He played only 16 snaps on offense. He didn't catch a single pass. And actually, he only had one football even thrown his way.

Yet on a day when the Dolphins' Ted Ginn Jr. saw less action than ever in the wake of his demotion as a wide receiver, his impact on the outcome of a game had rarely been so prominent before Sunday's 30-25 win against the Jets.

``Some of these other guys played 60, 70 plays out there and didn't have that kind of impact,'' coach Tony Sparano said Monday.

So Ginn's two-touchdown performance could be viewed as nothing more than a textbook dose of irony. But for those willing to open their minds, there might be more to this success story than a quirk of fate.

The lesson could be simple: Might less actually be more?

``Ted can certainly benefit from seeing the possibilities of him making plays no matter what the play count is,'' Sparano said. ``What did he have? Six kickoff returns -- and he played 16 plays on offense. So he played 22 plays in the game, and quite honestly was a major reason why we won the football game.''

SPEED RACER

There are several ways to approach this theory. Here's one: The obvious asset of Ginn's skill set is his speed, which means the preservation of his energy throughout a game could be beneficial toward getting the highest output from his legs.

Too many deep routes during a game can cause fatigue. And too many deep routes without any passes thrown his way can cause complacency. Neither fatigue nor complacency was a factor for Ginn on Sunday.

Not when returning kicks. And not when running routes. Returning punts isn't part of the plan for now.

``It does not matter to me how many snaps he plays or any of those things,'' Sparano said. ``He has that kind of strike ability. Never mind the two kickoff returns, but two plays on offense, he ran by people and we just couldn't get him the football.

``I think he can benefit from learning that it really only takes one play, and I think one play can be the difference in some of these situations.''

So what does that mean for Ginn's future as a wide receiver? Well, that depends.

The idea of him becoming a utility deep-passing threat and a specialist on kickoffs has its pros and cons. If Ginn isn't running those deep passing routes, teams no longer need to respect the deep portion of the field.

That could put more strain on other elements of the passing game, particularly for wide receivers Greg Camarillo and Davone Bess. On Monday, during an appearance on WQAM's The Joe Rose Show, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino talked about the importance of having a speedy threat like Ginn on the field as often as possible.

``Being a former quarterback, it doesn't hurt to have someone that could just run by everybody,'' Marino told Rose. ``I think of Tony Martin. He was a guy that could run really well. A guy that has that threat on the outside that defenses know that no matter what you think of him -- as a complete player or not -- he can just run by people. That's a big-time threat.''

So even in the wake of a successful day for Ginn on kickoff returns, the Dolphins have a challenge ahead of them: How do they best benefit from Ginn's assets? And if less really is more, how do they make sure to not lose the deep-play threat on a regular basis?

If the Dolphins were able to find a way to get rookie Patrick Turner suited up (something Sparano hinted toward Monday), the combination of Brian Hartline, Turner and Ginn could alleviate the situation.

But bringing Turner to a game causes an issue with game day roster numbers, since playing five receivers would cost the Dolphins a player elsewhere -- likely a player with a considerable presence on special teams.

Still, those are situations Miami can tweak on a week-to-week basis with the opposing secondary in mind.

The long-term plan for Ginn does not have to suffer.

PLANNING STAGES

``You have to understand what the player can do and let him only do what he can do well,'' Sparano said. ``Making sure he's in there on some of these big plays, these down field things, those kinds of thoughts.''

It will be interesting to see how Miami handles the situation, but it certainly appears as though Sunday's game might have been the beginning of a new chapter of Ginn's career.

How this new chapter reads, though, still remains to be seen.

``The way he just accelerates and outruns everybody . . . those guys are NFL players and they're fast, too,'' Marino said. ``He just made everybody look slow.''

Now, for the challenge: Finding a way to do it consistently.