"You name it, we've tried it," said the St. Louis Rams' kicker. "Some people throw stuff at me and I'm like 'I'll try it.' I've got nothing to lose."

Wilkins has tendinitis in his left knee and there's intense pain when he plants the leg before attempting each kick. The injury has bothered him to varying degrees all year.

His injury is big story this week because the NFC champions have so few question marks. And his leg was never worse than it was in last week's 49-37 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

Wilkins said there's usually a sharp pain when he plants his leg, and it doesn't subside for five or six minutes. Last Sunday, the pain never let up.

The extra points were difficult enough.

"I feel myself favoring it even though I try not to and line up thinking I'm not going to," Wilkins said. "But I do."

His 42-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter was a wobbly effort that ended up wide right and barely had the distance.

"It's ridiculous," Wilkins said. "I slapped at it."

Coach Dick Vermeil saw enough that he conducted a tryout camp on Tuesday, the players' day off. Nick Lowery, 43, and out of the NFL since 1996, emerged from a field of three candidates as the safety valve in case Wilkins can't make it.

Lowery is fifth on the career scoring list with 1,711 points and would give the Rams perhaps the oldest kicking-punting duo in NFL history. Punter Mike Horan is 40.

"He's done it for so many years, even though he hasn't done it for a while," Vermeil said. "The other two young kids kicked the ball well and impressively, but they have never done it. Hopefully, Jeff Wilkins will be ready to kick."

Wilkins watched the tryout while rehabbing and talked to Lowery and the other candidates, former Florida State star Scott Bentley and Marshall Young. He remembers Lowery from his childhood.

"Shoot, he's played how many years?" Wilkins said. "He was one of the guys you watched on Sunday."

Within a week or so after the season ends, Wilkins plans on undergoing surgery to alleviate the degenerative condition that's developed in the knee. For now, he grits his teeth.

Wilkins practiced Thursday for the first time this week. Despite persistent swelling in the knee, Vermeil said afterward that he expects Wilkins to be his kicker Sunday in the NFC Championship Game.

Wilkins was 20-for-28 in the regular season, missing only one of 13 attempts inside the 40.

"I know it's going to hurt," he said. "It's a matter of keeping my form knowing it's going to hurt. I want to feel some of the pain and just try to kick my normal kick.

"You don't want to not play with two games left," he said. "This is what you grow up dreaming about."

But he also doesn't want to hurt the team, which is in the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

"It's going to hurt," Wilkins said. "I've got to be able to kick knowing the pain's going to be there and not screw up my form, which in turn will end up screwing up the field goal and the team, basically."