He was 5-for-15 for 73 yards and left the game with an elbow injury in the second quarter of a 35-0 Green Bay loss on Nov. 19, 2006.

"The Jets and Patriots really put a whupping on us that year," Favre recalled, and added that the Patriots' 3-4 defense presents "a lot of problems.

"You have to try to double-team. It's one of those deals, who do you double-team? You can't double everyone. They're extremely good at their scheme -- knowing where to be, reading what you're doing, pattern reading and things like that. They're just savvy. It's not that you're going to outsmart them. You have to out-play them. That's easier said than done."

--K Jay Feely might need directions to the Jets' home locker room Sunday, but he knows how to navigate the rest of Giants Stadium, particularly the often-swirling winds around the field. Feely, signed by the Jets on Monday night, kicked for the Giants in 2005 and 2006. He will kick for the Jets against New England on Sunday. Mike Nugent is out with a strained right thigh.

"I feel comfortable there," Feely said of the Meadowlands. "I studied it a lot when I was with the Giants and we were in there every day kicking. You learn the winds. You learn how to kick the ball. I actually kicked the ball a little bit differently when I was in Atlanta in a dome. ... Just little things like knowing which flags to trust and which ones not to -- all those things that can give you a home-field advantage."

He converted 28 of 35 field-goal attempts in home games during his two years with the Giants, and was 21-for-23 for Miami last season, yet was released by the Dolphins last month after missing a preseason game with a groin injury.

He declined to discuss what happened in Miami and said, "I'm healthy now. I'm kicking the ball great now. I'm looking forward, not backward." Feely added that he spoke to Nugent "immediately" after arriving. "I told him how sorry I was that I have to be in here under these circumstances," Feely said. "The kickers' fraternity is a very tight community."

--C Nick Mangold has played against 6-2, 325-pound New England NT Vince Wilfork before, and he knows what he will be in for Sunday.

"Vince Wilfork is a heck of a player," Mangold said. "He's a very large man and he's also very good at his technique. This will be my sixth time playing him and every time it's been a 60-minute battle and that's what I am preparing for. I know that's coming."

Wilfork's ability to draw double-teams keys New England's ability to stop the run.

--QB Brett Favre is expected to extend his streak of consecutive starts to 277 on Sunday, including playoffs. Tom Brady's streak will end at 128 that same day.

"He has been the face of that team for quite a while," Favre said. "It will be different" not seeing him.

Favre realizes it takes a lot of good fortune to keep a streak such as his going.

"It just goes to show you," he said. "Tom has been so tough throughout his whole career. He has taken a lot of hits. It just goes to show you that you never know. I know he knows that. I know we all know that. It was just a freak thing, it really was. It could have happened to me. I've come close numerous times, not only with my legs, but fingers. You just never know."

Favre said he played nine games in 2003 with a splint on the fractured thumb of his throwing hand.

BY THE NUMBERS: 6 -- Number of quarterbacks that have started for the Jets since the last time Tom Brady didn't start for New England. In order, they are Vinny Testaverde (who had two separate tours of duty with the team), Chad Pennington, Quincy Carter, Brooks Bollinger, Kellen Clemens and Brett Favre.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "We didn't really go into the season with the mindset of, hey, we're playing for second place here. That's never really the approach. It's not a function of what other teams have and what other teams do. It's a function of what we do. I really believe that." -- Coach Eric Mangini on the perception that the Jets' chances of winning the AFC East have increased significantly after the season-ending injury to New England QB Tom Brady.