09/07 — This game surely had the look of an opening day for both the Jets and Dolphins. But if the Jets hold on to their 20-7 lead then Calvin Pace will be one of the stars of the game.

Pace, lining up at outside linebacker on the right side of the Green & White defense, was going against the Dolphins top pick of the draft, left tackle Jake Long, for a lot of the game. And that was a mismatch in Pace's favor for most of the hot, hot, hot South Florida afternoon,

Pace forced a pair of penalties on Long as he was rushing Chad Pennington. The first came in the final minute of the first half when Long stuck out his foot and tripped Pace. If nothing else, the flag prevented the 'Fins from hitting on some late magic to make the game closer than it was, 13-7 in the Jets favor going into the locker room.

The next penalty came in the third quarter, when Long was beaten by Pace and tackled him on his way to the pocket. That set up a third-and-15 at the Miami 18, which led to a punt, which helped the Jets and Brett Favre on their third TD drive of the day from their 31.

In drawing the two yellow flags, Pace became the first Jets defensive player since John Abraham in 2005 to cause two 10-yard penalties on the opponents. That season Abraham drew a pair of holding calls on Buffalo's Mike Gandy.

Then in the fourth quarter, Long went unblocked to Pennington's blind side for a sack of No. 10 (Long didn't appear to be the guilty party on this one), which didn't help the Dolphins as they tried to punch in a touchdown with less than 10 minutes left to make it a one-score game.

And the reason it wasn't a one-score game from there was in large part due to the contributions of rookie cornerback Dwight Lowery.

Lowery, who got the start at LCB — that's because Darrelle Revis matched up with Ted Ginn Jr. on the defensive right side at the start — came up big in the end zone in the fourth quarter, making clean end zone deflections on third-down and fourth-down deflections, keeping the score at 20-7.

And dare we say that the BT Express is back? Bryan Thomas, manning the left outside spot, had a sack of Pennington in the second quarter, then duplicated the feat midway as the fourth-quarter clock was winding down. Thomas' only other two-sack game as a pro came against Houston in 2006.

But two of these aforementioned defensive stars couldn't make a play when the 'Fins struck with 3:27 left as Pennington, being rushed by Pace, hit TE David Martin with Lowery in coverage for the TD to finally make it that one-score game, 20-14.

And now it comes down to one of those two-minute drives that head coach Eric Mangini has his Jets go through at the end of training camp and in-season practices. The Dolphins have the ball first-and-10 at their 39 with 1:43 to play and no timeouts left. The Jets "D" has to keep Miami out of the end zone for a tough but satisfying victory on opening day at Miami.

Pennington led the Dolphins to the Jets 18 with 13 seconds to play. After a Jets timeout, Pennington tried one thrust into the right corner of the end zone, a jump ball between Jets CB Darrelle Revis and Miami WR Ted Ginn Jr. The two grappled for position, leaped — and Revis tipped the ball to himself and cradled it on the turf for an incredible interception.

The only piece of business to resolve: a penalty flag in that corner. The call: pass interference ... offense. Ginn had grabbed Revis before the ball arrived.

A fine defensive effort in the second half to make Brett Favre,  who kneeled down to end the festivities, a 20-14 winner in his first start as a Jet.

Eric Allen will post the game story shortly, and I'll have a postgame Radar entry from the Jets' Dolphin Stadium locker room up and flying as soon as possible but hopefully no later than 11 p.m.