DETROIT — If you were wondering why, in the moments immediately following his game-winning field goal against the Lions yesterday, Jets kicker Nick Folk appeared so nonchalant, it’s because he had no idea he’d won the game for the Jets.
Folk revealed to The Post that he thought the Lions would have one possession to either tie or win the game after he drilled his 30-yarder through 2:38 into overtime to give the Jets a 23-20 lead, ahem, win.
Folk, who’d played in only one overtime game as a pro when he was with Dallas, thought the new overtime rule that NFL owners recently voted in would kick in. The new rule allows the team that loses the OT coin toss and gives up a field goal to get one possession to either tie or win the game.
That rule, however, was voted in for the postseason only.
“That,” Folk said with a smile, “is why that might have been the worst game-winning celebration ever. When I made it, I turned to go get ready to kick off. Then I saw everyone running onto the field and was like, ‘OK, we won. Woo hoo.’
“Now,” Folk added, “I know.”
Folk said once the Jets got into field goal-range, he was by himself kicking practice shots into the net.
“I saw that it was second down and I’m doing my pre-kick routine and Mike [special teams coach Mike Westhoff] yells over to me, ‘Come on, we’re kicking,’ ” Folk said. “I was thinking, ‘It’s only third down. Shouldn’t we be trying to score a touchdown?’
“This is what I thought: We needed a touchdown [to win the game]. A field goal was obviously good, but I thought [the Lions] would have one possession to either kick a field goal to tie or score a touchdown to win it.”
When right tackle Damien Woody was told of Folk’s misunderstanding, he was incredulous.
“That’s kind of hard to believe,” Woody said. “Are you serious? I’m just glad he made the kick so we could get the hell out of the building.”
Folk’s 36-yard field goal as time expired in regulation to tie the game at 20-20 allowed the Jets to stay in the building long enough to win. Folk also kicked a 31-yarder in the second quarter to give the Jets their first points of the game.