08/21 — Let's go to the ending of practice again for the brightest moments on this wet, gray, cold day in August on Long Island.

Kellen Clemens has led his offense down the field in the two-minute drill but has stalled at the 27 with four seconds to play. Hail Mary time. He lets his ball fly in the vicinity of 6'3" WR Frisman Jackson, but he's surrounded by green jerseys. S Ray Ventrone goes to catch it, then pushes it to the ground a la Kerry Rhodes as time expires.

But wait. The offense is contending Ventrone actually did catch it, then in effect fumbled it. Guard Adrien Clarke picks up the ball and, running behind Wade Smith, takes it in the end zone. The offense celebrates. It's unclear if the officials have ruled that Clarke has scored. In any event, practice is over.

But wait again. Eric Mangini has called for one of his team-building postpractice challenges. The Jets will win something, perhaps an early dismissal tonight, if a certain player kicks a field goal from 20 yards out. That player is ... LB Eric Barton.

Despite getting coached up by Mike Nugent, Barton's kick is ugly. It flutters barely 10 feet off the ground and is hooking left. But it clears the crossbar. The kick is good and the Jets cheer wildly.

Some other practice vignettes:

Clemens had Brad Smith behind the defense. KC's pass wobbled and was underthrown, but Smith still hit the ground with the catch while surrounded by Ventrone, Jamie Thompson and Rayshaun Kizer.

With the first defense working against the scout team in preparing for the Giants on Saturday, RB Alvin Banks took a short pass from Brett Ratliff, then put an in-and-out move on Bryan Thomas, heading upfield as BT stumbled. The rest of the defense whooped it up at Thomas' expense.

The defense chirped loudly again at the start of two-minute drills when Chad Pennington threw a soft pass that was picked out of the air by DE Shaun Ellis, who then took it the short distance to the end zone.

TE Jason Pociask continued his hot hand as a receiver for the scout offense with two nice intermediate receptions from Ratliff.

Brad Smith separated but dropped a deep ball from Clemens. This not long after Pennington put a beautiful deep ball in Justin McCareins' hands.

Nugent was fielding Ben Graham punts across the field. One sailed wide and skipped over the sideline, where a boy who was watching practice retrieved it and threw it back to Nugent. "Thank you, sir," said Nugent.

Justin Miller was kaleidoscopic as he ran or walked around the field. One time around he'd have his white Gatorade towel over his head like a prizefighter in training. The next time the towel would be tucked in around his neck and into his jersey. Another time the towel would be flowing from the back of his head, held in place by his Jets green skullcap.

The music selection took an ironic turn: "Beautiful Day" by U2 and Bon Jovi singing "When the world gets in my face, I say ... have a nice day."

One more practice to go and the Jets have officially survived Mangini Camp II.