The Dlphins (no "O"), lost a tough game yesterday to the Jets by the score of 20-3 in Miami. The story of the game was simple enough - while the Miami defense did a good job containing the Jets' offense, the Miami offense couldn't move the ball at all and turned the ball over to the Jets in the worst possible circumstances.

Whatever chance the Dolphins had to beat the Jets yesterday was lost on the first offensive series of the game, when quarterback Jay Fiedler was tackled hard and suffered a pinched nerve in his throwing shoulder. That injury forced Fiedler out of the game and dealt a major blow to Miami's offense, which never got their act together under backup quarterback Damon Huard.

But the disasters for Miami didn't stop at losing Jay Fiedler. Several plays after Fiedler was lost, running back Lamar Smith pulled up lame with a hamstring problem and was also lost for most of the game.

Without Fiedler or Smith, Miami's offense could not run or pass effectively and made New York's average defense look like world beaters. Damon Huard had one of the worst games I've ever seen him play in relief of Jay Fiedler, throwing 3 interceptions, 2 of which were deep in Miami territory . Those two critical interceptions came late in the 4th quarter and put the Jets inside the Miami 30 yard line each time, resulting in New York's only touchdowns.

And both of those interceptions were on bad throws by Huard that he should have avoided. Damon also held the ball too long on several plays and missed seeing open receivers down the field. It was a very disappointing performance by Huard.

Without Lamar Smith, Miami's rushing attack was very anemic. Don't be fooled by JJ Johnson's average of 5.0 yards per carry. He routinely came up short in situations where Lamar Smith would have made a couple of extra yards. Autry Denson also ran the ball, but he, too, had problems finding the holes and getting free.

In other words, the Dolphins' offense was very inept for most of the game. And when it counted most, in the 4th quarter, they turned the ball over, giving the Jets the opportunities to win.

The Dolphin defense had a few problems of it's own, but overall they played much better than the offense. They held the Jets to just 95 net passing yards, sacking Vinny twice and picking off 2 of his passes. The run defense suffered a little without Zach Thomas, but while the Jets did end up with 133 yards rushing, they didn't put together a consistent rushing attack.

In fact, the Jets didn't put together much in the way of sustained offense all afternoon. Their 2 touchdowns drives were only 27 and 25 yards long and both came after interceptions of Damon Huard deep in Miami territory. If the Miami offense had been able to move the ball with any consistency, the defense did more than enough to stop the Jets. But with gifts like the ones the offense gave them, the Jets were able to win.

Overall, Miami was not up to the task of taking on the Jets without two of their best offensive weapons - Jay Fiedler and Lamar Smith. If either of these players are out of the lineup next week against the Colts, it's going to be a long and sad afternoon for Miami fans.

As a postmortem to this game, I should start by saying that, in most cases, I'm for cutting players a lot of slack. The credit, after all, belongs to the man in the arena, not to the critics. And while I don't believe that Damon Huard is a starting-caliber NFL quarterback, I have always liked his guts, determination and steady hand.

However, Huard was not up to the task of leading Miami yesterday. He had guts and determination, but his steady hand was gone. Regardless of whose fault it was (the coaches or the players), Huard was mentally unprepared to take over the gameplan and execute it. He made numerous mistakes on the field and two of them buried the Dolphins at the end of the game.

It's a little too early to be calling for his replacement as the backup, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Mike Quinn get some extra reps in practice this week.

There were a couple of other areas that the Dolphins need to improve on, one of which is penalties. Miami ended up with 11 penalties for 99 yards, may of which were avoidable. The Dolphins have been committing an unusually high number of penalties this year and they desperately need to reduce that number if they want to keep the lead in the AFC East. On a team based on the running game and a stout defense, penalties can kill the team.

It was a severe disappointment for Miami, even though they are still alone in first place. It makes winning next week's game even more important.