Allegre Supplies Jets’ Playoff Kick, 23-20 : AFC: New York gains final wild-card berth with overtime victory against Dolphins.

It was appropriate that a journeyman kicker decided the matchup of mediocrity for the NFL’s final playoff spot Sunday.

Raul Allegre, signed Tuesday by the New York Jets to replace the injured Pat Leahy, kicked a 44-yard field goal to force overtime and then made a 30-yarder that gave the Jets a 23-20 victory over the Miami Dolphins.

The Jets will play at Houston in an AFC wild-card game next weekend. It will be their first playoff appearance since 1986.

“I can’t answer why we haven’t been able to play at this level all along,” Jet running back Freeman McNeil said. “But I know one thing, and that’s that we’re in the playoffs.”

The Jets and the Dolphins finished 8-8. The Jets earned the playoff berth because they beat Miami twice.

“I think they’re going to lose their first game,” Dolphin receiver Jim Jensen said. “They’re not that good.”

The Dolphins had a chance to clinch the playoff berth a week ago, but blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead at San Diego. Against the Jets, the Dolphins rallied to take the lead in the final minute of regulation and failed to hold it.

“We had control of it in San Diego and couldn’t do the job, and then we had control again here and couldn’t do the job,” Dolphin Coach Don Shula said. “This one will last a long time, for me and for us.”

Said Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, who completed 27 of 45 passes for 282 yards: “The way we played, we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.”

Allegre, who played for the Houston Oilers and New York Giants this year, kicked a 25-yard field goal with 3:42 left in the fourth quarter for a 17-13 lead. That kick banked off the upright.

Miami drove 70 yards to score on a fourth-down, one-yard pass from Dan Marino to Ferrell Edmunds with 44 seconds left for a 20-17 lead.

Jet quarterback Ken O’Brien passed 23 yards to Rob Moore and 14 yards to Terance Mathis to move the ball to Miami’s 33. After Freeman McNeil ran seven yards to the 26 with two seconds left, Allegre kicked his longest field goal of the day as time ran out.

A tie would have given the Dolphins the playoff berth, but they could not stop the Jets in overtime.

Miami took the kickoff, ran four plays and punted.

The Jets, starting from their 23, moved 65 yards in 11 plays.

Johnny Hector, who gained 132 yards in 13 carries, ran 16 yards on the first play and O’Brien later connected with Moore for 29 yards to the eight, setting up the game-winning field goal with 7:27 left.

The Dolphins called a timeout in an attempt to unnerve Allegre, a ninth-year pro.

“He’s a professional,” Jet Coach Bruce Coslet said. “Nobody is going to ice him. He went over and got a Scotch and soda, stretched at the 50-yard line and went and did his job.”

O’Brien completed 13 of 24 passes for 158 yards.

Trailing 14-13 with nine minutes left, the Dolphins drove to the Jets’ nine. But on second down, Marino’s short pass intended for Mark Duper along the sideline was intercepted by Joe Kelly.

Earlier, Miami’s Pete Stoyanovich missed field-goal attempts of 41 and 53 yards.