Dec 14, 1997: -- Colts Crush Lphins 41-0 --

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The Lphins (No "D" and no "O") decided to take this weekend off and, with the possible exception of Zach Thomas, didn't show up in Indianapolis as the Colts destroyed the Dolphins 41-0. This loss, combined with the Jets' victory over the Buccaneers, leaves the Jets, Patriots and Dolphins all tied at 9-6 for the lead in the AFC East.

The result is that the winner of the Patriots/Dolphins game next weekend will win the AFC East. If the Jets beat Detroit next Sunday in Detroit, they will be a wildcard team in the playoffs and the loser of the Patriots/Dolphins game on Monday night will be out of the playoffs. If the Jets lose to Detroit next Monday, then the loser of the Dolphins/Patriots game will be the last wildcard and will play the winner at the winner's home field the following week.

The Dolphins started this game trying to run the ball and having some success. They started Roosevelt Potts at fullback and on the first series, ran Abdul-Jabbar 4 times. The moved from their 19 to their 43, but on 3rd and 2 couldn't convert and faced a 4th and 1. Apparently, at this point, the Dolphins called a fake punt, but Bernie Parmalee didn't catch the signal or missed the snap count. The ball was snapped directly to Parmalee, but he wasn't ready for it and the ball bounced off his chest on to the turf. The ball was recovered by the Colts at the Dolphins' 42 and that one play set the tone for the rest of the game.

The defense did a fairly good job on this series as the Colts drove down to the Dolphins' 1, but on 3rd and goal from the 1, Zach Thomas got into the backfield and took down Zack Crockett for a 2 yard loss that forced the Colts to accept a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

From there on, however, nothing went right. The Dolphins completely abandoned the run on their second series and a combination of mistakes caused them to go 3 and out. They punted to the Colts who put together a long drive that ran through the end of the first quarter and into the second quarter before the Colts scored a touchdown and got a 10-0 lead on a short pass to Marshal Faulk, in which Faulk was completely uncovered.

In the second quarter, the Colts would score 31 points to open a 34-0 lead at the half. Dan Marino fumbled twice deep in his own end of the field and the Colts turned those miscues into 10 points. One time, Dan just lost control of the ball as he was trying to keep from throwing and the other time he was sacked. The other 21 points came on Colts' drives that highlighted the Miami defense's inability to cover any of the receivers in this game. Colts' tight end Ken Dilger had 3 touchdown catches and on all three, he was so open that no Dolphin player was in the picture.

The Dolphins were getting a little pressure on Harbaugh and forcing him to scramble, but either mistakes in the secondary or poor defensive play calling found a lot of receivers wide open. The Dolphins' starting secondary was Tim Jacobs at right corner, Calvin Jackson at free safety, Shawn Wooden at strong safety and Terrell Buckley at left corner. A lot of combinations were tried, but none did the trick.

In the second half, the coaches decided that they would not even try to win this game. After the defense did it's job by stopping the Colts on the first series and then forcing a fumble deep in the Colts' territory when Jason Taylor sacked Jim Harbaugh and caused a fumble, the Dolphins took over at the Colt 37. However, on this drive, instead of trying to score quickly, the Dolphins called 7 running plays in a row and ended up turning the ball over on downs at the Colts' 8 yard line.

After that abortive drive, the Dolphins abandoned all pretense of trying to win and pulled Marino, having him sit out the rest of the game. Craig Erickson played the final quarter and a half, completing 5 of 10 passes for 44 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

Despite the coaches conceding defeat, the defense played fairly well in the second half, and only gave up a late touchdown that had no meaning when it became clear that there was nothing left to play for.

As if the defeat wasn't humiliating enough, on one of the last plays of the game, defensive back Calvin Jackson injured his neck and had to be carried off the field strapped to a backboard. He was taken to a local hospital and as of this writing, there was no word on him. However, he was reported to have feeling and movement in his arms and legs when he left the field, so at least he's not paralyzed.

This is the worst defeat that the Dolphins have suffered since 1968, when they lost 48-3 at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs. It's also the first time that the Dolphins have been shut out of a game since 1987.

The reason for this defeat is actually quite simple. For reasons that are not clear, the Dolphins were not motivated for this game. In every phase of the game, they played poorly and without emotion. Only Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas seemed to have any serious emotion and coincidentally, they were the only two players who made any big plays in this game for the Dolphins.

It was a total defeat. Offense, defense, special teams and coaching were all terrible. Everyone gets an F for their performance this week, except maybe the run defense, which did manage to limit Marshall Faulk to 67 yards on 20 carries for a 3.4 yard per carry average. They only get a D-.

My Comments:

I'm aghast at this performance. How do you explain something as bad as this? No one in their worst nightmare could have predicted this pathetic outing.

And the irony of it all is that the Dolphins can still win the AFC East with a victory over the Patriots next week on Monday night.

There will be no formal analysis of this game by me this week. This is one of those games best left behind us all. The Dolphins did virtually nothing worth analyzing, in any case, and it does no good to go over it.

In brief, however, here are some thoughts to chew on - they stunk.

On offense, the offensive line was abused all afternoon by the Colts' defensive front. It got so bad that a three man rush by the Colts sacked Marino at the end of the first half. The Dolphins' running game was pathetic, gaining 76 yards on 27 carries for a 2.8 yard per carry average.

Lawrence Phillips played between 15 and 20 plays today and got a chance to show his stuff. However, he ended the day with 13 carries for only 36 yards, which is a paltry 2.8 yards per carry. Plus he was stuffed in several crucial situations, especially on 3rd and 1 from the Colts' 4 yard line when he was smothered for a 4 yard loss. That was the last chance the Dolphins had to get into the game.

Abdul-Jabbar got 8 carries for 27 yards and McPhail got 3 for 10 yards.

Marino was 7 of 15 for 71 yards and no scores. He also fumbled twice, one of which was because he hit his own thigh pad with the ball while trying to recover from a pump-fake. Erickson wasn't any better.

The Dolphins' best receiver was Brett Perriman, who had 2 receptions for a blistering 26 yards. McDuffie was about the same and nobody else had more than one reception for longer than 16 yards.

On defense, the defensive line did a fair job against the run and got some pressure on Harbaugh in passing situations. As a unit, they were not too bad, but compared to the 5 sack performance they got in the first game against the Colts, they were not as good in rushing the passer. They actually did a better job against the run for most of the game, but late in the 4th quarter, they gave up.

Zach Thomas led all defenders with 9 tackles and 2 assists and saved a touchdown in the first quarter when he tackled Crockett for a loss at the 3.

Jason Taylor had 4 tackles and the Dolphins' only sack and was after Harbaugh all game.

The rest of the defense was appallingly bad. The Dolphins defense got called for 4 offsides penalties before I stopped counting. On all 4 touchdown passes, the receivers was so wide open that there was no defenders with 5 yards of them. In all 3 of Dilgers' touchdown catches, there wasn't even a defender in the picture. I don't know if that was a screwup in coverage or in play calling, but it was horrible.

On special teams, the fake punt was a disaster. The kickoff returns were poor and McDuffie's one punt return was very short. The only thing good about the special teams was Kidd's punting, which averaged 47 yards.

And last, but not least, the coaching was as bad as I've seen it. They were running the ball when they should have been passing and they were passing the ball when they should have been running. The coaches gave up any hope of catching up in the 3rd quarter when they ran the ball 7 times in a row on the Dolphins' first possession of the 2nd half. With a playoff spot on the line, they folded their tents and called it quits.

As a fan, this game was as embarrassing a loss as I've suffered through in years.

Well, the season is still in the hands of the team. With the kind of weird season that it's been, the Dolphins still have one last chance to redeem themselves and put all the mistakes behind them. Fortunately, the Patriots lost yesterday when they came apart at the end of the game, so they'll be in exactly the same boat as the Dolphins will be in.

What a season ....

Related Info:

• NFL.COM: Gamebook