The Dolphins beat the Jets 31-28 this afternoon on the strong legs of Karim Abdul-Jabbar, who rushed for 152 yards to become the first Dolphin running back in 18 years to reach 1000 yards in a season. His final total for the year is 1116 yards, which puts him 3rd on the Dolphins' all-time record for most yards in a season, behind Delvin Williams in 1978 and Larry Csonka in 1972.
The Jets took a 14 point lead in the first quarter, only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by making constant mistakes and penalties in crucial situations. The Dolphins took advantage of the these many mistakes as Dan Marino passed for 3 touchdown passes and Abdul-Jabbar ran for another to give the Dolphins an 8-8 record in the first year of Jimmy Johnson's tenure as head coach.
The game started with the Jets receiving the opening kickoff, which sailed into the endzone for a touchback. Starting at their own 20, a 2 yard run by Murrell and a tipped pass left the Jets with a 3rd and 8 at their 22, but a 12 yard completion to Chrebet that featured 2 missed tackles by Dolphins defenders moved the ball out to the 34. However, after Murrell was stopped after a 2 yard gain on 1st down, Shane Burton batted down a 2nd down pass and a 3rd down pass fell incomplete, forcing the Jets to punt on 4th and 8 from their 36.
Buckley fielded the punt at the Dolphin 10 and returned it to the 18, where the Dolphins started on 1st down by attempting to run Karim Abdul-Jabbar, but he was stopped for no gain. On 2nd down, Marino hit McDuffie on a down and out for 21 yards to the Jet 39, but after Drayton dropped a 1st down pass, Abdul-Jabbar got 6 yards on a short dump pass on 2nd down to move the ball to the 45. However, on 3rd and 4, McDuffie was hit as he tried to catch the ball and the pass fell incomplete, forcing the Dolphins to punt.
Kidd punted from the Dolphins' 45 and Chrebet took the punt at the Jet 15 and returned it to the 19, where Tim Jacobs hit him and forced him to lose the ball. Louis Oliver recovered the fumble at the Jet 23 yard line and on 1st down Stanley Pritchett dropped a Marino pass. However, Fred Barnett was penalized on the play for offensive pass interference, so the Dolphins were forced back to the Jet 33. Facing a 1st and 20, they elected to handoff to Stanley Pritchett, but Pritchett was hit in the backfield by Matt Brock of the Jets and fumbled the ball. The ball was then scooped up by Jets' defensive end Hugh Douglas, who ran the fumble 62 yards to the Dolphins' endzone for a touchdown and a 7-0 Jets lead.
The ensuing kickoff was taken by Kirby Dar Dar at the goal line and returned to the 25, but after 2 runs by Abdul-Jabbar netted 6 yards, the Dolphins faced a 3rd and 4 at their 31 and Marino's pass to McDuffie was defensed by Aaron Glenn forcing the Dolphins to punt on 4th and 4 from their 31.
Once again, Chrebet fumbled the punt at the Jets 16, but this time managed to recover his own fumble. On 1st down, pressure from the Dolphins' defensive line forced Foley into an incompletion, but on 2nd down, Murrell ran for 12 yards to the Jets 28. Following a 2 yard run by Murrell, Foley hit Webster Slaughter for 24 yards to the Dolphin 46. From there, Murrell ran for 3 yards, followed by a completion to Kyle Brady for 7 more and a 1st down at the Dolphin 36. With a 1st and 10, two more runs by Murrell gained 7 yards and on 3rd and 3 at the 29, Foley hit Van Dyke for 5 yards and a 1st and 10 at the Dolphin 24. On 1st down, Foley dropped back to pass and Trace Armstrong came around the Jets' right tackle, sacking Foley for a 6 yard loss back out to the 30. On the next play, however, Webster Slaughter got wide open on the left side of the endzone and Shawn Wooden, realizing he was badly beaten, ran into Slaughter and knocked him down before the ball got there. Wooden was called for pass interference, but he made the right decision in preventing the touchdown.
The penalty gave the Jets a 1st and goal at the Dolphins' 1 yard line and on the next play the referees once again made the case for reinstituting instant replay. The Jets' Richie Anderson took the pitch from Foley and ran the sweep the the Jets' right side. Just before he got to the goal line, three Dolphins defenders gang-tackled Anderson and the ball popped out and went out of bounds in the endzone. However, the referee standing on the goal line signaled a touchdown and the Jets now lead 14-0.
Instant replay clearly showed that the ball never crossed the goal line and was, in fact, fumbled out of bounds in the endzone. Because a fumble that goes out of bounds in the endzone is ruled a touchback and goes over the defending team, the Dolphins should have had the ball on their 20 instead of being down 14-0. But the refs once again blew the call.
The kickoff was taken by Spikes at the goal line and returned to the Dolphin 34. From there, Spikes ran for a yard, followed by a pass to Drayton for 6 yards and a 3rd and 4 pass to Randal Hill got 6 yards and a 1st down at the Dolphin 46. Spikes got 3 more yards to the 49, but after Drayton dropped a 2nd and 7 pass, Parmalee was pushed out of bounds after a 5 yard gain on 3rd down, forcing the Dolphins to punt once again.
This punt was knocked out of bounds at the Jets 5 yard line by Dar Dar and after 2 runs by Murrell could only get 3 yards, the Jets faced a 3rd and 7 from their own 8 as the 1st quarter ended.
The Jets started the 2nd quarter by overthrowing Van Dyke on 3rd down and punted on 4th and 7 from their 8 to McDuffie, who made a fair catch at the Dolphins 49. From there, Marino hit Drayton for 5 yards on 1st down and Abdul-Jabbar ran for 10 yards on 2nd down to give the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at the Jets' 36. After a 3 yard run on 1st down by Abdul-Jabbar, a pass to Barnett was knocked away and a 3rd down pass to Randal Hill was overthrown by Marino, leaving the Dolphins with a 4th and 7 from the Jets' 33. The Dolphins elected to go for it on 4th down, but Parmalee was stripped of the ball at the catch and the ball went over to the Jets on downs.
The Jets, however, could do nothing with it and after a short gain by Murrell on 1st down, two passes that were defensed by Sean Hill and Buckley on 2nd and 3rd down, and a delay of game penalty, the Jets had moved backwards 3 yards to their 30. From there, they punted on 4th and 13 to McDuffie, who made the catch at the 24 and returned the ball to the Dolphins' 30.
With a 1st and 10 at their own 30, the Dolphins ran Karim Abdul-Jabbar around left end and he got outside of the defense and raced for 17 yards before being pushed out of bounds at the Dolphins 47. On this run, he also ran into Dolphins' history, because this run put him at 1001 yards for the season, making him the first Dolphin in 18 years to run for 1000 yards in a single season.
On 1st and 10 from their 47, they went to Abdul-Jabbar again, but this run was called back because of a holding penalty on Stanley Pritchett. However, on the ensuing 1st and 20, Marino hit McDuffie on a crossing route for 29 yards down to the Jets' 34. Again, the Dolphins ran Abdul-Jabbar, but again his run was negated by a holding penalty on Stanley Pritchett, which forced the Dolphins back to a 1st and 20 at the Jets' 44. From there, Marino's 1st down pass was batted down and after a 2nd down pass to Barnett netted 8 yards, Marino attempted to hit Randal Hill on 3rd and 12, but the ball was underthrown and Hill couldn't get to it.
The Dolphins then faced a 4th and 12 from the Jets' 36 and again the Dolphins went for it on 4th down, but Marino attempted to force it to McDuffie through double coverage and the ball fell incomplete and the Jets took over on downs.
On 1st and 10 from their 36, a screen pass to Anderson gained 12 yards and a draw to Anderson gained 9 yards to give the Jets a 2nd and 1 at the Dolphins 43. However, a deep pass to Keyshawn Johnson was way overthrown and on 3rd and 1, the Jets' ran Murrell for 2 yards and a 1st down. From the Dolphins' 41, Foley was forced to scramble for 3 yards on 1st down and Murrell ran for 5 more on 2nd down to give the Jets a 3rd and 2 from the Dolphins' 33. However, Anderson dropped a 3rd down pass from Foley and when the Jets went for it on 4th and 2, the swarming Dolphins defense stopped Murrell after just a 1 yard gain and the Dolphins took over on downs.
With a 1st and 10 at their own 32, Marino hit Pritchett for 7 yards and Abdul-Jabbar added 4 yards on 2nd and 3 to give the Dolphins a 1st down at their 43. From there, Marino's pass to Drayton was incomplete as Drayton dove but couldn't hang on to the ball. However Abdul-Jabbar ran for 5 yards on 2nd down and Marino found Hill for 12 more yards on 3rd down to give th dolphins a 1st and 10 at the Jets' 40.
From there, Marino overthrew Barnett on a deep pass down the left sideline, but hit McDuffie for 9 yards on 2nd down to give the Dolphins a 3rd and 1 at the Jets' 31. On the next play, the Dolphins attempted to run Pritchett, but the ball slipped out of Marino's hand on the handoff and even though Pritchett recovered the fumble, the Dolphins were facing a 4th and 3 at the Jets' 33. The Dolphins' went for it, but Marino's pass to McDuffie was a yard short and it appeared that the Dolphins had failed. However, the Jets were penalized on this play for having too many men on the field and the Dolphins now had a 1st and 10 at the Jets' 29.
With 2 minutes left in the half, on 1st down, the handoff was bobbled again, but this time Abdul-Jabbar held on to the ball and got a yard out of it. On 2nd and 9, Marino hit Drayton over the middle for 17 yards down to the 11 and after a 4 yard run by Abdul-Jabbar, Marino attempted to hit Barnett in the endzone. However, Barnett was completely blanketed by Marcus Coleman before the ball arrived and Coleman was called for pass interference, giving the Dolphins a 1st and goal at the 1 yard line.
The Dolphins tried running Abdul-Jabbar twice in a row on the right side, but were unable to punch it in and with a 3rd and goal, Marino dropped back to pass and fired the ball into the endzone, where Lamar Thomas had gotten wide open in the back of the endzone. However, Thomas wasn't even looking at Marino and the ball went right by him, leaving the Dolphins with a 4th and goal at the 1. Again, Marino dropped back to pass and this time the ball was batted at the line of scrimmage, but the Jets were penalized for defensive holding on the play, which gave the Dolphins an automatic first down at the 1 with just :09 second remaining.
On the next play, Marino finally found OJ McDuffie on a quick out just over the goal line and hit him with a hard pass to give the Dolphins a touchdown that cut the Jets' lead to 14-7. Nedney hit a squib kick on the kickoff that was returned by Aaron Glenn to the Jets' 22 as time ran out in the first half.
The second half began with the Dolphins taking the kickoff and returning it to their 27, but after Abdul-Jabbar ran for 1 yard on 1st down, two incompletions to Barnett and McDuffie left the Dolphins with a 4th and 8 at their 29 and they punted. The ball went out of bounds at the Jets' 16 and after the Jets were penalized for holding, the ball was placed at their 8.
The Jets started by running Murrell for 1 yard and Chrebet was badly overthrown on 2nd down to leave them with a 3rd and 9 at their 8. On this play, Gardener pushed past his blocker and wrapped up Foley, but Foley barely got the ball away and it was not ruled a sack, although Foley should have been called for intentional grounding. However, facing a 4th and 9 at their 9, the Jets' punted. McDuffie fielded the punt at the Dolphin 48 and made a nice return to the Jets' 33, where he fumbled the football, but managed to dive on it, giving the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at the Jets' 33.
On 1st and 10 at the Jets' 33, Marino dropped back into the pocket and fired a pass deep over the middle to Fred Barnett, who had run the post pattern and gotten behind two Jets' defenders down the middle of the field. It was a perfect pass and hit Barnett right in his outstretched hands in full stride and all Barnett had to do was to run into the endzone for a touchdown that tied the game at 14-14.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, Nedney's ensuing kickoff was short and was run back from the Jets' 17 to their 44 by Van Dyke. From their own 44, Foley hit Johnson for 11 yard to the Dolphin 45 and a screen pass to Murrell added 6 to the Dolphins' 39. A draw to Murrell on 2nd and 4 gave the Jets a 1st and 10 at the Dolphins 32 and a 20 yard completion to Johnson moved the ball to the Dolphins 12, where Murrell was stuffed for no gain on 1st down. After a pass to Anderson on 2nd down was thrown behind him and fell incomplete, the Dolphins elected to go with an all-out blitz on 3rd and 10. However, the Jets' picked up the blitz and Foley hit Brady at the 4 yard line. Shawn Wooden just missed in his attempt to intercept the pass and Brady trotted into the endzone to give the Jets a 21-14 lead.
The kickoff was taken by Spikes and returned to the 26, where Abdul-Jabbar ran twice in a row for 16 yards to give the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at their 42. From there, Marino hit Troy Drayton for 15 yards to the Jets' 43 and a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty was added when Victor Green slammed Drayton down after they were well out of bounds. This gave the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at the 28, but a 6 yard run by Abdul-Jabbar was negated by a holding penalty (his 3rd) on Stanley Pritchett and the Dolphins were forced back to a 1st and 20 from the Jets' 38.
On 1st down, a pass to Barnett down the left sideline was defensed at the last second, but on 2nd down, Marino hit Drayton for 14 yards to the 24 and added 5 more yards with a short pass to Pritchett on 3rd down. This left the Dolphins with a 4th and 1 at the Jets' 19 and this time, when the Dolphins went for it, they called on Irving Spikes who took the ball and leaped over the line of scrimmage for a 1st down at the 17. On the very next play, Abdul-Jabbar took the handoff around right end and juked between several defenders, racing down to the one where he dove over the goal line for a touchdown. This gave the Dolphins a 21-21 tie.
After the kickoff was returned by Cobb to the Jets' 27, The Jets threw 2 incompletions and on 3rd and 10 at their 27, Trace Armstrong got by his man again and took Foley down for a 14 yard loss, forcing the Jets to punt with a 4th and 24. On the first punt, McDuffie returned the ball to the Jets' 47, but the Jets were penalized for holding and were forced to punt again. On the second punt, McDuffie made a fair catch at the Jets' 41 yard line.
From the Jets' 41, Abdul-Jabbar carried the ball 3 times in a row for 6, then 9 and finally 6 more yards down to the Jets' 26. Marino tried to hit Drayton on 2nd and 4, but had to throw the ball away and on 3rd and 4 from the Jets' 20, Parmalee dropped Marino's pass and the Dolphins had a 4th and 4. However, this time, JJ elected to go for the field goal, which Nedney made easily, giving the Dolphins a 24-21 lead.
At some point in the previous series, I noticed that Keith Sims had been replaced at left guard by Jeff Buckey. As far as I know, this was only to give Sims a rest, because Sims came back later in the game.
I guess that making a field goal inspired Nedney, because his next kickoff was his best of the day, going 4 yards deep in the endzone for a touchback. The Jets started by running Murrell for 2 yards on 1st down and on 2nd down, it appeared that Foley was sacked by Stubbs after pressure from Gardener, but the refs penalized Bowens for illegal use of hands (hands to the face) and the Jets were given 5 yards and a 1st down at their 27. The refs, however, ignored the fact that the offensive guards hands were up in Bowens' facemask on the same play.
Nevertheless, with a 1st and 10 at their 27, Foley overthrew Chrebet on 1st down and after Anderson got 2 yards on a dump pass on 2nd down, Foley again missed Chrebet on 3rd and 8 and the Jets punted to McDuffie, who made a fair catch at the Dolphins' 26. From there, the Dolphins ran Abdul-Jabbar for 4 yards on 1st down as the 3rd quarter ended.
To open the 4th quarter, Abdul-Jabbar ran for 1 yards and then Marino hit McDuffie for 6 yards to give the Dolphins a 1st and 10 from their 37. Next up, Spikes ran for 7 yards on 1st down, but a pass to Barnett on 2nd down was knocked away by Aaron Glenn. On 3rd and 3 from their 44, Marino hit Pritchett with a short pass that he turned into an 8 yard gain and a 1st down. The Dolphins then ran Spikes again for 3 and a 2nd down pass to McDuffie was incomplete. Facing a 3rd and 7 from the Jets' 45, Marino again went to McDuffie, but Aaron Glenn had grabbed McDuffie and pulled McDuffie to the ground. Then Glenn picked off Marino's pass, but was called for defensive holding for grabbing McDuffie.
This gave the Dolphins a 1st and 10 at the Jets' 40 and a pass to Barnett was incomplete. On 2nd down, Jeff Buckey was penalized for holding and the Dolphins were pushed back to a 2nd and 20 at the 50 yard line. However, on the next play, Randal Hill got behind his man down the left sideline and Marino threw another perfect pass that Hill caught in full stride with his outstretched hands and then ran, prancing, into the endzone for a touchdown at a 31-21 lead.
The kickoff was run back to the Jets' 26 and, at this point, the Jets' decided to pull Glenn Foley and put in Frank Reich at quarterback. Reich hit Slaughter for 14 yards on 1st down and then a draw to Murrell got 14 more to the Dolphins' 46. However, a bad throw on 1st down, followed by a short pass to Murrell on 2nd down left the Jets with a 3rd and 7 at the Dolphin 43. On 3rd down, Reich overthrew Chrebet and on 4th down and 7, Reich threw the ball over Andersons head to give the ball back to the Dolphins at their 43.
With a 10 point lead and 9:06 remaining in the game, JJ inserted Erickson in place of Marino. However, after a 4 yard gain by Abdul-Jabbar was negated by a 2 yard loss by Spikes, the Dolphins face a 3rd and 8 from their 45. On the next play, the Jets came with an all-out blitz and Erickson underthrew Parmalee out of the backfield, leaving the Dolphins with a 4th and 8 at their 45.
The Dolphins punted to Chrebet who returned the ball from his 15 to the 22, where he was pushed out of bounds. With 7:33 remaining, Reich hit Johnson for 14 yards out to the 35 and then hit Chrebet for another 6 out to the 40. On 2nd down, Reich's pass was incomplete, but on 3rd and 4, Reich found Webster Slaughter for 12 yards to the Dolphins' 47. From their, Reich hit Van Dyke for 3 yards down to the Dolphins' 44 and, on 2nd and 7, hit Slaughter for 7 more yards, but he didn't quite get the 1st down.
On this play, Calvin Jackson had the wind knocked out of him and had to leave the game. On 3rd and less than a yard at the Dolphins' 38, the Jets ran the quarterback sneak for 1 yard and a 1st and 10 at the 37. From there, Reich went back to Slaughter for 28 yards down to the Miami 9. With a 1st and goal from the 9, Reich overthrew Johnson on 1st down, but found Chrebet open in the middle of the endzone on 2nd down for a touchdown that cut Miami's lead to 31-28 with 4:45 still left to play.
The kickoff was taken by Spikes and returned to the Miami 29. At this point, JJ decided to put Marino back in rather than risk losing the game. However, after Abdul-Jabbar could only get 1 yard on 1st down, Marino missed Drayton on 2nd down and on 3rd and 9 from their 30, McIver allowed Bobby Hamilton get around him and sack Marino for a 3 yard loss. With 3:50 remaining, the Jets called their 1st timeout.
The Dolphins punted from their own 27 on 4th and 12 and the ball was downed at the Jets' 37 yard line. On 1st and 10 from their 37, Reich hit Chrebet in the middle of the field, but Tim Jacobs' tackle stripped the ball from Chrebet and Terrell Buckley pounced on it at the Dolphins' 49. From this point on, the game belonged to Karim Abdul-Jabbar.
On 1st and 10 from their 49, with about 3:35 remaining, Abdul-Jabbar ran the ball off right tackle for 14 yards down to the Jets' 37. With 3:25 remaining, the Jets took their 2nd timeout and then Abdul-Jabbar ran for 2 yards to the 35. At this point, with 3:19 left, the Jets took their last timeout.
Facing a 2nd and 8 at the Jets' 35, Abdul-Jabbar ran around right end for 4 yards. Then, on 3rd and 4 at the Jets' 31, Abdul-Jabbar ran the other way, around left end for 6 yards and a 1st down on a play that basically finished the game. Since the Jets had no more timeouts, the Dolphins could now run the clock out. Abdul-Jabbar would run twice more for 10 more yards before Marino knelt down twice to end the game at the Jets' 15 yard line.
The Dolphins played a well-balanced offense today, executing 40 running plays and 43 passing plays in an offensive output that finally got it's act together enough to put 4 touchdowns on the board. For the last 4 games, the offense had only scored 1 touchdown per game, but today they scored on long passes, short passes and on a run by Abdul-Jabbar.
The running game worked well enough to gain 157 yards on 40 attempts for a 3.9 yard/carry average. That's the second week in a row that the running game got over 140 yards and it was especially important on the final drive, where the Dolphins got enough 1st downs to run out the clock.
The defense was not as stingy as it was last week, but it still managed to hold Adrian Murrell to 69 rushing yards and forced a fumble by Chrebet late in the game that stopped the last Jets' drive.
The special teams were not as special as they had been, but Nedney did make all his scoring attempts ( 1 field goal and 4 extra points).
Even though there are no more games this season, there are some things that need to be worked on in the off-season. First of all, Dan Marino completed less than 50% of his passes, at least partly because people were dropping them. Troy Drayton, in particular, needs to work on catching those Dan Marino passes in the off-season. Hopefully, with a complete training camp to work with Marino, Drayton can get better.
Also, penalties are still causing the Dolphins problems. They were penalized 7 times for 87 yards, many of which negated gains by the offense. Particularly damaging were the holding penalties on offense that negated gains.
The pass coverage was ok until the last part of the game, when it seemed to come unglued. I don't think that JJ will allow the Dolphins to sink into that complacency that used to dog them when they got ahead, but against a decent team, that kind of let-up will lose games for them.
Karim Abdul-Jabbar became the first Dolphin since 1978 to rush for over 1000 yards in a season with his 152 yard effort today. This puts his total at 1116 yards for the season, which gives him the 3rd best season in total yards in Dolphin history behind Delvin Williams in '78 and Larry Csonka in '72. His 11 touchdowns and 4 100+ yard games also put him in the record books. You can forget rumors about Warrick Dunn and Ricky Watters - Karim is the future.
Dan Marino completed 20 of 42 for 262 yards and 3 touchdowns, with no interceptions. He completed less than 50% of his passes, but still had a quarterback rating of 91.6.
Unlike his rookie running mate, Stanley Pritchett had a bad day. He rushed twice for -5 yards, got caught holding 3 times, dropped at least one pass and fumbled the ball that Hugh Douglas ran back for a touchdown. He did catch 3 passes for 21 yards, however.
OJ McDuffie received a lot of attention from Jets' defenders, but lead the team with 5 receptions for 66 yards and a touchdown.
Troy Drayton also caught 5 passes for 56 yards.
Fred Barnett only caught 2 passes, but one was a 33 yard touchdown.
Randal Hill caught 3 passes, including his 50 yard touchdown reception.
The offensive line played well, for the most part, giving up only one sack and blocking well enough to allow Karim his 152 yards.
On defense, guess who lead the team in tackles? If you guessed Zach Thomas, you'd be right. He had 6 solo and 6 assists for 12 total tackles.
Trace Armstrong had 2 sacks today, giving him a career high total of 12 sacks on the year. He's had at least 2 sacks in each of the last 3 games.
Terrell Buckley had 5 tackles, 2 passes defensed and a fumble recovery.
Shane Burton didn't have any tackles this game, but did knock down two Jets' passes.
Tim Jacobs played quite a bit as an extra defensive back and had 4 total tackles as well as 2 forced fumbles.
Calvin Jackson had 6 tackles.
Anthony Harris, who continued to start at the weakside linebacker position, had 4 tackles and 2 assists.
Darryl Gardener had 2 tackles and 2 assists and was applying a lot pressure up the middle today. He also should have been credited with a sack when Foley threw the ball away.
John Kidd continued to punt well, averaging 43.8 yards per punt.
Joe Nedney hit his one field goal attempt and all his extra points, but his kickoffs were a bit erratic today.
Calvin Jackson appeared to have the wind knocked out of him in the 4th quarter, but as far as I can tell, it wasn't anything serious.
Well, this was the last game of the Dolphins' season and because it was the last, it was a little sad for me to watch. I was afraid that the Dolphins would let this one slip away against the Jets, but the Jets are just so bad at winning that there really wasn't much chance of that.
Naturally, I'll be posting my thoughts on the entire season later, but here are a few little tidbits that might be of interest.
Of course, we all know that Karim Abdul-Jabbar is the Dolphins' first 1000 yard rusher since Delvin Williams in 1978, but did you also know that his total of 4 games with over 100 yards rushing this season ties him with Larry Csonka for 2nd on in the category of most 100 yard games in a season? The leader in this category is also Delvin Williams, who had 5 100+ yard games in 1978.
Overall, I'd have to rate this season as a success. The Dolphins ended up with an 8-8 record, and didn't play well in the middle of the season, but did get their 1000 yard rusher, did wind up with a 6-2 division record, did improve their defense and have laid a good foundation for the future.
And, of course, they swept the Buffalo Bills for the first time since 1986.
Not making the playoffs is always a disappointment, but that's really the only thing that the Dolphins didn't accomplish this year that they had set out to do. And frankly, since they didn't have much of a chance in the playoffs, I'm glad they didn't go.
Because, as you know, there's always next year....