I suppose that I should be disappointed that the Dolphins lost this one. And I am - but only a little. This was such a great game and each team played so hard, that it's a shame that one team had to lose.

And I am disappointed that the Dolphins lost, but I'm not disappointed by their effort. They came back from a 28-0 deficit to tie the game 28-28 before they finally lost.

As the game started, the first series for each team was 3 and out. Notable was the effort by Tim Bowens, who basically stopped the first Vikings drive single-handedly. On the second play from scrimmage, Bowens stopped Terry Allen for a 3 yard loss and on the very next play, he sacked Warren Moon. Not bad for a rookie. After that point, the Vikes started paying more attention to him.

The Dolphins first series was equally uninteresting and included Marino overthrowing Keith Jackson - badly. Marino would not play very well in the first half.

The Vikings second possession started with Terry Allen breaking off left tackle and running for 45 yards down the left sideline. He followed this with a series of runs and screens that set up a Moon to Chris Carter 2 yard touchdown pass to take the early lead 7-0.

On the Dolphins next series, they went 3 and out again, with Marino missing an open Mark Ingram on 3rd down. Minnesota put together another drive from their own 33 after the punt that was mainly short passes from Moon to his receivers. Terry Allen didn't run much on this drive, except for the 9 yard touchdown run at the end of it to put the Vikings up by a score of 14-0.

The Dolphins began their third drive of the day from their 15 and move to the 34 before the 1st quarter ended, with the Vikings up 14-0. The Dolphins weren't looking good at all and the secondary, in particular, looked confused. Marino also looked tentative and kept throwing questionable passes.

The second quarter began with Marino hitting a 43 yard pass to Irving Fryar, that Fryar went of the top of the cornerback to get. However, after Byars and Ingram both dropped the same pass (it went through Byars' hands and Ingram dropped it, even though it was in his hands), and Dan overthrew Fryar badly two times, Pete Stoyanovich was called in to try a 41 yard field goal, which he missed.

The Vikings were stopped on their next series after 3 plays and punted to the Dolphins' 9, where OJ McDuffie fielded the ball and made a nice return to the 34. However, after a pass to Ingram and a couple of runs by Kirby, Dan Marino threw his first interception of the game. This one, like all the interceptions Dan would throw, was a badly thrown ball, that should not have been thrown. The ball wound up at the Vikings' 47.

The Vikings wasted no time in scoring, moving in 3 plays to the Dolphins 41 yard line and even though Coleman made a nice move to sack Warren Moon on 1st and 10, Moon came right back to hit Cris Carter on a 44 touchdown pass that left Darrell Malone in the dust and put the Vikings up 21-0.

After the kickoff, the Dolphins put together their first real drive of the half, with Marino hitting Fryar, Williams, and Byars to move from the Dolphins 23 to the Vikings 29, where Dan Marino would throw his second interception of the day. It was on a 3rd and 10 and Marino was trying to hit Parmalee down the middle, but underthrew the ball and it was picked off by Del Rio.

Minnesota again turned the turnover to their advantage, moveing back down the field on a series of short passes (and one long one) until it was second and goal at the Dolphins 9. On this play, Bowens broke free up the middle and was bearing down on Warren Moon. Moon threw the ball into the endzone just as Bowens crashed down on him. The ball came down in the back of the endzone right at Chris Green, but the Vikings' Chris Carter was able to leap over the top of Green and steal the ball from him for the touchdown. If Green had leaped for the ball, he probably would have had the interception, but he didn't and that left the Vikings with a 28-0 lead, with only a little time left in the first half.

On the kickoff, Fuad Reveiz of the Vikings hit the ball badly and the Dolphins recovered at midfield. After two quick passes to Ingram and Kirby, Marino hit OJ McDuffie right at the goal line for the Dolphins first score of the game. However, when trying to go for a 2 point conversion, Kirby was stopped and pushed backwards with his leg pinned under a Viking linebacker. He tore the ligaments of his knee and will be out for the year.

The half ended with the Vikings beating the Dolphins 28-6. Marino had not been playing well, getting only 9 completions on 21 attempts for 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. The Dolphins' running game had been non-existant and the defense had been completely vulnerable to the passing attack of Warren Moon.

In the second half, however, things would change. The Dolphins took the opening kickoff and using mainly dump passes to Byars and Parmalee, they moved down to the Vikings' 3 yard line, where Marino hit Greg Baty going out to the right for a touchdown. Marino then hit Irving Fryar for the 2 point conversion and the score was 28-14. This drive included a fourth down conversion on a 19 yard pass to Ingram.

The Vikings moved from their 26 after the kickoff to the Miami 34, but were stopped on 3rd and 5 when JB Brown knocked down a pass. The Vikings then attempted a 51 yard field goal that was no good.

The Dolphins took over possesion at their 41 and moved down to the Vikings 33, where Marino threw another bad pass that resulted in an interception. However, the Vikings could do nothing with it and after 3 and out, punted back to Miami. The Dolphins moved back down the field, using passes to Fryar and a screen to Byars, until Marino hit a wide open Keith Jackson for his third touchdown pass of the game. This drive included another 4th down conversion to Irving Fryar and at this point the Dolphins were back in the game, trailing 28-21.

At this point, Dan Marino had become the first 300 yard passer allowed by the Vikings in 40 games.

The fourth quarter started with the Vikings trying to move the ball conservatively down the field to preserve their slim lead. However, after a great defensive play by Brian Cox on 3rd and 6, the Vikings were forced to punt.

The Dolphins moved from their own 24 to the Vikings 10 yard line, helped out by a dump pass to Keith Byars, a 25 yard reception by Keith Jackson, a nice outside run by Bernie Parmalee and a pass interference call on the Vikings. Then, on 1st and 10 at the Vikings 10, Bernie Parmalee took the handoff and ran around right end to the endzone to make it a tie game at 28-28.

The Vikings wasted absolutely no time in coming back to take the lead again, using just 3 passes and three runs from their own 30 yard line to put the ball into the endzone and take a 35-28 lead. In particular, there was one very nice 31 yard run right up the middle of the Dolphins' defense.

On the ensuing kickoff, Fuad Reveiz hit the ball poorly and it bounced off of Bernie Parmalee towards Jesse Solomon. Solomon, however, couldn't quite get a handle on the ball and the Vikings recovered the kickoff. This might have been the most crucial play of the game. What should have been a disaster for the Vikings turned into the margin of victory.

The Vikings ran the ball down to the Dolphins' 34 yard line and Reveiz booted the ball through the uprights for a 10 point lead with 3:37 remaing.

The Dolphins were not done, however, and OJ McDuffie almost broke the kickoff return all the way back, returning it up the middle to the Vikings' 49 yard line. After a screen to Byars and a 34 yard pass to Fryar, the Dolphins had a first and goal at the Vikings 2 yard line. However, after Parmalee was stuffed for a one yard loss, Marino threw three incomplete passes while under pressure from the Vikings and the Dolphins were forced to turn the ball over on downs at the Vikings' 3.

Don Shula's decision to go for the touchdown on 4th and goal at the 3 yard line will be second guessed for the rest of the year, I imagine, but even the so-called "experts" of ESPN couldn't agree on what was the correct call. I'm not sure myself if it was the correct call, but to blame the entire loss on this one decision of Don Shula's is ridiculous. The Dolphins made a lot of mistakes and if this was a mistake, it was only one of many.

In any case, the Vikings were stuffed deep in their own endzone and were forced to punt from their own 8 yard line. The Dolphins took the ball at their 50 yard line and moved down to the Vikings 1 yard line on a dump pass to Byars and a 30 yard pass to Fryar. There, Byars took the ball and plunged over from the one yard line to make the score 38-35.

However, there was only one minute remaining and the Dolphins only had one timeout. Their only hope was to try the onsides kick, which they did, but the Vikings made a nice play to recover the ball. Warren Moon then kneeled down and the game was over.

As I said at the start of this summary, I felt that the Dolphins really showed a lot of heart and guts in making this game as close as it was. Considering that they were playing without Troy Vincent, Gene Atkins and Dwight Hollier, I think that they did a fine job. If you add those three into the mix, maybe you have a defense that could have stopped the Vikings just one more time than they did and the game would have been different.

Overall, this was a great game and both teams deserved to win. However, only one team can win and that was not the Dolphins. The next big test will be to see how well the Dolphins can bounce back from this disappointment when they face the Bengals this Sunday. If they don't beat the Bengals convincingly, it will probably be a long season from now on. But I don't expect that. I expect Dan and the Dolphins to come out more fired up than ever and pound the Bengals.

Curt

Curt (go cinncinati) Fennell, ABB "DOLFAN in New England" '72 Dolphins - 17-0 -- Dolphins Mailing List Subscriptions = dolphins-request@ai.mit.edu