Dolphins safety Yeremiah Bell expects to be fined and expects to appeal his fine for a fourth quarter helmet-to-helmet contact penalty that could have changed the game.

With 4:06 left, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez overthrew Jeremy Kerley on third-and-9 from the Dolphins’ 45 just as a blitzing Bell collided facemasks with Sanchez. The flag for roughing the passer gave the Jets a first down at the Dolphins’ 30.

“The worst part was I pulled up on the guy,” Bell said, “put up my hands and everything. If we had lost the game, that definitely would’ve been a play to look at.”

Earlier in the fourth quarter, Dolphins wide receiver Davone Bess, the Dolphins’ nominee for NFL Man of the Year, left the game with a left knee injury after being hit on the knee by Jets linebacker Bart Scott following a 2-yard reception.

“That’s what they want us to do now, they want us to go low,” said Bell, who felt Scott’s hit was clean. “But those hits right there will injure a guy more than the other kind. You don’t know what to do and what not to do. They’re going to call whatever they want to call.”

An absent holmes

The Jets’ final possession, their drive to save their season, didn’t include wide receiver and offensive captain Santonio Holmes.

“I’d rather not really comment about it until I know the particulars,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “I know he was on the bench when I asked where he was. That’s as far as I know. I don’t have any idea if it was injury-related or what it was.”

Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson said: “Let me just say there were some guys in the huddle that were unhappy with Tone’s demeanor. When you have a group of guys that’s fighting their butts off and one guy, for whatever reason, their demeanor’s not with them, you’re going to get some guys to say something to him and tell him how they feel. That’s what you got [Sunday].”

Asked for his perspective as a veteran leader, he said, “It’s tough for guys to follow a captain [who] behaves in that manner. You’re a captain, guys are looking at you. You’ve got to lead by example. You’ve got to play your tail off until the last play. And when that doesn’t happen, you will have guys look at you in the way that captains shouldn’t be looked at.”

Tomlinson described Holmes’ demeanor and body language as, “not really into the game. Just feeling like it’s over.”

Endless drive

The Dolphins’ touchdown drive broke two franchise records. The 21 plays exceeded the previous record of 18, all of which occurred in recent years: Dec. 11, 2007, in a loss at Buffalo, Sept. 17, 2008, in a loss at Arizona and Dec. 27, 2009, in a loss at Houston. The possession time of 12 minutes 29 seconds surpassed a long drive from a surprising source, the 1994 Dolphins quarterbacked by Dan Marino, master of the swift drive. But against the Raiders on Oct. 16, 1994, the Dolphins took 10:30 off the clock with a drive.

New York’s 12-play, 69-yard drive that led to Nick Folk’s 31-yard field goal in the second quarter might have set an unofficial NFL record with six presnap penalties between the two teams.

Appropriately, the drive opened with an offsides call on Dolphins defensive end Philip Merling, followed by a false start on Jets left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson. Ferguson, the only player to be flagged twice on the drive, had a false start that turned a third-and-5 from the Dolphins’ 16 into a third-and-10 from the 21.

That could have been important — Sanchez’s 8-yard completion to Plaxico Burress on third down would have been a first down without Ferguson’s penalty, although cornerback Sean Smith might have played Burress differently.

Looking ahead

The Dolphins finished third in the AFC East. Next season, they will play each team in the AFC East twice, as usual; each team in the NFC West (Dolphins cornerback Vontae Davis will face his older brother, San Francisco tight end Vernon Davis, for the first time); the AFC South teams; and the third-place teams in the AFC North (Cincinnati) and AFC West (Oakland).