage over the middle.

Next Week’s Opponent

The Patriots will the Miami Dolphins at Dolphins Stadium on Sunday 1 p.m.