"I know we didn't expect that to happen and Buffalo didn't expect that to happen," running back Thomas Jones said yesterday in a moment of understatement.

Not that any Jets fan - or Bills fan, for that matter - needs a review, but ...

With the Bills ahead 27-24 and a first down away from running out the clock Sunday, Buffalo coach Dick Jauron called for a pass play on second-and-5 from the Bills' 27 with 2:06 left. Blitzing safety Abram Elam stripped quarterback J.P. Losman from behind and the loose ball eventually bounced into the arms of defensive end Shaun Ellis, who, somewhat inelegantly, made his way 11 yards into the end zone for a shocking go-ahead touchdown.

The win improved the Jets to 9-5, keeping them in a three-way tie for the AFC East lead with the Dolphins and Patriots.

Ellis' first up-close contact with a large group of Jets fans came yesterday morning when he took his 12-year-old son, Jordan, to school. "A lot of the kids at his school were like, 'What an awesome play' and 'Great play,'" Ellis said.

Like any good son on the verge of becoming a teenager, Jordan offered a slightly different take. "At first he was telling me I was slow," Ellis said with a laugh.

After ramming into the Bills' Langston Walker, Ellis for a split-second was facing the wrong goal line, but he oriented himself and pivoted toward the sideline. After Ellis scored, an ecstatic Kerry Rhodes leaped onto him like Yogi Berra onto Don Larsen in 1956, and the 220-pound Rhodes slammed the 285-pound Ellis to the turf.

Ellis spoke at length about the play after the game but didn't see a replay until that night. "Basically, I was kind of shocked myself for it to all play out that way," Ellis said of his reaction to the replay. "A lot of things had to happen for it to happen."

First and foremost among those things, the Bills had to choose to forgo a run - even though they had averaged 5.8 yards per rush to that point. Offensive coordinator Turk Schonert wanted to run the ball but was overruled by Jauron, and the decision was no less confounding yesterday. And no less uplifting for the Jets, who, moments before the sequence, were on the verge of losing control of their playoff destiny.

"It's amazing how one call can just change the whole course of a game," right tackle Damien Woody said. "Things can look so bleak or whatever, and then all of a sudden everything just changes. I'm just glad everything worked out in our favor."

Players continued their postgame mantra of "a win is a win," but they also recognize they're not playing their best Football right now, something that must change soon, starting Sunday in Seattle. If the Jets win there and beat Miami at home Dec. 28, they'll win the division title. If they slip up, they'll need help.

"I feel like we're a team of perseverance," Ellis said. "We're a team that's able to endure anything that comes our way and we can always bounce back from it. We've had a little down time right now, but we'll be back."

Will the miracle finish be the impetus? "It could be," Woody said. "We'll see at the end of the season when everything is said and done; we'll see what the effects were of that play. Right now, that play was great. It kept us alive, it kept that heartbeat going, but now it's on to the next challenge, which is Seattle. If we don't take care of business, that play's all for naught."

Notes & quotes: Coach Eric Mangini didn't sound terribly concerned that rookie LB Vernon Gholston needed a pep talk after being deactivated for the first time. "We're going to take the best people to help you win that game, whether your contract is 20 million, 50 million, 100 million; whether you're drafted one, 10, one thousandth," he said. "We've got to play, we've got to win." ... The Jets left two days early for each of their previous three West Coast games this season - all losses - and looked into changing the routine for this weekend, which would mean leaving Saturday instead of Friday. Mangini said they couldn't get a change in their chartered flight, though, so they will leave Friday after practice. "We looked into it," he said, "[but] what I don't want to do is get too caught up in that being some reason why we can't perform."

Sunday

Jets at Seattle

4:05 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2

Radio: WEPN (1050)