12/20 — My special thought for this edition of Special Teams Saturday is how goofy reporters get sometimes.

Such occurred to me because of several questions posed to Jets head coach Eric Mangini and then to kicker Jay Feely on Friday. Questions along the lines of: Any concerns about Feely because he struggled at Seattle a couple of years ago? Worries that he'll allow his past performance to affect his play Sunday? Doubts about Feely's mental toughness?

Why not cut to the chase and ask the kicker about his medication and how it's possible he's not a basket case to this day?

But Mangini and Feely answered calmly and confidently about the meaning of that game, when the Giants lost to the Seahawks, 24-21 in overtime, at Qwest Field back on Nov. 27, 2005.

"Jay never once struck me as the type of guy that let a setback set him back the next time," Mangini said. "He is inherently competitive. I felt that the day we signed him, the way he covers kicks in practice, the way he is involved on the show team — things that are unique from a kicker’s perspective. He has a very aggressive personality for a kicker."

"Oh, yeah, it's a part of your history. You can't run away from that," Feely said with a smile when asked about how comfortable he was reminiscing about that day. "It made me better, it made me stronger. When you go through something like that, it takes some of the fear out of playing. Especially from a kicker's perspective, you can't fear failure. The ones who fear failure don't last very long."

Just for the record, here are the details of what happened three years ago and what has happened since.

No question, Feely did have a bad day. He went 2-for-5 in the field goal department, with the three misses coming after the two successes, and each of the misses, had they gone through the uprights, would have given the Giants a hard-fought victory 3,000 miles from home.

On the final play of regulation, Feely was wide left from 40 yards. He was short from 54 yards out 4:17 into overtime. And he was short again from 45 with 6:05 left in OT. Josh Brown finally secured a 24-21 Seahawks win on a 36-yarder with 2:45 to play in the extra session.

So let's examine how Feely "struggled" in his career after this crushing day:

■ He hit 12 of his last 14 field goals that season.

■ He returned to Qwest with the Giants for Game 3 of the 2006 season and showed no sign of the yips, nailing a 46-yard try and all three PATs.

■ Since then, he's hit 80 of 92 FG attempts, an 87.0 percent accuracy that is 10th among all qualifying kickers from Dec. 4, 2005, to present. (Thanks, Stats Inc.)

■ The three misses that day were the most in a game in his eight-year career. Never happened before, hasn't happened since.

None of this says Feely won't have another three-miss game in his career. But if he scuffles Sunday afternoon in Seattle, it will more likely be due to the expected snowy conditions at Qwest rather than the emergence of any lingering psychological trauma. Say what you want about Feely, but he's a physically and mentally tough professional placekicker.

A Winning Call of a Winning Play

This isn't teams-related but it is a note about a special call by Greg Gumbel during CBS' telecast of the stunning 31-27 defeat of the Bills.

Maybe it's just because of the dramatic nature of Abram Elam's strip sack of J.P. Losman and Shaun Ellis' semi-miraculous 11-yard TD to return to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. But Gumbel's call was the peak of efficiency and building tension all during the few seconds of unexpected happenings on the field below. Here is a transcript of Gumbel's call right after Losman took the snap on second-and-5 from the Bills' 27 with 2:06 to play.

"Play fake ... Losman under pressure — lost the football! ... Still on the loose, picked up by the Jets, inside the 5, to the end zone — TOUCHDOWN! Shaun Ellis! Do you believe that?"

At the utterance of that last sentence, the network cut to a shot in the stands of a fan in Halloween-ish mask — a huge green skull and bobbling eyeballs. If you're a Jets fan, tell me you didn't feel like Skullman at that moment. Good job, Greg and CBS.