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Dolphins Beat Bills 22-13 |  | ||||||||
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The Dolphins played the first of the two annual wars on Sunday when the Buffalo Bills visited Miami and this game was everything a Dolphins-Bills game should be. There were big plays, intense competition, hard hitting, lots of trash talking and a close finish. Fortunately for the Dolphins, this time it was Miami that came out ahead, beating the Bills 22-13. The difference in the game was the Miami defense, which scored 9 points on its own to give the Dolphins the margin of victory. Each offense scored 13 points, but a fumble return by Sam Madison and a safety by Jermaine Haley made the difference between Miami and Buffalo on Sunday. The game began at 1:00 PM, with a temperature of 85 degrees and 67% humidity under partly cloudy skies. Inactive for the game were Ray Hill, Rob Konrad, Daryl Gardener, Alonzo Mayes, Ed Perry, Lorenzo Bromell and Arturo Freeman while Mike Quinn served as the emergency quarterback. The Dolphins made a roster change that was not announced until gametime this week. They started Jermaine Haley at defensive tackle and let Kenny Mixon return to his left defensive end spot. This was done to bolster the run defense, which had allowed 191 yards rushing by the Bengals in the previous game. This would turn out to be a very wise decision. The Dolphins took the opening kickoff and drove right down the field on the combined running of Thurman Thomas, Lamar Smith and Autry Denson along with a 21 yard pass to Oronde Gadsden. But the drive stalled at the Buffalo 9 when Lamar Smith was dropped for a loss and Miami had to settle for a field goal and a 3-0 lead. Bills responded with a drive that picked up some yardage, but stalled far outside of field goal range. Most of this drive was a 31 yard reception by Eric Moulds and it highlighted a problem the Bills would have all day - no running game. Following the Bills punt, Miami was pinned deep in their end of the field and went three and out. When they punted back to Buffalo, Matt Turk shanked the punt badly and Buffalo got the ball at the Miami 29. Even though they only gained 2 yards on 3 plays, they were already well within field goal range and tied the score at 3-3. Following the kickoff, the Dolphins and Bills each had one ineffective series and then Miami got moving again. Assisted by a pass interference penalty on Ken Irvin and a 15 yard pass to Thurman, the Dolphins moved down to the Bills' 15, but stalled there and kicked another field goal to take a 6-3 lead. After the Bills went 3 and out following the kickoff, Miami started from their 43 on their best drive of the day. From the shotgun, Fiedler hit Bert Emmanuel down the sideline for a 35 yard gain to the Buffalo 17 and two plays later hit Leslie Shepherd on virtually the same route for 20 yards and a touchdown. On the touchdown pass, Fiedler laid the ball in to Shepherd perfectly and Miami had a 13-3 lead. There was one more offensive series by each team in the first half, but nothing happened and as time ran out on the 2nd quarter, Miami went to the locker room with a 13-3 lead. Miami totally dominated the first half, outgaining the Bills 179 yards to 39, picking up 11 first downs to the Bills' 3 and controlling the clock 18:54 to 11:06. The Dolphins had sacked Rob Johnson 3 times and had pounded him many other times, making his life miserable. The second half opened pretty much the way the first half ended, with the Bills going 3 and out on their first possession and then Miami doing some decent running on their first possession. But Miami was stopped and punted. This punt went out of bounds at the Buffalo 1 yard line and after the Bills unsuccessfully tried to pass from their endzone, they handed the ball off to Jonathan Linton and ran right at Jermaine Haley. Haley blew out of his stance, broke through the double-team block of Jerry Ostroski and Reuben Brown and nailed Linton in the endzone for a safety. Yes, you heard that right - Jermaine Haley, who is essentially a rookie and was starting his first NFL game, blew through a double team by veteran Jerry Ostroski and Pro-Bowler Reuben Brown and nailed Linton for the 1 yard loss and a safety. Whatever else Jimmy Johnson was or wasn't, he certainly could pick good defensive linemen. At this point, I thought the game was essentially over. Miami now led 15-3 near the end of the 3rd quarter and a safety is often dispiriting enough to kill whatever motivation the opponents have left. However, I could not have been more wrong. The Bills deserve a lot of credit for not folding up like the Bengals did the previous week. They continued to play tough until the final whistle and were never out of the game at any point. Following the safety, there was one ineffective offensive series by each team that took the game into the 4th quarter. Then Buffalo drove to the Miami 5 on two big pass plays, but were forced to settle for a field goal that cut the lead to 15-6. On the next Miami series, the Dolphins went 3 and out after a third down pass to Bert Emmanuel went incomplete. The reason I bring this up is that Emmanuel was clearly hit before the ball arrived and it should have been a pass interference penalty and a first down. With the clock ticking down to less than 10:30 remaining in the game, that missed penalty forced Miami to punt, when they should have had a first down. That could have played a big difference in the game. Fortunately, it would have no effect on the outcome. The Bills got the ball back and after a 41 yard sideline completion to Peerless Price and a questionable pass interference call on Patrick Surtain, the Bills were able to run the ball into the endzone from the Miami 3. This cut Miami's lead to 15-13 and it began to look as if the Bills might stage a comeback. The Bills kicked off and Miami did manage to grind out a first down on offense before being forced to punt, but that did give the Bills the ball back at their 18 with 4:59 remaining in the game. At this point, the Bills only needed a field goal to take the lead. However, on 1st and 10, the Bills tried to set up a screen pass to Sammy Morris. Rob Johnson rolled to his left and looked for Morris. On seeing that Morris was covered by Zach Thomas, Johnson kept moving, hoping to find someone else. Zach then decided to come off of Morris and charged Johnson, who flipped the ball over Zach's head to Morris. The Dolphin defenders were there, however, and Kenny Mixon hit Morris hard. Morris kept his feet and was trying to gain a few more yards when Patrick Surtain put his shoulder into Morris' gut, knocking the ball out and up. The ball popped up into the air and down into the hands of Sam Madison, who was right behind Surtain. Madison took the gift and sprinted untouched into the endzone for a touchdown. With only 4:45 remaining and Miami leading by 9 points, the Bills would need a miracle to win at this point, but their miracle bag was empty. They continued to play hard, but after receiving the kickoff, the Dolphin pass rush and coverage left Rob Johnson will very few choices. Finally, after a particularly hard hit from Kenny Mixon, Johnson came out of the game and was replaced by Doug Flutie. Flutie also tried hard to find some miracles in his bag of tricks, but when one of his passes went through Eric Moulds' hands and wound up as Jerry Wilson's first interception of the year, the game was essentially over. Overall, this was a very good football game between two very tough, fired up teams. On this day, however, Miami was clearly the better team and got the well-deserved win. The best thing about this game was the tough, physical play of the team as a whole. Unlike last year against the Bills, the Dolphins were not out-muscled or out-fought. The went toe-to-toe against the Bills on Sunday and came out as winners. While JJ was supposedly a terrific motivator and a psychologist, it certainly seems like Dave Wannestedt is able to get more out of his people than JJ did. Especially players like Tim Bowens and Jason Taylor, who are both having career years. The offense played very well into the third quarter. The offensive line, in particular, was not manhandled by the Bills' defensive line as they were in the past. They held their own and managed to churn out 120 rushing yards against a team that has been yielding an average of 66 yards per game. The running game did a good job, for the most part, although the Dolphins were not able to run down the clock at the end. Still, against the 2nd best run defense in the league, the Dolphins picked up some hard yards. The passing game continues to be a (pardon the expression) hit-or-miss proposition. Fiedler hit two beautiful passes on the touchdown drive, but other times looked like - well, like the leader of the least productive passing attack in the league. There was one aspect of the passing game that I was pleased to see - the Dolphins threw a lot more deep passes than they have in recent games. And while they stopped throwing them towards the end of the game, they called between 8 and 10 deep passing routes. Those will become more productive as Tony Martin gets better. Also, pass blocking seemed to be working pretty well. Fiedler was only sacked once and even though he was pressured from time to time, he usually had time to throw. The defense was outstanding for almost the entire game. About the only thing that they did wrong was allow the touchdown by Sam Morris. The rest of the game they played amazing football. And it appears that the problems with the run defense have been solved by putting Jermaine Haley into the middle and moving Kenny Mixon back outside. If you take away the scrambling by quarterback Rob Johnson, the Bills running backs gained just 32 yards on 17 carries. That's a dismal 1.9 ypc. And this is without Daryl Gardener. In pass defense, the coverage was not as tight as I've seen it, but it was excellent nonetheless. In the meantime, the pass rush was as good as any pass rush I've seen in Miami. They had 6 sacks of Bills' quarterbacks during the game and all the sacks were credited to the defensive line. In other words, Miami didn't have to blitz at all to put pressure on the quarterback. Trace Armstrong, Kenny Mixon, Jason Taylor and Rich Owens accounted for all the sacks that Miami put on Rob Johnson and Doug Flutie. When you defensive line can put pressure on the quarterback without blitzing that leaves more men to cover potential receivers. On special teams, kick coverage was outstanding. The Bills only averaged 15.2 yards per kickoff return. If that wasn't enough, however, the punt coverage was even better. The Dolphins pinned the Bills inside their 20 yard line 4 times on punts, partly because of outstanding coverage by Trent Gamble and partly because of terrific punting by Matt Turk. And last, but not least, the coaching was excellent. The game plan worked very well and the players were clearly ready to play this game. The Bills' most important threats were neutralized and the Bills' tendencies were well scouted and planned for. On offense, the pass offense still continues to work only in fits and starts. Tony Martin was not 100% and it showed, but you'd think that Fiedler would have his timing down with Leslie Shepherd and Bert Emmanuel by now. This doesn't seem to be the fault of the offensive line, who are blocking well. It seems to be partly the fault of Jay Fiedler and partly the fault of his wide receivers. Whether you like this bunch of wide receivers or not, there is not one player who is a "complete" receiver on the team. None of them are dangerous enough to warrant a double-team most of the time. They all lack something and as a result, they do not make big plays when the game is on the line. This lack may eventually be a big problem. Also, while I was very pleased with the playcalling for the most part, I would like to see more toss sweeps to Autry Denson and Thurman. That outside running game doesn't seem to exist for the Dolphins. I'd like to see more outside running and I'd like Chan Gailey to be a little less conservative in the second half when the team has a lead. On defense, it's hard to find anything that they did wrong, although they did allow Sammy Morris to stiff-arm his way into the endzone. He should have been dropped for a 3 yard loss on that play, but he got around the outside of the defense. And last, I was a little disappointed with the kick returns. The Bills are at the bottom of the league in kickoff coverage and Miami couldn't take advantage of that. While I realize that Miami is without it's best return man, averaging less than 20 yards per return is not very good. Jay Fiedler continues to play about the same as he has all season. He was 14 of 24 for 142 yards, with 1 touchdown (a beautiful pass) and 1 interception. He also ran 5 times for 29 yards. Sometimes he looks terrific and other times he looks lost. I don't think we're going to see much more than that out of Fiedler this year. Lamar Smith was asked to pick up the hard yards on Sunday and he did a pretty good job, all things considered. His stats don't reflect his effort and he couldn't do much when facing 8 and 9 man fronts, but that's to be expected. He didn't turn the ball over and the Dolphins did chew up the clock. He ended the day with 24 carries for 62 yards. Deon Dyar got his first start at fullback and while he didn't touch the ball, he did some serious blocking. On one play, they focused on Deon when he laid out a Bills' linebacker. He's got a bright future, but he still needs seasoning. Autry Denson ran once for 5 yards and caught 1 pass for 3 yards. But he may have a future as a kickoff returner, having the longest return of the day for Miami, a return of 23 yards. Thurman Thomas spent much of the week talking, but on game day, the Bills were ready for him. He did do some good things, rushing 7 times for 24 yards and catching 3 passes for 26 yards, but he was hardly a real force. His more important contribution may have been in motivation his teammates. Oronde Gadsden led all receivers with 3 catches for 33 yards. He didn't do anything exceptional this week, however. The Bills were watching him closely - as they should. Leslie Shepherd caught just 2 passes on the day and one of them was for 1 yard. But the other was the 20 yard touchdown pass from Fiedler. The pass was thrown very well, but Shepherd was well covered and he made a terrific catch. As a punt returner, Shepherd ran two back for a total of 21 yards. Bert Emmanuel caught just one pass for 35 yards, but it set up Leslie Shepherds' touchdown reception. Tony Martin played sparingly and caught just one pass for 11 yards. My opinion is that Martin was partly responsible for Fiedler's only interception, because he didn't appear to make any effort to get past the defensive back and go for the ball. But his foot is still bothering him, so that had something to do with his performance. He is not back to 100% yet. Hunter Goodwin did catch one pass for 4 yards, but otherwise the tight ends, as a group, were quiet. Alonzo Mayes and Ed Perry weren't active and Jed Weaver had a pass knocked away. The offensive line did an excellent job. Richmond Webb played most of the game and was apparently feeling good. Jay Fiedler was only sacked once and that was on a rollout. They also opened some decent holes for the running attack until the Bills started crowding the line of scrimmage. They won the battle of the line of scrimmage. The only black mark against them was another holding penalty on Kevin Donnalley. On defense, Zach Thomas led the tacklers despite having ankle problems throughout the game. They re-taped his ankle 4 times during the game and he says he may have aggravated the injury in the first half. He had 7 tackles and while he may have been slowed a little, he was still playing at his usual level of excellence. Trace Armstrong had 6 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. This is while playing only about 20 plays during the course of the game. A lot of glowing reports have been written about Trace - and they're all true. He spent nearly every play he played in the Bills' backfield, "introducing" himself to Rob Johnson. Patrick Surtain had 5 solo tackles, including the most important one of the game where he knocked the ball loose from Bills' fullback Sammy Morris. His coverage was terrific for most of the game, although he did draw that questionable pass interference penalty that set up the Bills' only touchdown. Kenny Mixon also had 5 tackles, 1 sack and a batted pass. He hit Rob Johnson on many plays, including the one that ended Johnson's day. He also continued to show his run-stuffing ability, helping the defense limit Buffalo's offense. Jason Taylor had 5 tackles and a sack and continues to improve on his prospects for a big contract next year by being a great compliment to Trace Armstrong on the other side. He did get flagged for roughing the passer at one point, when he laid an arm across Rob Johnson's helmet, but I don't think that was intentional. Brian Walker had 3 tackles and while he didn't contribute any highlight moments this week, he and Brock Marion kept the Bills from completing any deep passes. Tim Bowens had 2 solo tackles, including one for a loss and stuffed the middle next to Jermaine Haley very thoroughly. Terrence Shaw had 2 solo tackles and would have had an interception, but was penalized for illegal contact before the pick. It also seemed that he was victimized 2 or 3 times by the Bills' swift receivers down the sidelines. Jermaine Haley got his first start in the NFL on Sunday as Miami tried to beef up the defensive line to stop the run. The change worked as Haley was very effective, even playing against Reuben Brown. He had 2 tackles, one of which was the safety in the third quarter. He also knocked down a pass. It was an outstanding first game. Robert Jones and Derrick Rodgers had 2 tackles each. Again, neither had any really big plays, but they did their jobs well, stopping Buffalo's running attack. Sam Madison had 2 tackles, one pass knocked down and one fumble recover - for a touchdown. He and Surtain did a terrific job on Eric Moulds and while neither got an interception, Madison's fumble recovery sealed the game for Miami. Rich Owens had 2 tackles, half a sack (with Trace) and a pass knocked down. He was an invaluable part of the defensive line rotation. Brock Marion knocked down one pass and was in on 2 tackles. Another steady performance. Jerry Wilson had 1 tackle and an interception of a Doug Flutie pass when the ball went through Eric Moulds' hands. That pick was the last gasp of the Bills. Larry Izzo and Twan Russell each had two tackles on special teams, while Scott Galyon got one before getting injured. Trent Gamble's name was called a number of times. First of all, he had 2 special teams' tackles, including nailing the Bills' punt returner for no gain at the Bills' 18. He also downed a ball at the 2 yard line and almost got another one. This kid is special. Jeff Ogden returned a short punt for 10 yards. Matt Turk started the game by shanking a punt from his own endzone, which put the Bills in scoring position immediately. He made up for his mistake later by dropping 4 punts inside the Bills' 20, including 2 inside the 5. Olindo Mare' was 2 for 2 on field goals, but his kickoffs just aren't sailing as far this year as they have in the past. Scott Galyon suffered a torn ACL and will most likely miss the remainder of the season. Mark Dixon aggravated an elbow injury and had his elbow 'scoped on Monday. He may miss the Jets game. The first part of the season ended on an up note for the Dolphins, beating their arch-rivals, the Bills, in a pretty convincing fashion in Miami. It's always a pleasure to beat the Bills. And it's even more of a pleasure when the Dolphins can do it as physically as they did. Miami was clearly the better team on Sunday. There was no doubt about it. Now the Dolphins go into the Bye week and get a chance to rest up, which they need. Daryl Gardener and OJ McDuffie may join practice next Monday and, if they are healthy enough, could play against the Jets in two weeks. But Zach Thomas and Tony Martin also need some more rest after Sunday's game, because neither is at full speed. So Miami could be pretty healthy for the Jets game, which is good because winning the Jets' game would start off the second part of the season in a very good way.
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