09/07 — Anyone who thought this Jets season opener was going to be a walk in the South Florida was suffering from heat stroke. These new-look Dolphins were aggressive and physical as billed, and members of the Jets defense had souvenirs to prove it.

Calvin Pace sported a fat lip, which he dabbed with an icebag while a Miami TV reporter made fun of him on camera. Bryan Thomas paused from answering questions a few times as a pain in his midsection came and went.

But Pace, Thomas and company gave better than they got, and the defense's success earlier today was a strong subplot to Brett Favre's glorious, victorious debut as the Jets' QB of record in the 20-14 win.

"It was just a situation where we had a lot of guys getting to the ball, keeping pressure, making Chad uncomfortable back there," Pace explained.

But before Chad Pennington could feel the heat, the Jets had to bring the hats against the Dolphins' ground game, which was led by Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, to 'Fins who have done damage to the Jets in the past.

"There was an emphasis all week on stopping the run," said fellow linebacker David Bowens. "In the preseason Ronnie didn't run the ball much, but it's the same old Ricky — he's a heck of a player. We wanted to establish stopping the run."

For fans nervous about the Jets' run defense, they aced their first major test of the year. Williams was held to 24 yards on 10 carries, Brown to 23 on six. Overall Miami ran for 49 yards — tied for the fifth-fewest rushing yards allowed by the Jets in the last 10 seasons — at a puny 2.9 yards a carry and none longer than 7 yards.

Here are the fewest rushing yards allowed by the Jets since 1999 (home teams in CAPS):

That established, Pennington felt more than the 100-degree heat from the field thermometers. He was sacked four times, could find only his tight ends and not his wideouts, and was turned away with nine minutes to play on two end zone throws, both smartly batted away by rookie corner Dwight Lowery.

But when Pennington led the Dolphins 53 yards to a TD to David Martin on his next drive, then got the ball back at his own 39 with no timeouts and 1:43 to play, it was nervous time, since Mike Nugent's thigh problem had left the Jets vulnerable to a last-second 21-20 defeat.

Yet the Green & White, while aware of their situation, weren't panicky. As Bowens said: "Oh, no, here comes practice all over again," said Bowens. "We do that two-minute drive every day."

Pennington moved the 'Fins to 18 yards shy of the potential game-winner before throwing two incompletions for Martin, then having Darrelle Revis smother Ted Ginn Jr. in the end zone (Ginn, meanwhile, drew a flag for trying to put the wraps on Revis) and coming down with a phenomenal interception on his back to end the game.

And so the Jets, who played a gutsy but by no means perfect opener, got to fly back home to their new Jersey home with a brand-spanking-new 1-0 record with the possibility of facing the Patriots sans Tom Brady (no word late tonight on the condition of Brady's left knee) in their home opener.

"It was ugly at times. I'd be lying if I said I was real comfortable in the passing offense at this time," Favre said. "But a win's a win. It never gets old,"

The win even allowed some of the Jets to figuratively mop their brows and thank their lucky stars that Nugent's thigh, which he hurt on the kickoff after the Favre 56-yard pass play to Jerricho Cotchery, didn't cost them.

"That was a little bit different," said backup quarterback Kellen Clemens, who was the kicker besides being the award-winning QB at Burns (Ore.) High, about warming up on the sideline as Nuge's emergency replacement. "If I had to go in, expectations were pretty low."

I asked him if those were his expectations or everyone else's.

"All of ours," he said with a laugh.

Nugent even came over to counsel Clemens on a few pointers if he was needed, which he wasn't.

"I was going soccer-style and Nuge said, 'Why don't you line up straight and try to toe-punch it?' " Clemens said. "That didn't work out too well, either."

"I told him if he had to go in, try to do the little things — keep your head down, follow through, point your toe," said Nugent, who was able to come back in the second half to squib a kickoff and then add the Jets' final extra point after Thomas Jones' TD run put the visitors up by 20-7 late in the third quarter. "I just made sure to have a nice followthrough. It was an extra point. I should be able to do that."

How serious Nugent's thigh is and what the Jets will do if it doesn't come around will be a topic for Monday through Friday. But for the rest of today, the Jets are savoring the feeling of being a game over .500, something they hadn't experienced since the end of the 2006 season.

Inside the Jets

It's time for another season of "Inside the Jets Presented by Coors Light." Darrelle Revis and Jerricho Cotchery will be the first guests of the new season's first show, which airs on 1050AM ESPN New York on Monday at 7 p.m. This year the shows will be held at Charlie Brown's steakhouse located at 522 Southern Boulevard in Chatham, N.J.