I apologize for the delay in getting this published. My ISP was apparently having login problems all day on Tuesday, so I couldn't post the summary.
The Dolphins were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday and, as a result, had nothing to play for but pride on Monday night when they faced the Bills in Miami. However, that was enough motivation to propel the Dolphins to their first late season victory over the Bills since 1986, which was also the last year that the Dolphins swept their rivals from Buffalo.
The keys to this 16-14 win were the fact that the Dolphins were able to control the football on offense for almost 42 minutes of the game and were able to contain Thurman Thomas on defense. Thomas ended the game with only 34 yards rushing against the Dolphins.
The game began with the Bills kicking off to the Dolphins, who took the ball at their 20 after a touchback. The first 3 plays were runs by Abdul-Jabbar, who gained 14 yards. Then on 2nd and 9 from their own 34, Marino tried to hit McDuffie, but McDuffie slipped and the ball was almost intercepted at about the Dolphin 40. On the next play, Marino went to McDuffie again, this time completing an 18 pass on a crossing pattern over the middle to the Bills' 48.
On the ensuing 1st down, OJ McDuffie was penalized for holding and that negated a nice run by Abdul-Jabbar and moved the ball back to the Dolphin 42. With a 1st and 20 at their 42, Marino went deep over the middle to Drayton, who dropped the ball. However, on the very next play, Marino went right back to Drayton, who caught the pass this time for a 26 yard gain down the middle and a 1st and 10 at the Buffalo 32.
Two runs by Abdul-Jabbar netted only 1 yard and after Marino was penalized for a false-start for "bobbing his head" and drawing the Bills offsides, the Dolphins faced a 3rd and 14 at the Bills 36. Unfortunately, Pritchett dropped Marino's pass and the Dolphins were forced to punt, which sailed into the endzone for a touchback.
The Bills, starting at their 20, called 3 runs and a pass to Thurman Thomas and moved the ball out to their 36, but on 3rd and 5, a short pass to Holmes was well covered by Buckley, who forced Holmes out of bounds at the line of scrimmage, rather than letting him turn upfield and the Bills were forced to punt from their 36 to Buckley, who made a fair catch at the Dolphin 29.
On 1st and 10 from their 29, Marino passed for 16 yards to Barnett, who ran a nice comeback route. Then, an offsides penalty on the Bills, followed by 2 short runs by Abdul-Jabbar gave the Dolphins another 1st down at the Buffalo 45. From there, on 1st and 10, a Marino pass was tipped high by a Bills defender and almost caught by Robert Wilson. Then Marino hit Barnett again for 15 more yards and another 1st down at the Bills 30.
A nice 1st down run by Spikes for 11 yards was nullified by offsetting penalties on both the Bills and the Dolphins. On the next play, Abdul-Jabbar lost 2 yards to give the Dolphins a 2nd and 12, and an 8 yard pass to Drayton moved the ball to the 24, but left the Dolphins facing a 3rd and 4. However, a false start on James Brown cost the Dolphins 5 yards and moved them back to the 39.
Now facing a 3rd and 9, Marino dumped the ball off to Pritchett who ran over a Bills defenders on route to an 11 yard gain and a 1st and 10 at the Bills 18. From there, 2 more runs by Abdul-Jabbar got 3 yards and on 3rd and 7, Marino again went to Pritchett, but this time he was stopped after a 3 yard gain and, facing a 4th and 4 at the Bills 12, the Dolphins kicked a field goal and took a 3-0 lead.
The kickoff was taken by Moulds at the 4 and returned to the 27, where an incomplete pass on 1st down was followed by a holding penalty against the Bills to move the ball back to their 17 on 2nd down. However, on 2nd and 20, Kelly completed a 23 yard pass to Early for a 1st down as the 1st quarter ended.
Opening the 2nd quarter with a 1st and 10 at their 39, Kelly overthrew Tasker on 1st down and on 2nd down, Trace Armstrong came around Bills' tackle Glenn Parker and sacked Kelly for a 7 yards loss. Facing a 3rd and 17, the Bills attempted a draw to Thurman Thomas, but Tim Bowens wasn't fooled and took down Thomas after 2 yards, leaving the Bills with a 4th and 15 and forcing them to punt to OJ McDuffie, who made a fair catch at the Dolphin 27.
Abdul-Jabbar caught a short pass and then made a short run to move the ball to the 34, where Marino again hit Pritchett on 3rd down for 5 yards to give the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at their 39. Pritchett ran over 2 defenders on this play to make the first down.
After a 2 yard gain on 1st down by Abdul-Jabbar, Marino tried to hit Barnett deep down the left sideline on 2nd down, but Barnett's foot was just barely on the sideline as he caught the ball and it was ruled incomplete. After a pass to Parmalee collected only 3 yards on 3rd down, the Dolphins were forced to punt on 4th and 5 from their own 44.
Jeff Burris took the punt at the 14 and returned it to the 22. From there, the Bills ran Thomas twice for 8 yards, followed by Tindale for 4 and Thomas again for 6 more yards, leaving the Bills with a 2nd and 4 at their 41. From there, a 2nd down pass to Reed was incomplete, but a 3rd down pass to Thomas gained 14 yards and the Bills had a 1st and 10 at the Dolphin 45. Two runs by Holmes gained 8 yards, but on 3rd and 2 from the Dolphin 37, Tindale was stuffed and the Bills faced a 4th and 2 at the Dolphin 37.
The Bills elected to go for it on 4th down and Kelly dropped back to pass, looking for his tight end Lonnie Johnson in the middle of the field. However, an alert Zach Thomas darted in front of Kelly's pass and picked it off, returning it to the Bills 42 yard line. From there, Spikes ran for 2 yards, and a short pass to Drayton gained 3 more to the Bills 37, but a draw play to Parmalee on 3rd and 5 was stuffed and the Dolphins faced a 4th and 4 at the Bills' 36.
The Dolphins elected to go for it on 4th and 4 and from the shotgun, Marino dropped back and hit a well-covered McDuffie right in the middle of the field on a crossing pattern with a perfect pass at the Bills 28 for a first down. From there, Spikes was knocked down for a 3 yard loss on 1st down, but gained 8 yards on 2nd down to the 23. Unfortunately, a 3rd down pass to Barnett fell incomplete and on 4th and 5 at the 23, the Dolphins elected to kick a 41 yard field goal and lengthen their lead to 6-0.
The kickoff was returned by Moulds from the endzone to the 33 and on 1st down, with 1:53 remaining in the first half, Andre Reed was matched up man-on-man with Robert Bailey. Reed ran a deep post pattern on this play, getting a step on Bailey deep down the middle and Kelly delivered a perfect strike to Reed, who ran through Bailey's attempted tackle and raced into the endzone for a 67 yard touchdown that put the Bills up 7-6 just before the half.
After the kickoff went into the endzone for a touchback, the Dolphins started at their own 20 with about 1:30 remaining in the 1st half. However, the Dolphins decided to just run the clock down, by running Spikes on 1st down and Abdul-Jabbar on 2nd and 3rd down, gaining 11 yards out to the 31.
Once they got the 1st down at their 31, however, they apparently changed their minds and called a timeout with 20 seconds left in the half. This was a very weird series of plays, because the Dolphins squandered over a minute on 3 running plays without calling a timeout, but with 20 seconds left in the half, changed their minds and decided to try and get in range for a field goal. However, a dump pass to Abdul-Jabbar on 1st and 10 only got 10 yards and with less than 5 seconds left in the half, the Dolphins lined up for an apparent "Hail Mary" attempt. Unfortunately, Marino was sacked on the play as time ran out in the first half.
The Dolphins had controlled the ball for most of the first half, but were down by 1 point because they weren't able to get a touchdown and the Bills had completed their one big play to Andre Reed. At this point, I was contemplating going to bed and taping the rest of the game because I figured that after the sad display of clock-mismanagement at the end of the first half and the big play by Reed, that the Dolphins were on their way to another defeat. But I figured that I couldn't sleep anyway, so I stayed up and watched.
The second half opened with Nedney shanking his kickoff out of bounds, which gave the Bills a 1st and 10 at their own 40. An 11 yard pass to Lonnie Johnson moved the ball to the Dolphin 49 and after a 1 yard run by Thomas, Kelly tried to hit Reed down the right sideline. However, Shawn Wooden came over from his strong safety position and leaped high enough to tip the ball away from Reed at the last second, leaving the Bills with a 3rd and 9 at the Dolphin 49. On the next play, Kelly got the ball to Lonnie Johnson, but Wooden again made a nice play to force him out of bounds after a 3 yard gain, forcing the Bills to punt on a 4th and 6.
The punt was a touchback and the Dolphins started at their 20 with a short run by Abdul-Jabbar, followed by short passes to Abdul-Jabbar, Parmalee and Abdul-Jabbar again to move the ball out to the Dolphin 37. From there, on 2nd and 3, Pritchett got wide open in the right flat and after Marino dumped the ball off to him, he rumbled for 27 yards through down the field and through a couple of defenders down to the Bills 36. From there, on 1st down, Abdul-Jabbar made a nice 15 yard run to get the ball down to the 21.
On the next play, Abdul-Jabbar gained 2 yards and on 2nd and 8, Marino spotted Robert Wilson wide open in the left flat. Marino, however, lofted the ball a little too hard and it sailed over Wilson's head leaving the Dolphins with a 3rd and 8 from the Bills' 19. Wilson was so wide open on this play that it would have been an easy touchdown if Dan had thrown the ball a little easier.
However, on 3rd and 8, Marino did manage to find Fred Barnett at the Bills' 9 yard line for a 1st and goal. After Abdul-Jabbar slipped on 1st down and was stopped for no gain, Marino hit Drayton on 2nd down for 2 yards, leaving the Dolphins with a 3rd and goal at the 7. On 3rd down, Marino hit Drayton at the 3, but Drayton was dragged down at the 1 yard line, leaving the Dolphins with a 4th and goal at the Bills' 1. After thinking it over and taking a timeout, the Dolphins elected to kick a field goal, giving them a 9-7 lead.
The Dolphins' ensuing kickoff sailed to the 10, where it was taken by Copeland, who returned it to the Bills' 25. From there, Kelly hit Reed on a 16 yard quick out pattern on first down to the 41. After a short run by Thomas and a 13 yard catch by Thomas, the Bills then had a 1st and 10 at the Dolphins 45 yard line. On the next play, Kelly tried to hit Quinn Early down the left sideline, but the ball was underthrown and as Early attempted to come back to the ball, he got tangled up with Calvin Jackson. Unfortunately, Jackson was flagged for interference on the play which gave the Bills a 1st and goal at the Dolphins' 3.
The Bills then tried to run Thurman Thomas up the middle twice, but in both cases, Dwight Hollier sniffed out the plays, made the correct adjustments and filled the holes, stopping Thomas for no gain twice in a row. Facing a third and goal from the 3, Kelly tried to hit Tasker on the quick slant over the middle, but pressure from the Dolphins made him pass quicker than he wanted to and the ball was thrown too far ahead of Tasker for him to make the catch and it fell incomplete, leaving the Bills with a 4th and goal. They then decided to attempt a field goal from the 3, but a high snap was just barely handled by Chris Mohr, the holder and that caused Christie to hit the ball badly and it bounced off the right upright, leaving the score 9-7 in favor of the Dolphins.
The Dolphins took over at their own 20, but two runs by Abdul-Jabbar and Pritchett could only get 4 yards and on 3rd and 6, Marino was sacked by Phil Hansen when the blitz was not properly picked up, leaving the Dolphins with a 4th and 16 from their 15 and forcing them to punt.
The punt was downed at the Bills' 26 and after an end-around by Steve Tasker only gained 3 yards, Kelly missed two consecutive passes, leaving the Bills with a 4th and 7 from their 29 and forcing them to punt to OJ McDuffie, who made a fair catch at the Dolphin 31. After Marino's first down pass hit a Bill's blitzing linebacker in the helmet, and Pritchett dropped a pass on 2nd and 10, Marino found Fred Barnett for 20 yards on 3rd down to give the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at the Bill's 49 as the 3rd quarter ended.
The 4th quarter started with a short pass to Pritchett being called back when Webb was penalized for illegal hands to the face. This gave the Dolphins a 1st and 20 at their 41 and a run by Spikes on 1st down only gained 3 yards, leaving the Dolphins with a 2nd and 17. However, on the next play, Marino saw the blitz coming and checked off into a draw play to Irving Spikes, who went through a gaping hole in the center of the line and scrambled for 39 yards to the Buffalo 17.
From the 17, Spikes ran for 3 yards on 1st down on 2nd down Marino avoided the rush and made a great pass to McDuffie, who made a one-handed catch at the Bills' 7 for a 1st and goal. After Abdul-Jabbar could only gain 2 yards on 1st down and a 2nd down pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage, Marino dropped back to pass on 3rd down and goal from the 5. He threw a bullet straight into the middle of the field to OJ McDuffie, who had run a quick crossing pattern to the goal line and who grabbed the ball in full stride for a touchdown and a 16-7 Miami lead.
The kickoff by Nedney was returned by Moulds to the Bills 23 and after an 11 yard pass to Reed and a 7 yard screen pass to Thomas, Thomas ran for 5 more yards to give the Bills a 1st and 10 at the Buffalo 49. On the next play, Buckley slipped while trying to cover Reed and recovered just enough to knock Reed off his feet as the ball sailed over his head. Buckley was penalized for an illegal chuck on the play, but he may have saved a touchdown by not allowing Reed to get to the ball.
The Bills now had a 1st and 10 at the Dolphins' 45 and after an incompletion and an 8 yards pass to Reed, the Bills faced a 3rd and 2 at the 37. On third down, however, Kelly underthrew Tasker and faced with a 4th and 2, the Bills elected to go for it. However, on 4th down, Shane Burton came untouched from the left side of the Dolphins line and Kelly was forced to throw the ball away, giving the ball back to the Dolphins on downs.
With 9:09 remaining, the Dolphins had a 1st and 10 at their 37, but a holding penalty on 1st down moved the ball back to the 27 and on 1st and 20, Abdul-Jabbar ran for 6 yards. Then, 2 more runs by Abdul-Jabbar and a 15 yard intentional facemask penalty on Buffalo moved the ball out to the Buffalo 48. A 2 yard run by Abdul-Jabbar on first down was followed by an incompletion aimed at OJ McDuffie on 2nd down. Facing a 3rd and 8 at the Buffalo 46, Marino hit Barnett for 7 yards to the 39, but it wasn't enough for the 1st down. The Dolphins elected to go for it on 4th down and 1, but couldn't get the yard as Abdul-Jabbar was stopped for no gain at the Buffalo 30.
With 6:07 remaining and the score 16-7, the Bills took over at their 39 and hit Reed for 6 yards and then, after an incompletion, hit Tasker for 11 yards to the Dolphin 45. A 20 yard completion to Reed moved the ball to the Dolphin 25 and then a 9 yard dump pass to Thurman Thomas took it down to the Dolphin 16, where the Bills had a 2nd and 1. From there, Kelly dropped back into the pocket and hit Moulds as he crossed the field in the endzone on the out pattern for a touchdown, which closed the score to 16-14.
Now, there was just 4:09 remaining in the game as the Bills kicked off into the endzone for a touchback. The Dolphins started at their 20 with a 2 yard run by Abdul-Jabbar. Then, on 2nd down, Marino hit McDuffie at the 25 and McDuffie was stripped of the ball by Buffalo. However, McDuffie managed to get back to the ball and fall on it. The referees called the ball down at the 25, saying that McDuffie was down when the ball came out. It should have been ruled a fumble, but if it had been ruled a fumble, McDuffie had recovered it anyway and the Dolphins would have kept the ball.
At this point, the Dolphins were in a precarious situation. They faced a 3rd and 5 at their own 25 with about 3 minutes left to play. If they didn't get the first down, the Bills would have gotten the ball back with plenty of time and 2 timeouts remaining. However, on 3rd and 5, Marino dropped back and tossed the ball down the right sideline to Randal Hill, who had gotten behind his man. Hill gathered in the ball for a 25 yard gain, giving the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at the 50, with under 3 minutes remaining.
At this point, the Dolphins ran Abdul-Jabbar on 1st down for 5 yards and on 2nd and 5, ran an end-around to OJ McDuffie for 7 yards and another 1st down at the Buffalo 38. On these 2 plays, the Bills used up their last 2 timeouts. The Dolphins ran Abdul-Jabbar on the next play for 2 yards to the Bills 36 as the 2 minute warning sounded.
The Dolphins then ran Spikes for no gain on 2nd and 8, but he was able to pick up 5 yards on 3rd and 8, leaving the Dolphins with a 4th and 3 at the 31. The Dolphins elected to try and run the ball on 4th down instead of punting, but Irving Spikes couldn't leap quite far enough over the line to make the 1st down and with just 26 seconds left on the clock, the Dolphins turned the ball over on downs to the Bills.
The Bills lined up on their 29 for one more desperation attempt, but on 1st and 10, the Dolphins came with just a 3 man rush. However, it was enough as Trace Armstrong sacked Jim Kelly on 1st down for a 10 yard loss. The Bills lined up for one last play, but again the pressure from the Dolphins' 3 man rush was too much and Kelly was sacked again, this time by Daniel Stubbs and he fumbled the ball, which was picked up by Norman Hand. Hand ran back a few yards before being tackled and the game ended with the Dolphins preserving the 16-14 victory.
When all was said and done, the Dolphins had controlled the ball for almost 42 minutes of the game. They had managed to get 2 turnovers, and had given up none. The only disappointment of the game was the way in which the Dolphins were unable to get touchdowns, despite all that ball control.
Still, it was the first time in 10 years that the Dolphins had beaten the Bills in the second half of the year and the same amount of time since the Dolphins had swept the Bills. And after the dismal performances of the last 3 weeks, it was a very important win for the team going into the off-season.
Most of what the Dolphins did last night was very good. The played hard, never gave up, didn't turn the ball over and didn't make too many mistakes. It was a nice recovery from the problems of the past few weeks.
On the offense, the Dolphins emphasized the run more in this game and, while inconsistent, it paid off in the end. They ended up with 145 yards rushing and that helped them to control the ball, which was a big factor in the team's success. This was the 7th game of the season where the Dolphins had run the ball as many or more times than they had passed the ball. Not coincidentally, the Dolphins are 6-1 in those seven games. Last year the Dolphins only had 3 games where they ran the ball as many or more times as they passed.
Also on offense, Marino completed 70% of his passes and they finally got Troy Drayton more involved in the offense. Drayton, Barnett and McDuffie each caught 5 passes, while Abdul-Jabbar and Pritchett caught 4 apiece. This shows that Marino was spreading the ball around well, using all his receivers.
On defense, the Dolphins contained Thurman Thomas well enough to limit him to 34 yards rushing, and that helped to force the Bills to throw the ball. The Dolphins also limited the Bills to 3 of 10 on third down conversions and didn't allow a 4th down conversion. The Dolphins also managed to put enough pressure on Kelly to force him into some bad throws and sacked him three times.
On special teams, John Kidd continues to punt well, averaging 46 yards per punt and Joe Nedney didn't miss a field goal attempt during the game, making all three.
The Dolphins were still plagued by penalties, incurring 8 for 92 yards and giving up 2 first downs this way. The offensive line was again responsible for a number of silly penalties that caused the offense problems and stopped or shortened drives.
Also, while the Dolphins moved the ball pretty well between the 20s, they only managed one offensive touchdown for the 5th game in a row. While they still won this game, that kind of performance won't be acceptable every week.
The Dolphins still have trouble with pass coverage, as was shown when Andre Reed got matched up one-on-one with Robert Bailey. Not only did that show a problem with the talent level, but also showed a weakness in the defensive alignment, since the opponents' best receiver should never be matched against the Dolphins' nickel back in a one-on-one situation.
And, of course, the Dolphins play-calling at the end of the first half was enough to give everyone fits, with JJ electing to run the ball 3 times in a row instead of trying to move the ball down the field for a score. That wouldn't have been so bad, but JJ then changed his mind with only 20 seconds remaining on the clock and tried to score. By then, of course, it was too late. JJ needs to make up his mind one way or the other.
Overall, there were a lot of excellent performances in this game and I was generally impressed with the level of play this week, for a change.
Dan Marino hit 70% of his passes and didn't throw an interception, going 26 of 37 for 263 yards, with 1 touchdown and no interceptions. He also evaded a couple of sacks and made some great throws. It was nice to see him back on track.
Karim Abdul-Jabbar had 76 yards rushing on 27 carries, for only a 2.8 yard/carry average, but he was running against one of the better defenses in the league and he fought for every yard. He also caught 4 passes for 23 yards and didn't drop a pass this week.
Irving Spikes had 10 carries for 58 yards, but most of that was on his 39 yard run on 2nd and 17. That turned out to be a very important run, because it helped set up the Dolphins' only touchdown.
Stanley Pritchett caught 4 passes for 47 yards and made two key third down conversions by running over Bills' defenders. He did have one drop, however.
Fred Barnett, Troy Drayton and OJ McDuffie each caught 5 passes this week for 68, 47 and 43 yards respectively and McDuffie had the only touchdown reception of the game for the Dolphins. Drayton did drop one, but came right back and caught a 24 yard pass on the next play. It was very nice to finally see Drayton get more involved with the offense. McDuffie also had that nice end-around run late in the game for a key first down.
The offensive line played pretty well, limiting Bruce Smith and the Bills' defensive line to 2 sacks, but they still had a number of cheesy penalties, like false starts and holding that pushed the offense back several times.
Also, Jeff Buckey played a number of downs at right guard in place of Everett McIver, who was the designated starter.
Trace Armstrong continued his strong showing of the last few weeks, getting 2 more sacks in this game. He now leads the team with 10 sacks on the season.
Daniel Stubbs also got a sack on the last play of the game, forcing a fumble.
Bowens and Emtman each had 2 tackles, Gardener added 1 and Norman Hand recovered a fumble as the interior defensive linemen did a pretty good job of closing the middle and collapsing the pocket on Kelly.
Zach Thomas tied for the team lead in tackles (big surprise, I know...) with 4 and had the Dolphins' only interception of the game, which included a nice 27 yard runback.
Anthony Harris played well in place of Singleton, getting 3 tackles.
Dwight Hollier had a particularly good game, getting 4 tackles, including 2 impressive stops on Thurman Thomas in the Dolphins' goal line stand in the 3rd quarter.
Shawn Wooden also had a good game, getting three tackles and knocking a ball away from Andre Reed.
Terrell Buckley had 4 solo tackles and 2 passes defensed, but was beaten by Eric Moulds for the touchdown late in the 4th quarter.
Calvin Jackson had only 1 tackle and a costly pass interference call against him in the 3rd quarter that put the ball on the Dolphin 3.
John Kidd continues to punt well, averaging 46 yards per punt and Joe Nedney made all of his field goals, but knocked one of his kickoffs out of bounds.
There were no significant injuries that I'm aware of in this game.
I said at the beginning of the season that I'd consider this a successful season if the Dolphins beat the Buffalo Bills twice this year, regardless of whether or not the Dolphins made the playoffs. Well, with a win on Monday night, the Dolphins went a long way towards removing the Bills curse of the past few years and re-establishing themselves as a championship team.
This was a close game that was one play away from going either way, but the fact that the Dolphins didn't choke at the end and fought hard all the way down the stretch was particularly welcome to see, especially against the Bills.
Obviously, the Dolphins have a lot of work to do in the off-season, but this win will set them on the right path to start getting ready for next season.