The Jets? Field-Goal Block Unit Believes It Can Influence Any Kick

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/sports/football/24jets.html?src=twr

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. ? Eight minutes into the most recent game between the Jets and Indianapolis ? long before the Colts pulled their starters and started a controversy ? a 30-year-old reserve Jets linebacker named Bryan Thomas blocked an extra point.

The lost point did not make much difference in the game that the Jets would win on Dec. 27, 29-15, but the information gathered from that special-teams play may help the Jets beat the Colts in the American Football Conference championship game on Sunday and get to the Super Bowl.

The Jets have not allowed a field goal in the playoffs in five attempts. Cincinnati?s Shayne Graham and San Diego?s Nate Kaeding were criticized for their inaccuracy the past two weeks, but the Jets are not bashful about saying they might have had something to do with those five missed kicks. Some teams are passive about the way they attempt to block kicks. The Jets are not.

?This team comes hard every time,? said Mike DeVito, a defensive tackle who is part of that Jets? unit. ?We take it just like any defensive play. I think that catches the other team off-guard. I?m sure when the Colts are watching film, they can see all the pressure we?re putting on. They know it?s coming. They?ve got to get it off quick.?

The Jets have worked on this aspect of the game all season. On Tuesdays, the Jets? special-teams coordinator, Mike Westhoff, and his assistant, Ben Kotwica, meet to identify vulnerabilities in an opponent?s field-goal and extra-point blocking schemes.

?We got people who are in tune with the little things,? said Robert Turner, a reserve offensive lineman who is also a member of the group.

In the regular season, the Jets were 15th in the 32-team N.F.L. in lowest field-goal percentage allowed, giving up 19 field goals in 23 attempts, or 82.6 percent. But Thomas?s blocked kick against Indianapolis might have sent a shiver through the Bengals and the Chargers.

?Now we don?t always get there, but we pressure them,? Westhoff said Thursday. ?I believe that, subconsciously, you watch and look at it and go: ?Whoa. Wait a minute. I don?t have all day.? It?s my opinion, and I could be wrong, that it sometimes affects a rhythm where they are a little bit quicker than what they normally want to be. If you?re not, you?ll get it blocked.?

Playing on the Jets? field-goal-block unit is a lot like playing on the Jets? defense; the Jets want to force an opponent into making a mistake that could be the difference between winning or losing. Thomas said the Jets try to apply pressure from everywhere ? up the middle and outside ? although they seem to have the most success plunging through the middle, where Thomas, DeVito, Marques Douglas and Turner are usually stationed.

Kaeding?s 0-for-3 performance last Sunday was stunning because he had missed only 3 of 35 attempts in the regular season.

The Jets did not get within one victory of the Super Bowl because they can outscore their opponents at will. They operate with a small margin of error; had Kaeding made two of those three field goals, the Chargers might be playing the Colts on Sunday.

?There?s going to be an ebb and flow in any game,? Kotwica said. ?In my mind, when Kaeding missed the first one, especially with how good he had been all season, it was kind of like Tiger Woods missing a 3-footer to win a golf tournament. He wasn?t really feeling that confident when he went out there.?

Westhoff said that the Jets ? Thomas in particular ? might have begun to rattle Kaeding as early as the first quarter.

San Diego?s second drive stalled at the Jets? 18-yard line. Kaeding attempted a 36-yard field goal, but Thomas used a freestyle-swim-like move to knife through the Chargers? blockers. Kaeding pulled the kick to the left.

?Every single extra-point or field-goal snap, we?re trying to block it, no matter what,? Thomas said.

Kaeding had not missed a field-goal attempt from 40 or fewer yards during the regular season. At the end of the first half, with the Chargers holding a 7-0 lead, Kaeding attempted a 57-yard field goal. The Jets dropped cornerback Darrelle Revis into the end zone.

The kick sailed far to the right. Revis caught the ball 2 yards in front of the end line, and, with time expiring and nothing to lose, decided to run it out. He weaved upfield before he was tackled at the Jets? 42. The play seemed to give the Jets momentum.

?Darrelle was only one or two blocks away from making that thing very, very interesting,? Kotwica said Friday.

The Jets were holding a 17-7 lead when Kaeding tried a 40-yarder with 4 minutes 42 seconds to play. His kick sailed wide right, keeping the Chargers two scores down. San Diego got one touchdown, but the Jets ran out the clock.

Eight days earlier, in the Jets? 24-14 victory over the Bengals, Graham missed a 35-yard field-goal attempt that would have cut the Jets? lead to 14-10. With less than four minutes left in the game, he missed a 28-yard attempt that would have cut the Jets? lead to 24-17.

The players who are on the field-goal-block unit say there is no sure way to tell they are getting to the kicker.

Jay Feely, the Jets? kicker, said, ?As a kicker, you try and go out and you have to not think about the implications of what you?re doing and discipline your mind to not let it wander during those pressure moments.?

The Jets may not get to Indianapolis kicker Matt Stover. But the idea will be the same. As Kotwica said: ?Whoever the opponent is, is saying: ?Holy cow. Those guys are coming, and they?re coming hard.? ?