12/02 — We've gotten to know Thomas Jones a little bit now, three-quarters of the way through his first season as a Jet. We know he's got muscles on top of muscles, that he's the salt of the earth, that he's a team player.

But even with the several 100-yard games and just those two home wins against Miami and Pittsburgh, Jones seemed just a bit grim or reserved during most group interviews before practices or after games.

That grimness lifted Sunday after Jones scored his first touchdown on his 242nd carry as a Jet with 14½ minutes left in the Jets' feelgood 40-13 rout at Miami today.

"In my mind, statistics are a major part of what you play for," Jones said, smiling and at ease at the podium in the visitors' locker room inside Dolphin Stadium. "But at the end of the day, I'm a team guy. Whether I score or another guy scores for our team, I'm happy."

"But today, I appreciate this. It was a long time coming."

Jones was happy to get the call twice in a row on goal-to-go at the Dolphins one at the start of the fourth quarter. But his teammates were happier.

"It was much overdue getting him in the end zone," said Kellen Clemens, who got off his own QB schneid by directing four red zone TD drives. "It was good to see him be rewarded for all the tough yards he'd been grinding out for us."

"It was very important. It was something Thomas was working on and we were working on," said Leon Washington, who got 18 of his team-high 105 yards from scrimmage on a shovel pass from Clemens to the 1 to set up the Jones sixpack. "When I got the ball to the 1, all I was thinking about was getting Thomas in the end zone."

Actually, Jones' first try at the TD was whistled off ... from the stands. Referee Mike Carey stopped play for the unofficial whistle, and then the third quarter expired.

From the other end of the field, Jones' first official carry ended the way all of his previous tries in that neighborhood had ended this season: stoned, no gain. But the third time was the charm as Jones followed right side blocks from guard Brandon Moore, tackle Anthony Clement and TEs Chris Baker and Joe Kowalewski into the promised land.

"It was getting kind of crazy," Baker said, "how many touches we've had and how he's carried our team."

And after Jones got it, T D'Brickashaw Ferguson said, "We all showed him some love." And Jones held onto the football. It wasn't an accident.

"It was a special situation there when you score your first touchdown with a team," Jones said. "I've held onto those footballs with all four of the teams I've been with."

Many moments, not just Jones' big score, were worth bronzing in this locker room. The defense was a band of dervishes, swarming rookie QB John Beck and forcing him into three pocket fumbles (two lost) and three interceptions and holding Miami's crippled ground game to 37 yard and its offense to 187 yards — the lowest of the Eric Mangini/Bob Sutton defensive regime.

There was Laveranues Coles' indomitable spirit. "This hasn't been the type of season that's turning out the way I wanted it to," said Coles after leading the Jets' eight pass-catching receivers with five catches for 69 yards on his extremely sore ankle. "I wanted the players to feel that I was one of the guys. That was something that was real big for me, to come back and play today."

And of course there was that theme that always comes up at times like these, that the Jets figured to be the Dolphins' last best chance to avoid becoming the first 0-16 team in NFL history. The Jets insisted they weren't insulted at that demeaning role.

"Everybody was saying so," said linebacker Victor Hobson. "I guess that stops all the rumors. We don't really worry about what the people outside this locker room say. If that were the case, we'd have been divided a long time ago."

But now, even if there are only four games left in the season, the Jets for the first time seem to be united, behind Thomas Jones, their defense and themselves.