The New York Jets twice surrendered the lead but defeated New England 34-31 in overtime Thursday to take over first place in the National Football League`s AFC East division.

Jay Feely`s 34-yard field goal on the first overtime possession sealed the victory for the Jets, who improved to 7-3 and avenged a loss to the Patriots in the second week of the season.

New England quarterback Matt Cassel connected with Randy Moss on a 16-yard touchdown with one second remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime.

The Jets` Thomas Jones had dived in for a go-ahead touchdown with little more than three minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

Quarterback Brett Favre completed 26-of-33 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns for the Jets, who won their fourth straight game to move one game ahead of the Patriots in the divison.

One of Favre`s touchdowns was caught by Leon Washington, who also returned a kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown.

Feely, filling in for the injured Mike Nugent, had two field goals, improving to 18-of-22 on the season.

The Jets set the tone on the game`s opening drive, marching 62 yards in 10 plays and finishing off with a seven-yard screen pass from Favre to Washington, who eluded three tacklers to score.

The Patriots` first two drives produced field goals of 42 and 31 yards from Steven Gostkowski.

After the second field goal, Washington took the kickoff at his eight-yard line and ran all the way for a touchdown that put the Jets ahead 17-6.

The Jets stretched the lead to 24-6 when Favre connected with Jerricho Cotchery for a 15-yard touchdown less than five minutes before halftime.

The Patriots answered with Jabar Gaffney catching a 19-yard scoring pass from Cassel with 15 seconds to play in the second quarter to pull within 24-13.

The Patriots narrowed the gap further late in the third quarter, when Cassel found Watson for a touchdown and then hit Gaffney for the two-point conversion.

New England knotted the score at 24-24 when Gostkowski converted his third field goal of the game from 47 yards with 10:22 remaining in the fourth.

Cassel, who took over at quarterback after New England lost superstar Tom Brady to injury in the opening game of the season, threw for a career-best 400 yards and three touchdowns, and also ran for 62 yards.