It's no secret that the Raiders have pretty much owned the Dolphins over the years. The record going into today's game was 5-16-1, which is the Dolphins' worst record against any team in the league. On this Sunday, however, the Dolphins would go to 6-16-1 as they defeated the Raiders in overtime by the score of 20-17.

Don't let the final score fool you. The Dolphin defense shut down the Raider offense for all but one drive in the third quarter, allowing only one touchdown and one field goal. The reason that this game was so close was that the Dolphins offense made a number of mistakes and turned the ball over too many times. It was a very similar performance to the game against the Bills last week, but fortunately for the Dolphins, the Raiders don't have a Thurmon Thomas.

At the start of the game, Irving Spikes and Muhammed Oliver were dressed and on the sideline, but I didn't see either player in the game. Chuck Klingbeil did play most of the game, but Chris Grey started for Bert Weidner at right guard. Troy Vincent started and played the whole game and Bryan Cox started at middle linebacker, with Aubrey Beavers starting at right linebacker.

And Bernie Parmalee was the starting halfback instead of Mark Higgs. After the game was over, it was clear why this was done. More on that later.

The game started with the Raiders receiving the opening kickoff at their 12 and running it back to their 33. Their first play from scrimmage was a 13 yard run by Tom Rathman to their 46, but after 2 incomplete passes and a short run, the Raiders punted from their 49 to the Dolphins 19. The key play on this drive was a deep pass to Raghib Ismail, who had beaten Frankie Smith deep over the middle, but luckily, the ball was overthrown, otherwise this would probably have been a Raider touchdown.

After the punt went out of bounds at the Miami 19, the Dolphins started at their 19 with a series of 4 runnings plays by Parmalee that gained 21 yards and a short 5 yard pass to OJ McDuffie. However, on a 2d and 6 at the Dolphins' 46, the Raiders' Nolan Harrison got around Richmond Webb and batted the ball out of Marino's hand. The Raiders recovered for their first turnover of the game.

The Raiders started at the Dolphins' 41 yard line with some nifty running and moved down to the Dolphins 12 yard line, mostly on an 18 yard run by Harvey Williams. However, after a 9 yard pass to Tim Brown gave the Raiders a 1st and goal at the Dolphins 3 yard line, the Dolphins' defense stiffened. Hostettler threw an incompletion on first down and the defense forced him to scramble out of the pocket on second and third down. Each time, Gene Atkins tackled him short of the goal line and forced the Raiders to go for the field goal on 4th down. However, this gave the Raiders the early lead with a 3-0 score.

On the ensuing kickoff, OJ McDuffie took the ball at the 3, but could only get to the 22 before he slipped and fell. Miami started off by giving the ball to Parmalee, who got a quick 9 yards. However, on 2d and 1 at the Dolphins 32, Marino handed off to Mark Higgs, who fumbled as he was hit trying to go around the right side. The ball was scooped up by Anthony Smith of the Raiders, who rumbled untouched into the endzone to give the Raiders a 10-0 lead.

At this point, it didn't look good for the Dolphins. Both offensive possessions had ended in turnovers and points for the Raiders. The offense looked even more inept than it had against the Bills.

After the kickoff was returned by McDuffie to the 32 yard line, the Dolphins sputtered upfield with a couple of short passes and some runs by Parmalee to the Raider 44, where they were forced to punt.

The punt went into the endzone for a touchback and the Raiders had time to run two plays and get penalized once before the first quarter ended with the Raiders ahead 10-0.

The second quarter opened with the Raiders having a 2d and 18 at their own 12 and managed to get back to the 18 on a short pass. However, on a 3rd and 12, Marco Coleman got around the left tackle, got hold of Hostetlers' jersey and dragged him down for a 5 yard sack. The Dolphins' defense did a good job of pounding Hostetler most of the day. It was a team effort, with the secondary finally getting good coverage on opposing receivers, not leaving Hostetler anywhere to throw to.

On the punt, the Raiders were kicking from deep in their own end and even though OJ was tackled as soon as he caught the ball, the Dolphins had a 1st and 10 at the Raiders 48 yard line. The Dolphins moved down to the Raiders' 27 on a couple of short passes and a nice run by Parmalee, but then, on 3rd and 1, the Dolphins ran Parmalee twice in a row for 0 yards and turned the ball over to the Raiders on downs.

The Raiders started at their 27, but after two holding penalties, 2 short runs and an incompletion caused by pressure from Bryan Cox on Hostetler, the Raiders had a 4th and 26 at their own 11. Naturally, they punted.

The ball went out of bounds at the Raiders' 44. After two incompletions and an 8 yard pass to Mike Williams, the Dolphins decided to go for it on 4th and 2 from the Raiders' 36. Marino managed to hit Greg Baty for 8 yards despite heavy pressure from the Raiders to keep the drive alive. Then Byars ran for 4 and Irving Fryar ran over a Raider defensive back to get a first down at the Raider 15. From the 15, Marino stepped back in the pocket and hit Keith Jackson over the middle in the endzone for the Dolphins' first score. This cut the lead to 10-7.

After the Raiders returned the kickoff to their 31, more penalties and pressure from Marco Coleman and Bryan Cox forced the Raiders to go 3 and out. The punt ended up at the Miami 35 yard line, but the Dolphins also went 3 and out after Bernie Parmalee slipped on one play and Marino missed OJ McDuffie on 3rd down. The Dolphins punted to the Raiders' 16 yard line, where good punt coverage smothered Tim Brown.

On the sideline, Hostetler and Art Shell were having a shouting match and as a result, Hoss was benched and Vince Evans came on as the Raiders' quarterback. The Raiders got one first down before Evans tried to pick on Troy Vincent. This was a mistake as Vincent broke up two successive passes by hitting the receivers just as the ball got there. Troy Vincent really had a fine game. After those two plays, Jeff Cross came up the middle to get a sack on Evans and force the Raiders to punt again.

Miami started at their 42 and got a couple of completions to Keith Byars and Mike Williams down to the Raider 33. However, on a 2d and 5, Marino's pass bounced off of Mike Williams' chest and into the hands of a Raider defensive back for an interception. The Raiders got the ball back and chose to run out the clock to end the half with a 10-7 lead.

A couple of things were obvious at the half - even though the defense had only 2 sacks, they were all over the Raiders' quarterbacks and had pretty much shut down the Raider offense. Marco Coleman and Bryan Cox in particular were in the backfield harassing Hostetler and Evans for most of the first half. Also impressive was the coverage of the secondary, especially Troy Vincent in stopping the Raiders' passing attack.

The offense, on the other hand, had given up three turnovers that had resulted in all 10 of the Raiders' points. Richmond Webb had frequent trouble blocking and Marino cronically underthrew receivers all day.

The Dolphins got the ball first in the second half and after the Raiders' kickoff went out of bounds, the Dolphins started at their own 40. Using a combination of runs by Bernie Parmalee, Mark Higgs, OJ McDuffie (who lined up in the backfield and ran for 8 yards) and a 23 yard dump pass to Keith Byars, the Dolphins moved down to the Raider 4, where the Dolphins floundered and settled for the field goal to tie the game at 10-10.

The Raiders had a good return on the kickoff from their 3 to their 45 and on 3 passes to Tim Brown, moved down to the Dolphins' 8 yard line. From the 8, Jeff Hostetler stepped back and hit Tim Brown crossing the endzone for the Raiders' only offensive touchdown of the game. This put the Raiders back on top 17-10.

After the kickoff, the Dolphins started at their own 24, but managed to get penalized for holding, got sacked and tossed an incomplete pass to wind up with a 4th and 14 at the 20, where they punted.

The punt went out of bounds at the 36, where the defense again stopped the Raiders with good pass coverage and pressure. Miami got the ball back after the punt, but could do nothing with it and were, in turn, forced to punt.

Tim Brown of the Raiders took this punt at his 45 and, as he was being tackled at his own 49, the ball came out from under the pile of players that was on top of Brown and Bernie Parmalee fell on it. The Ref's called it a fumble and the Dolphins took over at the Raider 44. Personally, I think that Brown was down before the ball came out and that the refs gave the Dolphins a gift, but to be fair, I couldn't see for sure and I don't think that the ref's could, either.

Anyway, the Dolphins moved from the Raiders' 44 down to the 19 using passes to Jackson and Byars. From the 19, Marino hit Byars down the left sideline as he crossed the goalline for the touchdown. This tied the game at 17-17.

The fired up Dolphins stopped Tim Brown on the kickoff return at the 15 yard line, where the Raiders managed to run the ball out to the 34, before Troy Vincent knocked a third down pass away from Tim Brown and forced the Raiders to punt once more.

The Dolphins took the ball at their 30 and went 3 and out, punting back to the Raiders, who started at their own 26. On first down, they tried to pick on Troy Vincent again, but Vincent knocked the ball out of the hands of James Jett deep over the middle and after pressure on the quarterback forced two more incompletions, the Raiders punted back to the Dolphins.

Miami started this series on their own 31, with a couple of nice runs by Parmalee for 19 yards out to the 50, but after a flea-flicker failed to fool the Raiders and was defensed, the Dolphins ended up punting again for a touchback.

The Raiders took the ball and began to drive from their own 20 towards the Dolphins end of the field. At this point, there were about 3 and a half minutes left, so they took their time and moved down to the Dolphins' 42 yard line with runs by Harvey Williams and a 14 yard pass to Tim Brown. However, after Larry Webster batted down a pass on 2d and 9, Bryan Cox blitzed around the right side of the Raiders offensive line to wrap up Hostetler for a sack. This left the Raiders with a 4th and 14 at the Dolphins 46, so they punted to the Miami 10.

With only 46 seconds left on the clock, Miami ran one running play and ran out the clock to send the game to overtime with a 17-17 tie.

Miami won the overtime toss of the coin and received the Raiders' kickoff at their own 23 yard line. After a quick 13 yard pass to Ingram moved them out to their own 36 yard line, Parmalee took a handoff between Webb and Sims and raced 26 yards to the Raider 38 yard line. He just hit the hole very fast and was in the backfield quickly. He ran 3 more times for 4, 8 and 9 yards and left the Dolphins at the Raiders' 17 yard line. Byars ran the ball twice for 3 yards and Marino did a quarterback sneak for 2, before Pete Stoyanovich came in and nailed a 29 yard field goal to give the Dolphins the win, 20-17.

This game had some good news and some bad news. The good news was that the defense came together in a way that they hadn't come together all year. The secondary coverage was excellent and there was pressure on Hostetler all day. The run defense wasn't as good as it has been, but Klingbeil was playing hurt and the Dolphins were obviously more concerned about the Raider passing attack.

The bad news was that the offense continued to play mistake-prone football. Higgs' fumble was a cheap touchdown for the Raiders and once again, Marino completed less than 50% of his passes. The interception was not his fault, but he got lucky on a couple of throws. I don't know if his arm is tired or if his leg is bothering him or if he's just having an off period, but he hasn't been nearly as good these past two weeks as he had been during the first four.

To be fair to Marino, the Raiders have good coverage cornerbacks, so maybe he was throwing the ball away to avoid interceptions, but whatever the reason, he needs to get back on track during the bye week if the Dolphins are to continue their success.

Bernie Parmalee had 30 carries for 150 yards on the day and the fumble recovery on the punt. Obviously, he had the best day that he's ever had as a Dolphin and was clearly the offensive star of the day.

On the defense, Bryan Cox, Marco Coleman and Jeff Cross all put a lot of pressure on Raiders offense, but I think special mention should go to Troy Vincent, who defensed at least 5 passes that I saw and ran step for step with some of the fastest receivers in the league all day long.

Even though this victory was a near thing, I think that it was the best way to go into the bye week. The Bills' loss to the Colts puts the Dolphins all alone in first place in the AFC East with the tough Patriots coming up after the bye. The Dolphins will have time to heal their wounds and should be ready to play well for the second half of the season.