Tomlinson's had plenty of nice plays to think about

LaDainian Tomlinson often finds himself up until the wee hours after a game.

The reason the future Hall of Fame running back can't nod off has nothing to do with unpleasant sleeping quarters. It's not because he needs a dose of the nighttime-sniffling-sneezing-coughing-aching-stuffy head-fever-so-you-can-rest medicine, either.

See, there's this natural, DVR-like mechanism etched in the brain of the 10-year veteran, a mental device that replays the game over and over in his head all night long as he ponders how things transpired each time he got the mitts of his 5-10, 215-pound frame on the ball.

"Absolutely, even on good runs, you think about that," Tomlinson said. "I'm a guy that hardly ever sleeps after a game, just because the game is still fresh in my mind. So I think about it a lot. I think about what I could've done better. That's just a part of being a competitor.

"For me, I want to be perfect. I really don't just accept being mediocre. I want to be perfect out there and make sure I do my job to the best of my ability."

Even if he has to hear it from his wife, LaTorsha, who gave birth to the couple's first child - son Daylen - in July.

"My wife likes to get on me like, 'Get some sleep,' " he said. "And I'm like, 'I can't sleep.' But at the same time, when you take your job serious, you want to be good. Not good; you want to be great at it."

Tomlinson is closing in on 13,000 career rushing yards and can pass Tony Dorsett's 12,739 and move into seventh on the NFL's all-time rushing list Sunday if he runs for more than 41 yards against the Bills' 27th-ranked run defense.

He's continuing to prove he still has more than just a little something left in those 31-year-old legs, scampering for at least one run of at least 21 yards in each of the Jets' first three games. His team-leading rushing total of 208 yards has him just nine shy of cracking the NFL's top 10, and he's rattling off runs at an average of 5.6 yards per clip.

Besides that, he's been a security blanket for Mark Sanchez out of the backfield, picking up an average of almost seven yards on the nine passes he's snared from the second-year quarterback. But perhaps nothing has been more noticeable than the lengthy runs he's ripped off and the ankle-breaking moves he's used to get into the open field.

"A lot of the credit goes to the offensive line because they allow me to get up on the safeties and get through that first wave of defenders, which is something that running backs cherish," Tomlinson said. "They've allowed me to do that. So at that point, I can really use my ability to really pick and choose my holes, and make people miss and get some tough yards."

Each time his number is called, he hopes to leave a few of a defender's articles on the turf as he swerves and shifts into another gear.

"I love those opportunities because, for me, that's an opportunity to make a big play," Tomlinson said. "That's an opportunity for me to to get the crowd going, 'Woooh!' And so I just cherish the moments and really thrive off the situations to get to have an opportunity like that."

On the heels of some of those hefty ground-gaining spurts, he's showed enthusiasm that would make Joba Chamberlain blush, something he seems to be doing more in his short time here than he did in San Diego.

"I think a lot of it has to do with our home crowd, honestly," Tomlinson said. "They are so passionate and emotional and so loud that really it gets me going where I hear those cheers, and kind of that loud chant, it really gets me going. I get excited about playing."

"That's the beauty of it," Rex Ryan said. "He is a kid. He's just a little older. He does have that great enthusiasm and it's contagious. He wants the ball in his hands in critical situations, and that's the mark of a great one.

"When we were doing that fourth-and-1 , he couldn't wait. As soon as we called it, he was like, 'I got it. I got it.' Nobody doubted it. When he went flying over the line, those are things you remember.

"This is the guy we knew we were getting as far as the receiver, running skills, a three-down back. Combined with the big tank in Shonn Greene, this gives us a great combination right there."