The Dolphins won a nail-biter against the Lions on Sunday night in a game that was decided by the quarterbacks and by turnovers. This is not to say that Barry Sanders did not play well, because he did play very well, racking up 137 yards and scoring a touchdown. However, the thing that really decided this game was the comparative play of the quarterbacks. Both Mitchell and Marino were impressive passing the ball and both made some mistakes, but Mitchell's mistakes were much worse and spelled doom for the Lions, whereas Marino overcame his mistakes and pulled the game out at the end.
The game started with the Dolphins marching right down the field on 2 successive possessions and scoring 2 touchdowns, mostly on the passing of Dan Marino. The Lions responded well, also moving down the field, but they made enough mistakes to keep them out of the endzone, and so the Dolphins were able to take an early lead that grew to 17-3.
The Lions, playing gritty, hard-nosed football, came back with their own drives and eventually managed to tie the game with 1:14 left in regulation at 30-30. However, Dan Marino took the Dolphins right down the field and placed them in position to kick the game winning field goal as time ran out.
Overall, the Dolphins' offense played very well, although the Dolphins are still having trouble finding the consistent running game that they would like to have. Marino was red hot and guided the team like the master that he is. On the other side of the ball, the defense did give up a lot of yards and made several mistakes that cost the team, but they also came up with 4 turnovers and made some crucial plays at key points in the game.
It was a very exciting, exhilarating game and put the Dolphins on a good footing to continue winning for the remainder of the season.
Overall, this game could have gone better for the Dolphins than it did, but probably not by much. The Dolphins probably should have had at least one more touchdown with all the opportunities that they had, but they didn't quit and were right there at the end of the game, fighting and scratching for every yard and point. GRADE: B+
RUSHING: The running game continues to be inconsistent, with Karim Abdul-Jabbar getting most of the yardage on his own. His swift cutbacks and moves got the Dolphins most of their running yards, but he did make one crucial mistake late in the game and was nailed for a loss on 2nd and 1 when he tried to cut back and was caught for a 3 yard loss that put the team in a bad situation. Still, the running game was productive enough, getting 81 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown, that it forced the Lions to at least pay attention to it as a threat. GRADE: C+
PASSING: The offense generated 310 passing yards and Marino wasn't sacked once. Troy Drayton caught 2 very nice touchdown passes and Marino continued to spread the ball around with 8 different receivers getting at least one catch each. Also, while Marino was pressured, he wasn't sacked and he managed to get out of trouble several times. The only down side really was a few dropped passes and the one interception that was returned for a touchdown by the Lions. GRADE: B+
RUN DEFENSE: It's hard to know how to grade the run defense, because on the one hand, the Lions gained 145 yards on 33 carries for a 4.4 yard per carry average. Against any other running back, that would be a poor showing, but against Barry Sanders, it actually reflects pretty well on the defense. Barry's longest run from scrimmage was about 19 yards and while he did score one touchdown, he was not so dominating that the Lions could afford to abandon the pass. GRADE: B-
PASS DEFENSE: Again, an inconsistent showing. The pass defense lacked a serious pass rush and, unlike the Raiders' game, this time the blitz wasn't particularly effective. The Dolphins only sacked Mitchell once and didn't really hurry him much at all. Also, the coverage was lacking, partly due to the makeshift secondary that the Dolphins were forced to play with 2 starters on the sidelines for much of the game. On the other hand, Terrell Buckley had a great game. GRADE: C
KICKING GAME: The Dolphins' kicking game was superb this week. Olindo Mare' hit all four field goal attempts, including the game winner as time ran out. The coverage was excellent and included the fumble recovery on a punt early in the game. Glyn Milburn, who is supposed to be a dangerous return man, was kept almost entirely in check and the Lions' average starting position for their drives was at their own 20 yard line. GRADE: A+
KICK RETURN GAME: The return game didn't shine as much as the kicking game, but it was well controlled and while it didn't break any big runs, it was respectable. They also had the partially blocked punt that helped with the Dolphins' field position. GRADE: A-
The Dolphins' special teams really stood out on Sunday as they did just about everything right. It was good to see, that even with all the injuries, the special teams were playing so well.
The passing game continues to be deadly - as long as the receivers catch the ball. But that is much less of a problem than it has been in past games. Only Ed Perry really made a poor drop of a potentially important pass.
The penalties were held to a minimum this game, with the Dolphins only committing 4 fouls and none of them really damaged the team, except for the illegal-hands penalty on Buckley that negated his first interception.
Protection for Marino was very good, especially considering that the Lions had made 37 sacks already this year and had one of the league's leading sackers in Robert Porcher.
Unfortunately, the pass rush was absent this week and that's something that will need to be addressed in the off-season. Just one more good pass rusher could really improve the defense's overall performance.
Also, the defensive backs need just one more guy who can play the nickel defense and they will be set. It's hard to be too critical of them this week with all the injuries.
Marino was the hero - again - passing for 310 yards with a 61% completion rate and hitting 2 very nice touchdown passes to Troy Drayton. His only real fault was the interception that was returned for a touchdown. But he also drove the team down for field goals at the end of the first half and at the end of the game.
Karim Abdul-Jabbar had 23 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown (his 15th of the year) and made most of that the hard way. Unfortunately, he also dropped an easy pass.
Bernie Parmalee contributed well on special teams and while he only ran once for minus-one yard, he did catch 2 passes for 18 yards. One of those catches was on the game winning drive and it was crucial, because it put the ball into field goal range.
Stanley Pritchett was relatively quiet, carrying the ball once for 4 yards and catching one pass for 6 yards.
Jerris McPhail carried the ball twice for 8 yards and caught 3 passes for 31 yards. He also returned 2 kickoffs for 33 yards.
Roosevelt Potts spent most of his night blocking in short yardage and on running plays, but he did return one short kickoff for 16 yards.
Charles Jordan lead all receivers in receptions with 5 for 51 yards and was on the way to much bigger numbers when he aggravated his groin muscle.
OJ McDuffie had 4 catches for 41 yards, but did drop at least one.
Brett Perriman lead all receivers in yardage against his old team, catching 4 passes for 75 yards. He was instrumental on the opening touchdown drive, catching 2 passes for over 50 yards on that drive.
Troy Drayton had a big night, catching 4 passes for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns. He continues to get better as the season progresses.
The offensive line played well as a unit, and Marino was not sacked, although the running game continues to sputter.
On defense, Trace Armstrong finished the night with 2 solo tackles and 3 assists, as well as the team's only sack that caused a fumble that the Dolphins recovered.
Next to him, Tim Bowens had another fine night, getting in the backfield repeatedly and disrupting many plays. His stats, though, didn't reflect his effort with him getting credit for 1 tackle and 1 assist.
Darryl Gardener had 1 tackle and 4 assists, although he didn't look as impressive as Bowens did.
Jason Taylor was relatively quiet, getting only one assist after he bruised his quadricep in the first quarter. He saw only limited duty later in the game, although he did recover the fumble that Armstrong forced.
Shane Burton had a pretty good night, but was only credited with one assisted tackle. However, he also recovered a fumble and knocked down one of Mitchell's passes.
Barron Tanner got only one tackle, but it was an unassisted takedown of Barry Sanders in the backfield for a 3 yard loss.
Zach Thomas had kind of a rough night, eventually getting credit for 6 tackles and 6 assists, but he spend a lot of time sliding off of Barry Sanders.
Derrick Rodgers also didn't have that great a night, getting 2 tackles and 1 assist.
Anthony Harris also had 2 tackles and one assist, while Dwight Hollier was credited with just one assist. Hollier, however, also had 2 special teams tackles.
The star of the defensive backs was Terrell Buckley, who had 2 interceptions and would have had 3, but his first was negated by a penalty. In addition, Buckley had 4 tackles and 1 assist and did a good job most of the night.
On the other side, Calvin Jackson had some trouble against Herman Moore, but otherwise did a respectable job, ending the day with 3 tackles and 1 assist.
At safety, Corey Harris did a good job in run support, getting 6 tackles and 2 assists, but was roasted on 1 touchdown pass to Johnny Morton. Harris was also impressive on special teams coverage.
George Teague played the other safety spot and ended the night with 2 tackles and 3 assists.
Tim Jacobs played the nickel back for much of the night and was not very effective. He wound up with 1 tackle and 1 assist.
Jerry Wilson had two excellent plays on special teams, partially blocking a punt at one end of the field and catching a Dolphins punt in the air at the Lion's 3 yard line at the other end. Unfortunately, he didn't add to his sack total this week.
Olindo Mare' didn't put any kickoffs in the endzone, but was hitting them deep. He did, however, make all 4 of his field goal attempts, including the 42 yard game winner as time ran out.
John Kidd had a better day than he's had recently, averaging 42.4 yards per punt and getting 2 inside the 20.
As I said earlier, Jason Taylor bruised his quadricep, but played for most of the game and should be fine for this coming week against the Colts.
Unfortunately, Charles Jordan pulled a groin muscle and will be out at least one and possibly 2 weeks.
This game was a big win for the Dolphins against a very tough team. It was not as complete a victory as I would have liked, but it was good enough to convince me that the Dolphins can play with any team in the league.
Of course, you can argue about mistakes and lost opportunities, but both teams had them and I don't think that the Lions' mistakes were ultimately the reason that the Dolphins won. The Dolphins won this game because they had Dan Marino and the Lions didn't - it's really that simple.
So now there are two games left and the Dolphins must win both to be assured of a Division title. Fortunately, if they do win both, they win the AFC East - their destiny is in their own hands.
This is about as good as it gets. The team is playing better each week and is coming together at just the right time. I think that this team will end the year on a positive note - for a change.