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FOXBORO - Jay Feely's 34-yard field goal with 7:10 left in overtime turned Matt Cassel's finest night as a Patriot into a bitter disappointment.

The New York Jets' kicker gave his team a 34-31 triumph Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, ending a 14-play, 64-yard possession that denied the Patriots any touches of the ball in the extra session. With the win, the Jets (7-3) jumped into sole possession of first place in the AFC East, while the Patriots fell to 6-4.

Cassel, running and passing with reckless abandon, almost brought victory to the Patriots all by himself.

He completed 30 of 51 passes for 400 yards, all career highs, throwing three touchdown passes. He also ran eight times for 62 yards.

After the Jets went ahead 31-24 with 3:10 left to play in regulation on a 1-yard run by Thomas Jones, it appeared the Patriots were out of luck. But after both teams went three-and-out, the Patriots got the ball back with 1:04 left and no timeouts. Cassel threw twice to Benjamin Watson for 9 and 11 yards before stopping the clock with a spike. After a 17-yard pass to Wes Welker (seven catches, 108 yards) and another spike, Cassel went to Welker for 14 more to reach the Jets' 16. Another spike, and what followed was the best pass he's thrown to Randy Moss - a fade pattern to the right near pylon, with ex-Patriot Ty Law grappling with him every step of the way. Moss made the catch falling out of bounds, and replays confirmed he had both feet in before landing out of bounds with a second left.

As it turned out, those heroics weren't enough.

"We made a lot of plays tonight," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said, "but they made a few more than we did."

Getting the ball on their own 20 (and initially being pushed back to the 15 on a sack by Pierre Woods), the Jets marched downfield steadily to open the extra session. Brett Favre (26-33, 258 yards) completed two big passes to tight end Dustin Keller - a 16-yarder on third-and-15 to the Jets' 31, then a third-and-1 throw of 4 yards to the Patriots' 40. A 16-yarder to Laveranues Coles brought the Jets to the Patriots; 24, and four plays later, Feely's kick ended the game in the Jets' favor.

What has become a characteristic problem this season came back to haunt the Patriots in the first half - not scoring touchdowns when close enough to be in striking range.

Not all of the Patriots' failings were "red zone" errors inside the Jets' 20. They penetrated the 20-yard line only twice in the first half, coming away with a field goal and a touchdown. But there were other close calls that the Patriots' offense could not sustain, and the missed opportunities helped put the Jets into an advantageous situation.

On the Patriots' first possession, they drove from their own 31 to the Jets 25 before having to settle for a 42-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski with 4:25 left in the quarter. Passes of 11 yards to Watson and 16 to the revitalized Jabar Gaffney (seven catches, 86 yards) helped move the team into scoring range, but three running plays stalled the drive.

On their next possession, the Patriots moved from their 28 to the Jets' 13, with Cassel's 12-yard scramble and a 19-yard sideline toss to Kevin Faulk doing the job. But Sammy Morris was stopped for no gain, Cassel missed Moss in the end zone (Darrelle Revis appeared to interfere, but no call) and Cassel missed Watson to force a 31-yard field goal by Gostkowski for a 10-6 deficit with 9:44 left in the half.

Leon Washington, who had scored on a 7-yard pass on the first Jets' possession, made the Patriots pay for the missed opportunity on the kickoff, rambling from right to left and eluding Gostkowski's lunge at the Patriots' 40 to complete a 92-yard return for a 17-6 deficit.

It went to 24-6 with 4:57 left on Brett Favre's 15-yard pass to Jerricho Cotchery, set up by David Tyree-like catch of 46 yards by Cotchery (on which Ellis Hobbs would have been called for interference in any event). The Patriots showed some life on the next possession when little-used Sam Aiken rambled for 43 yards on a Cassel pass to the Jets' 30. But Aiken dropped the next pass, Cassel gained 9 yards to the Jets' 21, although he almost got himself killed in the process, and on third-and-1, Cassel gave the ball to Heath Evans for a loss of 2 yards. The Patriots tried to go for it on fourth-and-3 from the 23, but C.J. Mosley sacked Cassel to end the possession - again, not a red-zone failure, but close enough to hurt.

It all turned around on the last possession of the half, however. Taking over at the Patriots' 32, Cassel completed three passes in short order and ran for another 21 yards on two carries, then found Gaffney deep in the right corner of the end zone with 15 seconds left to grim the deficit to 11 points at the half.

They appeared determined to score quickly at the start of the second half, but a promising drive ended when Watson fumbled at the Jets' 22 at the end of a 12-yard catch, recovered by Kerry Rhodes.

"We missed some opportunities in the third quarter to close the gap," Belichick said. "But that's the way it goes in games like this."

But on the last drive of the quarter, Cassel got the deficit down to three points with a 10-yard pass to Watson, who did a nice job of eluding Calvin Pace to get free along the end line, and then a two-point conversion to Gaffney. The drive covered 78 yards on seven plays.

A turnover severely wounded the Jets at the start of the fourth quarter; Cotchery caught a 9-yard pass and was clocked by Jason Webster, Gary Guyton recovering for the Patriots at the New England 40. Six plays later, including a 17-yard scramble by Cassel, Gostkowski booted a 47-yarder through the uprights to tie the score.

The Jets appeared to have the game in hand when, at the end of a 14-play, 67-yard drive, Jones rolled over from the 1 to give them a 31-24 lead. Mike Vrabel and James Sanders both had defensive holding penalties inside the 5 to keep handing the Jets first-down situations.

But the Patriots still had some life left in them. They could have used a little more luck, however, losing both the game-opening toss and the coin toss just before overtime - and his season, they're 0-4 when they lose the toss.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.