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Janikowski drills 57-yarder to lift Raiders over Jets

Oct 20, 2008 - 2:17 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- With the longest field goal of his career, Sebastian Janikowski may have saved Tom Cable and the Oakland Raiders another public relations nightmare.

Janikowski connected on a career-long 57-yard field goal with less than three minutes remaining in overtime to lift the Raiders to a 16-13 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday.

"I didn't see it going in," Janikowski said. "As soon as I hit it, I started celebrating, because I knew I hit it good so I didn't even see it going in."

Not long before the game-winner sailed crisply through the middle of the uprights, the Raiders (2-4) appeared to have had the win wrapped up already. Jay Feely's 52-yard attempt to send the game into overtime with three seconds left in regulation hit the left goalpost, presumably clinching Cable's first win as head coach.

But he would have to wait a little while longer. The new Raiders coach called a timeout just before Feely's kick, erasing the miss and giving the Jets (3-3) another chance. Feely capitalized this time, drilling it from 52 yards out to send the game into an extra period.

The clubs stumbled through the first several possessions of overtime and the game appeared almost destined to end in a tie - which would have been the first in nearly six years. But with two throws, second-year quarterback JaMarcus Russell changed the Raiders' fortunes.

"As long as we get on the other side of the field, I think 'Sea Bass' is ready to foot it in there," Russell said.

Last year's first overall draft pick completed a pair of impressive passes over the middle to put the Raiders into scoring position, connecting with Javon Walker for 16 yards and then hitting Zach Miller for 27 yards. Russell misfired on his next two pass attempts, but it didn't matter to Janikowski, who made up for an earlier miss from just 40 yards away with his second career overtime game-winner.

"I asked him when that drive started and he said, 'I can make it from the 40,' and that's all you needed to hear from 'Sea Bass' because he's good," said Cable, who took over for fired head coach Lane Kiffin two weeks ago. "You saw what he did, he nailed that thing."

Despite giving up 418 yards to the Jets, the Raiders' defense was opportunistic all afternoon, forcing three turnovers to keep it a low-scoring affair. Down by three and facing a third-and-18 on his own 13-yard line, Jets quarterback Brett Favre launched a deep pass down the right sideline - and Hall, the Raiders' high-priced cornerback, easily picked it off.

It was Favre's second interception of the day and his fourth over the last two weeks.

He was given another chance to tie the game after Oakland's three-and-out, and capitalized this time. The Jets started on their own 5-yard line, but Favre marched them 61 yards on nine plays to set up Feely's game-tying kick. But he couldn't match the feat in overtime, completing just one pass on three possessions.

"It was a tough, back-and-forth game and there wasn't a lot of scoring going on," Jets head coach Eric Mangini said. "I didn't expect that to change dramatically in overtime. And it didn't."

His much-younger counterpart had a smoother performance. Russell completed 17-of-30 passes for 203 yards and a touchdown, an 8-yard strike to Javon Walker that snapped a 3-3 tie in the third quarter.

"The most important thing is, we're gonna leave this building 1-0 today," Cable said. "We're gonna go to our families and we're gonna eat dinner tonight 1-0 and it's gonna taste better, it's gonna feel good to wake up tomorrow and then we gotta go to work and we gotta keep getting better."