12/04 — Who will be the Jets' defensive player of the week? That's the award presented by head coach Eric Mangini to a deserving defender following a victory. Mangini didn't hand out any of his player awards Monday because he wanted to notify his players of the winners first, and since they had been given off till Wednesday, many players had scattered.

I can't possibly handicap this week's winner because there were many candidates in the wake of the 40-13 squishing of the Fish.

Safety Kerry Rhodes had a key interception at the Jets 9 late in the first half, also broke up another pass, was in on 1.5 tackles for loss/no gain and had four tackles.

DT C.J. Mosley has been coming up big lately. He had a sack of John Beck, his third game in a row with a QB drop, on the play executed his second strip sack in two games, and was also in 1.5 tackles at or behind the line.

But it's a weekly occurrence that David Harris is up for NFL honors. In fact, I tabbed Harris as one of the four Jets of the Game for fans to vote for on newyorkjets.com immediately after the game. He led the Jets with eight tackles (six solo). And in the third quarter he picked up his third sack in five games and with it his first NFL strip-sack, separating Beck from ball and pouncing on it for the recovery to set up the Thomas Jones touchdown drive.

It's becoming old hat for the new guy. He's been nominated for the third time as the Diet Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week, and you can vote for Harris or his four competitors in the coming days on nfl.com.

Harris already has one award under his belt this week and that's as the nflplayers.com Rookie of the Week. No fan voting here, but you can read web editor Mike Donnelly's thorough David Harris feature here.

One of many offensive gadget plays that I wanted to mention as I hit the pause button in the middle of my weekly video breakdown of the game was one of Brad Smith's finest moments as a Jet, the 19-yard touchdown reception, 18 of which came after the catch, to put the Jets ahead of the 'Fins to stay, 17-13, with 2:39 left in the first half.

This really was nifty because Smith initially lined up in the left slot between WR Wallace Wright (who saw his most action and had his most catches as a Jet) and TE Joe Kowalewski. Then Smith went in motion across the formation, then doubled back — but only to an off-set halfback position next to Kellen Clemens in the shotgun.

This is not normally a spot that Smith is in for the start of a play, and I think it confused the Dolphins. Perhaps nickelback Travis Daniels had Smith as long as he was a flanker, but when he became a back, it looked as if Channing Crowder picked up Smith responsibility. What are the odds of the 245-pound LB staying with the 210-pound QB/WR/HB/kick cover man?

All that Clemens had to do was get the ball to Smith. He faked the handoff going the other way to Leon Washington, perhaps buying a crucial split-second on the Dolphins' pressure. Throwing off his back foot, KC found Smith with a dart and Smith easily ran past Crowder and beat the Dolphins DBs to the right pylon. Outstanding design, outstanding execution ... outstanding play.