There was not one but two Thomas Jones long touchdown runs for the New York Jets in the first half, one coming when he rolled off a fallen defensive lineman.

The weather was lousy, rainy and cold.

The team the Broncos faced Sunday at Giants Stadium was the hottest in the AFC, if not the NFL. In one three-play stretch, three Broncos defenders - defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban, middle linebacker Spencer Larsen and cornerback Dre Bly - were hurt, adding to an already long list entering the game.

Somehow, Denver put it all aside and made plays all over the field when it mattered most in the second half in a season-defining 34-17 victory. Among them:

* Linebacker Wesley Woodyard, not fooled by play-action, ran stride for stride with New York tight end Chris Baker, forcing Brett Favre to scramble and go down short of the first-down marker on fourth-and-1.

* On third-and-goal from the 7 on the next series, defensive end Elvis Dumervil exploded off the snap and swiped the ball out of Favre's hands, forcing a field goal.

* And on another key fourth-down call to open the fourth quarter, nickel cornerback Karl Paymah mis-timed his leap yet managed to bat the ball free of receiver Jerricho Cotchery on a bomb down the right sideline.

Any momentum the Jets might have had was gone.

It bought enough time for Denver's offense, and the game was over.

"That's called willpower right there," Paymah said afterward. "Because nobody wanted to be out there; nobody wanted to touch the ball. We just had to fight through it. You had to kind of fake your mind out that it's Football weather and that you've got to love it. And you do."

If if you're the Broncos, you do come away smiling when you hold a team to three second-half points, as the Broncos did.

You do love it when the Jets can manager just a 2-of-7 third-down conversion rate after the half and 3-of-11 overall.

And you definitely get all warm and fuzzy when after forcing only 10 takeaways all season, you get two Sunday. One turned into a direct score - safety Vernon Fox's 23-yard fumble return TD. Another spurred a long offensive drive to seven more points.

"Nobody gave us a chance, that's the thing," Broncos strong safety Marquand Manuel said of the defensive effort. "We've been ridiculed about a lot of things but ... the people that come to work here every day understand we have a team that's capable. We've just got to be more consistent."

Denver, which entered the game 28th overall in total yards allowed and 27th vs. the run leaguewide, allowed Jones to score from 59 and 29 yards, accounting for 88 of his 138-yard total output. Running back Leon Washington broke free for three long-gainers on screens. But otherwise, the Broncos took the Jets outside receivers largely out of the game.

Bly, who returned to the game after his leg injury along with Ekuban, turned one of Favre's rare upfield chances into an interception. And while the future Hall of Fame quarterback did throw for 247 yards, most coming in the second half, he didn't have a passing TD and finished with just a 60.9 rating.

"Persistence," Fox said, in explaining the defense's success Sunday. "It's something I think we've shown flashes of throughout the season. And it's something we can hopefully do on a regular basis. It's a tribute to the type of heart we have to come out

and not be denied."

The biggest play as far as timing may have come from Paymah. The Broncos offense after putting up a season-high 27 first-half points had a chance to seize control when Jay Cutler threw a bad interception in the end zone. The Jets answered with their

field-goal drive, with Dumervil spoiling things on third down.

Denver then went three-and-out, and New York (8-4), trailing by 10 points, again moved into Broncos territory.

Favre short-hopped a third-down pass to Cotchery. And on the next play, he hit Cotchery at the apex of his jump inside the 5-yard line.

Paymah stripped the ball from the Jets receiver on the way down.

Five plays later, a wide open Brandon Stokley caught a 36-yard TD strike to provide the final margin.

"Throughout the game we faced adversity," said Woodyard, who led Denver with 10 tackles (nine solo). "A few guys went down. We just had to continue to fight. And I think that showed. We had some key fourth-down stops, some turnovers. We just continued

to stay together."