OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins played what was perhaps their most mistake-ridden, lackluster game of the year on Monday night against the Chicago Bears. They gave up 4 sacks, committed 3 turnovers and were called for 13 penalties in a game that they should have been able to win. In post-game film study, JJ and his staff determined that the Dolphins' offensive line made 24 mistakes in assignments during the game and that is only the offensive line.

All the sloppy play, the penalties and the missed assignments contributed to the Dolphins' 36-33 overtime loss. The fundamental cause of the letdown is unclear, but it seems to have been a combination of the delay in the game due to the World Series and a preoccupation with the following week's game against the Bills.

If you add in the fact of a fired-up Bears team that had nothing to lose in trying to get it's first win of the season, the Dolphins were outplayed on Monday night and deserved to lose this game.

Nevertheless, despite all the poor play, the Dolphins were in the game all the way through to the end. In fact, they went ahead 33-18 in the 4th quarter, despite all the mistakes and screw-ups. So there are a few good things that the Dolphins can take away from this game.

In the first half, the Dolphins played sloppy football, allowing 2 of their 4 sacks and getting 8 of their 13 penalties. Both sacks resulted in fumbles and one lead indirectly to a Bears' touchdown, while the other resulted in a safety. However, the Dolphins did get a 71 yard run for a touchdown out of Jerris McPhail and they moved the ball smartly down the field on another drive that also ended in a Jerris McPhail touchdown.

In the second half, the Dolphins came out hot and outscored the Bears 20-3 to take a 33-18 lead into the 4th quarter. Secure in the knowledge that they had the game "won", the Dolphins' defense began to relax. The defensive backs loosened their coverage and began gambling in the wrong places. As a result of the sloppy defensive play and the inability of the offense to put together a decent drive in the last 6 minutes of the game, the Bears got 2 touchdowns and a two point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime.

In overtime, the offense sputtered and died on their first possession and even though the defense held the Bears on their first possession, the offense turned right around and gave up a sack on their next possession that resulted in a fumble at the Dolphins' 17. From there, it was an easy field goal to give the bears a victory.

Overall, it was one of the worst letdowns of any Dolphins' team that I have ever seen. As JJ has pointed out, the team isn't good enough to survive so many mistakes. Concentration and a focus on the game at hand are necessary ingredients for the Dolphins to win. They were without that focus on Monday night.

GRADES:

I don't think that there's any question that the Dolphins get an overall grade of F for their performance on Monday. Some of the players played well, but way too many didn't play well. They let their guard down, worried about other things and lost their concentration. This is fixable, but it had better be fixed immediately.

QUARTERBACK: Marino played well for most of the game, especially considering the pressure he was under from the Bears' defense. However, he made a mistake on the throw for an interception and was unable to hold on to the ball when he was sacked. If he drops the ball once, that would have been understandable, but the last fumble might have been avoided if he had pulled the ball in and hung on. GRADE: C+

RUNNING BACKS: Parmalee, Spikes, Abdul-Jabbar, Dotson and McPhail all saw time in the backfield for the Dolphins. McPhail was easily the star of the running backs, getting 2 touchdowns and making one of the most memorable runs in many years for when he went 71 yards for a touchdown. His speed is very special.

Also, 3 of the 4 offensive touchdowns scored by the Dolphins were from running backs.

However, missed blocks and a few dropped passes - especially an easy one by Parmalee in overtime - really put a damper on an otherwise good performance. GRADE: C+

RECEIVERS: The receivers had a pretty good night, catching the ball pretty well and making a number of difficult plays. Also, their downfield blocking made important contributions in several cases. On the other hand, except for McDuffie, they had trouble getting open and seemed to be unwilling to fight for the ball. GRADE: C

OFFENSIVE LINE: About as pathetic a performance as I've ever seen, especially considering the level of talent and their other performances this year. 4 sacks on Marino, plus 24 breakdowns in blocking assignments and a whole host of false start and holding penalties. GRADE: F

DEFENSIVE LINE: Not great, not terrible. Without Danny Stubbs and Jason Taylor, they lack a pass rushing threat. They got better as the game progressed, as they usually do, but were unable to generate a consistent pass rush. In run defense, they were not able to contain the Bears' line as much as they should have. GRADE: C-

LINEBACKERS: A pretty bad outing for the linebackers. Zach Thomas had his hands on two Kramer passes and one should have been an interception, but he couldn't hold on. The Bears ended with 129 rushing yards on 37 carries for a 3.5 yard/carry average. Worst of all, though, was the coverage of the tight ends and running backs. Bears' tight ends and backs caught 12 passes for 107 yards. GRADE: D+

DEFENSIVE BACKS: Other than George Teague's forced fumble and Terrell Buckley's return for a touchdown, the defensive backs looked awful. Corey Harris, Teague, Tim Jacobs and Wooden were all grossly out of position on at least one big play each that resulted in points or big gains. Calvin Jackson didn't get burned for a touchdown only because Kramer overthrew Chris Penn - the touchdown immediately after that was actually Teague's fault. They stopped playing hard in the 4th quarter. GRADE: F

KICKING: Both Kidd and Mare' did a good job, putting the ball deep. Mare' had 3 touchbacks in 7 kicks and Kidd averaged 50.3 yards per punt. GRADE: B+

KICK COVERAGE: It could have been better, but it wasn't terrible. The Bears average starting point was their own 33 yardline. That's not great, but if you factor in the 2 fumble recoveries inside the Miami 20, the average start line moved back to the Bears' 26. GRADE: C+

COACHING: The play calling was pretty miserable. They passed too much and probably should have run the ball more, especially early in the game. Some of the calls late in the game were questionable, also, but that's not the real problem. The real problem was that JJ allowed the team to lose their focus. He either couldn't or didn't keep them concentrating on the game at hand.

While it isn't all his fault, if he wants to take most of the credit (which I think he does) and if he wants total control (which he demands), then he must take most of the blame when the team is emotionally unprepared to play a game like this. GRADE: F

GOOD STUFF:

Believe it or not, there was some good stuff to think about. First of all, after all the problems that the Dolphins had scoring earlier in the year, it's important to remember that the Dolphins scored 5 touchdowns in this game. Four were offensive touchdowns and one was on Buckley's fumble return. That's a decent scoring output.

Also, Brett Perriman showed up and played a prominent role. He's no OJ McDuffie, but he could easily challenge Lamar Thomas for a starting role and towards the end of this game, he was trading off with Thomas as the 2nd wide receiver.

And the emergence of Jerris McPhail as a legitimate threat can not be overlooked. Between his 71 yard touchdown sprint through the middle of the Bears' defense and his very nice 10 yard touchdown run after a short Marino pass, McPhail appears to have finally become a contributing member of the offense.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

Confidence and concentration. The Dolphins must keep their spirits up and put this game behind them, but not forget it's lesson. I remember back in the 1994 season, the 49ers were destroyed 44-10 by the Eagles. The 49ers came back after that game and didn't lose another game all year, eventually winning the SuperBowl.

This is an example of what can be accomplished if the team takes the right attitude towards this loss. While I don't think that concentration will be a problem with Buffalo coming up, I do think that they must retain their confidence and not let this loss ruin their knowledge that they are winners.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Marino was 18 of 39 for 274 yards, with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. He also fumbled 3 times while being sacked. While I don't think that it's fair to blame him for being sacked, I think that he should have been able to hold on to the ball better.

Jerris McPhail exploded onto the scene with a 71 yard touchdown run that was just pure speed through the middle of the Bear defense. But perhaps even more impressive was his 10 yard touchdown reception where he dodged the first tackler by ducking under his arms and then ran through 2 more tacklers to get to the endzone. It was a 1 yard catch, followed by a 9 yard run. He ended up with just 2 carries for 77 yards, 2 catches for 19 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Karim Abdul-Jabbar didn't start because he missed two days of practice while his child was being born. He got into the game in the 2nd half and showed some of the moves that he put on last week getting to 100 yards. However, when all was said and done, the Dolphins didn't run the ball much and he ended the day with 11 carries for 38 yards.

Irving Spikes did start. However, he had 2 carries for 4 yards and didn't catch a pass. He did drop one, however.

Bernie Parmalee caught 2 passes for 16 yards, but dropped an easy pass in overtime that would have been a first down. He also ran once on the draw for no gain.

The big receiver was again OJ McDuffie, catching 7 passes for 137 yards, including a 55 yard reception. He also converted 5 of those passes for 1st downs. And he leveled a defensive back with a downfield block that helped spring Drayton on his touchdown reception. However, late in the game, McDuffie dropped a pass that was in his hands on the last Dolphins' drive of the 4th quarter.

Brett Perriman played well enough to catch 3 passes for 52 yards and split time with Lamar Thomas as the starter opposite OJ McDuffie.

Troy Drayton caught 2 passes for 29 yards and a touchdown. On his touchdown catch, he shrugged off a Bear defensive back who was trying to tackle him, looking like Larry Czonka breaking a tackle. That man needs to get the ball more.

Charles Jordan had only one catch for 13 yards, but it was a nice grab of the ball away from a Bears' defensive back.

Lamar Thomas was held without a reception.

On the offensive line, Tim Ruddy had 3 holding penalties, while Buckey, McIver, and Brown each had one false start and Richmond Webb had 2 false starts. Not a great day for the offensive line.

On the defense, Shane Burton started in place of Jason Taylor at right defensive end, getting 1 tackle, 3 assists and batting down 2 passes.

Tim Bowens was an animal, totaling 8 tackles and splitting a sack with Darryl Gardener. Most of his tackles were within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage and 2 were for losses.

Gardener got 4 total tackles and half a sack.

Trace Armstrong played well again, ending the day with 1 tackle and 5 assists, plus a fumble recovery when Kramer fumbled the snap. 3 of the tackles that Armstrong was involved in were for a loss or no gain.

Barron Tanner got some playing time also, getting 1 tackle and 1 assist.

Zach Thomas had 4 tackles and 8 assists, including 2 passes defensed. However, he should have had an interception on one of the passes that was right in his hands.

Derrick Rodgers had only 3 tackles and 2 assists, plus one pass defensed.

Anthony Harris had 7 tackles and 1 assist.

And Dwight Hollier got some playing time, mostly to help stop Raymont Harris. He got 1 tackle, 3 assists and 2 special teams tackles.

George Teague had 5 tackles, 6 assists and forced a fumble that Terrell Buckley ran back for a touchdown. However, he also broke coverage on the touchdown pass to Chris Penn. This was the play that was the same play twice in a row that Calvin Jackson broke coverage on the first time.

Shawn Wooden has 2 tackles and 4 assists, but he also broke coverage on the 54 yard pass to Curtis Conway that set up a Bears touchdown.

Terrell Buckley had 4 tackles and 1 fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Calvin Jackson had 6 tackles, 1 assist and 1 pass defensed.

Corey Harris had 1 tackle and 1 assist. He also failed to cover Bobby Engram adequately when the Bears made the 2 point conversion that tied the game.

Tim Jacobs had 2 tackles and 1 assist, but was roasted a couple of times from the nickel back position.

John Kidd punted 6 times for a 50.3 yard average and put 2 inside the Bears' 20 yard line. I'm glad he's back.

Olindo Mare' had 7 kickoffs and put 3 of those into the endzone for touchbacks.

INJURIES:

Shawn Wooden was shaken up on one play, but returned after sitting out for one snap. There were no other injuries of note.

My Comments:

I can't begin to tell you all how glad I am that this game is over. It was torture to sit through. But I'm sure that that's nothing compared to the torture that the players went through, having to play it.

To let a chance like that slip away against an admittedly underrated but still poor Bears team is a travesty. It's embarrassing and it must humiliate all the players and the coaches. It was the worst defeat imaginable.

But it's over now and there are two ways that the Dolphins can respond to this defeat. They can hang their heads, cry in their beer and let the rest of the season slip away while they wring their hands....

OR they can circle the wagons, pull themselves together and resolve to not let it happen again.

In other words, it's gut-check time.

Time for each man on the team to reach down into their gut and see what they're made of. If they rise to this challenge and meet it, that will go a long way towards putting this team in the playoffs. And if that happens, then this defeat will actually end up being the catalyst that drove them on to better things.

If they don't rise to the challenge - well, let's just say that it will be a long 8 weeks until the end of the year.

But more than that, it may permanently damage the fiber of this team. It may leave a wound that will take a long time to heal.

So here we are at the halfway point, on the brink of either disaster or greatness for this team. Ordinarily, I don't like hyperbole, but I really believe that this Bears' game will be the cusp on which the rest of the season will turn. At the end of the year, we'll probably all look back and say "Yes, that was the turning point".

With 4 consecutive games coming up against AFC East opponents, the team is entering the most critical phase of their season. They are still tied for 1st place with New England and the Jets and have to have both of the those teams in the next 4 weeks, not to mention 2 games against their most intense rivals, the Buffalo Bills.

There is reason for optimism - all the pieces are in place. The Dolphins have demonstrated a running game, a passing game, good defense and excellent special teams. Now is the time for them to come together and propel this team on to become more than just the sum of it's parts.

It will take 8 weeks for us all to know the outcome of the season, but right now is the most critical time of the year. Let's hope that JJ and Dan can lead this team to the next level, because this is the time to do it.

Now is the time for success.

Related Info:

• NFL.COM: Dolphins vs Bears Gamebook
• Dolphins Endzone: Post Game Report
• HeraldLink: Dolphins lost but found Stealth RB
• HeraldLink: Secondary primarily to blame
• HeraldLink: Team won't dwell on defeat
• Sun-Sentinel: Tarnished nickel defense likely to be shuffled
• Sun-Sentinel: Johnson says mistakes unbearable
• Sun-Sentinel: Turnovers take opposite turn
• Sun-Sentinel: Q&A; With JJ