OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins won their first road playoff game in 28 years on Sunday, defeating the Seattle Seahawks 20-17 on the strength of an amazing defense, a decent running game and some vintage late-game heroics by Dan Marino. It was one of the most complete games the Dolphins have played this year and it set the stage for a great game in Jacksonville this weekend.

The game started at about 4:05 PM, EST in the Kingdome in Seattle. Inactive players for the Dolphins were QB Jim Druckenmiller, RB Brian Edwards, C Grey Ruegamer, WR Kevin McKenzie, TE Troy Drayton, WR Yatil Green, and DT Antoine Simpson. The Dolphins' emergency quarterback for this game was Scott Zolak.

The Dolphins started the game by kicking off to Seattle, who began at their 33 after a decent kickoff return by Charlie Rogers. On their first series, the Seahawks threw a couple of decent passes and got some runs from Ricky Watters to move them to the Miami 39, but Jerry Wilson knocked away a third down pass and the Seahawks were forced to punt.

Miami started at their 4 after the punt was downed deep in Miami territory and the Dolphins went 3 and out on 3 running plays. Tom Hutton then got off a good punt from the Dolphins endzone, but because it was so deep, the Seahawks still returned the ball to the Miami 47.

Starting there, the Seahawks moved slowly down the field to the Miami 8, mostly on 2 medium length passes to Mike Pritchard. From the 8, Jon Kitna found Sean Dawkins all alone in the back of the endzone for the Seahawks first touchdown of the game. This put them up 7-0 with 6:18 left to go in the first quarter.

On the kickoff, Brock Marion broke through the middle of the Seattle coverage team and managed to get out to the 50 yard line before he was dropped from behind. The Dolphins started this drive with a 17 yard pass to OJ McDuffie and after adding a couple of nice runs by JJ Johnson, found themselves with a 3rd and 6 at the Seattle 18. Marino then hit Tony Martin for 5 yards, but facing a 4th and 1 at the Seattle 13, the Dolphins settled for an Olindo Mare' field goal and a 7-3 score.

The Seahawks took the kickoff out to their 34, but were stopped by the Dolphins and punted after 3 downs from their own 40.

The Dolphins started at their 23 and, mostly using the running of JJ Johnson in short runs, moved down to the Seattle 45 before they stalled and Tom Hutton punted again, this time kicking the ball out of bounds at the Seattle 13.

Seattle managed to move from their 13 to their 37 on a couple of short runs by Ricky Watters and a couple of short passes. However, on 1st and 10 from their 37, Kitna dropped back and threw deep down the middle towards Sean Dawkins. However, Kitna overthrew the ball by several yards, right into the hands of Brock Marion, who was running deep behind Dawkins.

Marion made a terrific catch over his head with one hand for the interception and returned it 31 yards to the Miami 41 yard line. This was the first turnover of the day that occurred at with about 8:28 remaining in the first half.

On a related note, at this point in the game, Jon Kitna had completed 8 of 12 for 91 yards and a touchdown. That's a quarterback rating of 117.0. However, starting with Marion's interception, Kitna would complete just 6 of 18 for 71 yards, no touchdowns and 2 interceptions. That works out to a quarterback rating of 6.7.

The Dolphins could not capitalize on Kitna's mistake, however and went 3 and out on two incomplete passes and a dump pass that resulted in a 3 yard loss. After receiving the Dolphins' punt at their 22, the Seahawks returned the favor by going 3 and out themselves, with Trace Armstrong getting his first of 3 sacks on 3rd down.

The Dolphins started at their 33 after Seattle's punt and went 3 and out for the second series in a row, kicking back to Seattle, who started at their 19. Putting together a drive on short passes and runs by Ricky Watters (aided by a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty on Sam Madison for shoving a receiver after the both went out-of-bounds), the Seahawks drove to the Miami 32, but Shawn Wooden caught Ricky Watters in the backfield on 3rd and 1 and that forced the Seahawks to attempt a 50 yard field goal, which was successful.

With the score now 10-3, the Seahawks kicked off and Miami tried to get something going with 40 seconds left in the first half, but Marino was sacked on first down by Sam Adams and that essentially ended any threats the Dolphins might have mounted in the first half.

The first half stats showed that the Seahawks had outgained the Dolphins by 139 yards to 69, but that the Dolphins were actually ahead in rushing yards 46 to 38. Dan Marino was only 5 of 9 for 28 yards, but had committed no serious errors and was playing well within the system.

The second half opened with the Seahawks kicking off, but their kick sailed out-of-bounds, giving the Dolphins the ball at their own 40. From there, Marino threw to McDuffie and Hunter Goodwin, moving to the Seattle 46. On third and 7 from their 46, Marino found a wide open OJ McDuffie underneath for 27 yards down to the Seahawks 19.

After a couple of short passes to JJ Johnson and Tony Martin, and a couple of hard runs by JJ Johnson, the Dolphins found themselves facing third and goal at the Seattle 1 yard line. Marino started under center, dropped back and rifled the ball to Oronde Gadsden, who had cut in from the left on a quick slant. Gadsden was well covered by Shawn Springs, but Marino's laser beam pass was perfectly thrown and Gadsden held on for Miami's first touchdown.

With the score now tied at 10-10, Miami kicked off to Seattle's Charlie Rogers. Rogers took the ball at the 10 yard line on his right side of the field. As he started forward, he dropped the ball and it bounced forward, but at about the 15 yard line, Rogers scooped it up and raced up the sideline to his right. When he had dropped the ball, Miami's coverage team hesitated just enough and Rogers raced past them all, dodging Olindo Mare's attempt at a tackle and ran, untouched, into the endzone.

This put the Seahawks back on top 17-10, but gave the ball back to Miami immediately, which turned out to help the Dolphins later in the game.

Brock Marion returned the Seattle kickoff to the 30, but the Dolphins could only manage 1 first down on their next possession and punted back to the Seahawks from their 41. The Seahawks, starting at their 16, were pushed back to their 7 when Zach Thomas sacked Kitna on a blitz on first down. The Seahawks got back to their 16 on 2nd down, but were forced to punt after an incomplete pass on third down.

The Dolphins started at their 36 after the punt with Autry Denson in the backfield. Denson immediately ripped off a 17 yard run, followed by an 11 yard run to move Miami to the Seattle 36. That would pretty much end his effectiveness for the day, but those 2 runs put Miami in field goal position and after the Dolphins stalled, Olindo Mare' hit a 50 yard field goal from the Seattle 32 to make the score 17-13 with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Dolphins had Olindo Mare' make his famous onsides kick from the regular kickoff formation and Shawn Wooden recovered the highly bouncing ball at the Miami 43. Unfortunately, a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty on Hunter Goodwin for shoving after the play was over on 2nd down pushed Miami back to their 24 and they couldn't dig themselves out of that hole, going 3 and out on the next series.

But while Miami didn't do anything with this opportunity to score, it did keep the ball away from the Seahawks' offense. Partly because of this onsides kick, Miami dominated the entire third quarter in controlling the football. At the end of the third quarter, the Seahawks had run 4 offensive plays and gained a net total of 1 yard in the entire half. Mike Holmgren would later say that this took the steam out of his offense and prevented them from getting on track late in the game.

Following the Dolphins' 3 and out series after the onsides kick, Tom Hutton punted to the Seattle 6, where Ray Hill downed the ball. The Seahawks managed just one first down on a pass interference penalty on Patrick Surtain to their 29, but were forced to punt when Miami stopped them again.

Miami started their first series of the 4th quarter from their 40 after Nate Jacquet ran the punt back 21 yards from the 19. From the 40, JJ Johnson ripped off a run of 18 yards, followed by one of 5 yards, but the Dolphins stalled at the Seattle 42 and Miami punted to the Seattle 16, where Charlie Rogers made a fair catch.

The Seahawks managed two completed passes to their tight end over the middle, but then Ricky Watters was stopped on 2nd down and Trace Armstrong got his second sack of the day on 3rd down to force the Seahawks to punt. Jacquet didn't get much of a return on this ball from his 12 and the Dolphins started from their 15 with 9:09 remaining in the game.

After JJ Johnson lost 2 yards on first down, Marino missed Tony Martin on 2nd down and the Dolphins now faced 3rd and 12 from their 13. Richmond Webb then moved early and the Dolphins were faced with a 3rd and 17 from their own 8. Marino, on this play, dropped back in the shotgun and found Tony Martin cutting in from his right on a deep slant. Marino fired the ball down the field and Tony Martin left his feet to snag the ball out of the air. The reception went for 23 yards and got the Dolphins out of a big hole.

Marino went back to Martin for another 17 yards on 1st down from their 31 and after a short run by JJ Johnson, found Martin once more for 20 yards to the Seattle 29. Now, on first down, the Dolphins tried to run the flea-flicker with Stanley Pritchett getting the handoff and turning and tossing the ball to Marino. However, the Dolphins' receiver either fell down or couldn't get open and Marino was forced to throw the ball away in the endzone.

There was a brief controversy as the referees initially called intentional ground on Marino, but changed their call after they decided that the ball had gone outside the pocket when Pritchett had carried it. Once the ball leaves the pocket (the area behind and between the offensive tackles), the quarterback can't be called for intentional grounding.

After an incomplete pass to Martin, the Dolphins now faced 3rd and 10 from the Seattle 29. Marino dropped back in the shotgun and fired the ball to Oronde Gadsden, who was slanting in from the left. Gadzilla reached out to his full height and grabbed the ball, then ran over the defensive back down to the Seattle 5.

On first and goal from the 5, JJ Johnson ran up the middle for a tough 3 yards. Then, on 2nd and goal from the 2, Marino pitched back to JJ Johnson, who started to his left to the outside, but cut back inside the blocking and ran over a defender at the 1 yard line for a touchdown that gave Miami a 20-17 lead.

There was now 4:48 left in the game and Miami kicked off to Charlie Rogers again, but maintained coverage and dropped him at the 23. From there, the Dolphin defense rose up and sacked Jon Kitna three times in a row. On first down, it was Trace Armstrong who got around the right tackle and bagged the quarterback. Then, on 2nd down, Jerry Wilson came on a delayed blitz between the tackle and guard and nailed Kitna.

On third and 24, Trace Armstrong again got around the Seahawks' right tackle, chased Kitna out of the pocket and dragged him down. Kitna managed to get back to the line of scrimmage, so Armstrong did not get credit for his 4th sack of the day, but the effect was the same - the Seahawks were forced to punt from their 10 yard line with 2:58 left to play.

OJ McDuffie fielded the punt at the Miami 36 and darted up the field to the Seattle 39. From there, Miami ran Autry Denson 3 times in a row, but the Seahawks were ready for him and he ended up losing 6 yards on 3 carries. However, that forced Seattle to use up their last timeouts and by the time the Dolphins punted from the 50, there was just 1:12 left in the game.

The punt was high enough that the Dolphins could cover Charlie Rogers and force him to make a fair catch at the Seattle 12. Now, with 1:02 remaining and no timeouts, Seattle tried to put together a final drive to at least tie the game. However, after 1 completion in 4 attempts to Sean Dawkins for 17 yards, Seattle was at their 29 with just 30 seconds left. Kitna threw hard to his right to try and hit Joey Galloway on the sideline, but Terrell Buckley was waiting for him and made a terrific stretching grab of the ball right in front of Galloway. T-Buck then tiptoed down the sideline for 6 yards to seal the Miami victory.

GOOD STUFF:

The Dolphins did a lot of good things in this game, especially on defense. They held the Seahawks to 171 yards of total offense, bottled up Ricky Watters, put pressure on Jon Kitna (6 sacks), covered the Seattle receivers very well and didn't give up any big plays. The longest pass completion by Seattle was a 22 yard completion to Galloway and that was his only catch of the day.

The defense also got two interceptions, the final one of which ended the Seahawks' last chance to tie the game.

Overall, the defense couldn't have done much more.

The offense, while not as flashy as the defense, didn't commit any turnovers or other major mistakes. The running game, while averaging only 2.9 yards per carry, was dangerous enough to force Seattle to respect it and JJ Johnson was especially punishing in running over defenders.

The passing game ended the day with less than 200 yards, but OJ McDuffie, Tony Martin and Oronde Gadsden all turned in some clutch plays in crucial situations, especially on the game winning drive.

The special teams did some fine work for most of the game, only really missing out on one play. However, they made up for that with the onsides kick, the two field goals and the excellent field position they gave the offense for most of the game on punts and punt returns.

And the play-calling improved dramatically in this game. After critiquing their own recent performance, the Dolphins went to a big effort to mix up the plays and were successful in doing some unexpected things. They changed their tendency to always run on first down and always pass on 2nd down. That paid off big in this game and will pay off even more down the road.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

A couple of things could be improved. First of all, the kickoff return for a touchdown almost killed the Dolphins' momentum just after they had tied the score. The special teams can't let down when they see a fumble.

Also, the Dolphins had a couple of opportunities to make some big plays on offense and didn't execute well enough. Marino overthrew Tony Martin on a play early in the game where Martin was at the Seattle 5 yard line and open. There were a couple of other opportunities to make some big plays that the Dolphins didn't capitalize on.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Dan Marino shut up his detractors on Sunday, completing 17 of 30 for 196 yards and 1 touchdown. But most importantly, he didn't throw any interceptions. I believe that JJ's gameplan helped keep Dan better rested until the 4th quarter, when he was needed most. Dan has looked bad in recent 4th quarter games, but against Seattle, he saved his best stuff for last. That's the Dan Marino that I remember.

JJ Johnson gave the Dolphins something they haven't had in a long time - a power back. He ran over a lot of Seahawks on his way to 86 yards on 27 carries. That's not a particularly impressive average, but no one who saw the game would doubt his effectiveness in punishing the Seattle defense. He also scored the go-ahead touchdown and was effective enough for force the Seattle defense to account for his running.

Autry Denson had 2 outstanding runs of 17 and 11 yards, but not much else. Fortunately, those 2 runs set up a Dolphin field goal that closed the gap between Miami and Seattle. He is very quick and elusive, but he does not have the power that JJ Johnson has.

Stanley Pritchett carried the ball 2 times for 4 yards and didn't catch any passes. But he did some nice blocking in springing both JJ Johnson and Autry Denson for some of their runs.

Rob Konrad caught just 1 pass for 7 yards and didn't do much else on Sunday.

OJ McDuffie returned to the lineup with a vengeance, leading all Dolphins receivers with 5 catches for 82 yards. He came wide open several times and gave the Dolphins several crucial catches. He also had a nice punt return of 25 yards at the end of the game to help sustain the victory.

Tony Martin was pretty invisible until late in the game, when he caught fire. He caught the most crucial pass of the game on 3rd and 17 deep in Miami territory and ended the day with 5 catches for 70 yards. This is not the Tony Martin I remember from the early 90's, which is a very good thing.

Oronde Gadsden only caught two passes, but both were crucial. One was the 1 yard touchdown bullet that Marino threw in the 3rd quarter and 1 was the 24 yard gain to set up JJ Johnson's touchdown in the 4th.

Hunter Goodwin and Ed Perry each caught 1 pass less than 10 yards and Goodwin helped out with blocking for the running game, while Ed Perry did the long snapping for an excellent kicking performance by the Dolphins.

The Dolphins' offensive line did an unusually good job this week against a tough Seattle defensive line. Marino was only sacked once and was rarely pressured. The offensive line also opened up some good holes on running plays, although they didn't do it consistently. But they did it enough to force Seattle to respect the run, which was enough to give Marino a little more time to pass. On defense, Zach Thomas led all tacklers with 9, including a sack on a blitz and another time where he forced Kitna to scramble and throw the ball away. He also had two passes defensed and almost had an interception if he could have just held on to the ball. All in all, it was just your typical Zach Thomas game.

Brock Marion had 6 tackles, a terrific interception and knocked down another pass. He did lose coverage on the one touchdown pass that Seattle had, but overall did a great job.

Sam Madison had 5 tackles and knocked down one pass. Unfortunately, he had an unnecessary roughness penalty that cost the Dolphins 15 yards, but was part of the defensive coverage that blanketed Seattle receivers for most of the game.

Trace Armstrong is credited with 3 sacks and 1 tackle of Jon Kitna just beyond the line of scrimmage, but they should have given him 4 sacks. Trace gave us his best big game performance, putting pressure on Kitna and forcing mistakes, especially at the end of the game. He was outstanding.

Shawn Wooden started at strong safety and had 4 tackles, 3 of which stopped Ricky Watters for no gain or a loss in short yardage situations. If that wasn't enough, he also recovered the Dolphins' onsides kick. Another player who had an outstanding game.

Tim Bowens had 4 total tackles and did his usual solid job stuffing the middle and preventing Ricky Watters from running up the middle.

Rich Owens had 3 tackles and a sack, although he could have probably gotten credit for assisting on 2 other sacks. He had another terrific game getting pressure on the quarterback and wrecking havoc in the backfield.

Patrick Surtain had 3 tackles and did a nice job in knocking down 2 passes and in general coverage. Unfortunately, he did get caught in a major penalty, but he'll improve on that with time.

Robert Jones had 2 regular tackles and one on special teams, but otherwise did little to distinguish himself.

Jerry Wilson had 2 tackles and one perfectly timed sack. He also knocked down a pass and provided good coverage for most of the game. Calvin Jackson played mostly as a nickel back and extra safety and had 2 tackles.

Darryl Gardener only had 1 tackle in this game as the Seahawks double teamed him for the entire time. But he was, with Tim Bowens, rock-solid in the middle of the field and helped hold Ricky Watters to 40 yards rushing.

Derrick Rodgers had one regular tackle and one on special teams, but did little else that was notable.

Terrell Buckley knocked down 2 passes and, most importantly, picked one off at the end of the game. He provided blanket coverage for most of the game, also.

Dwight Hollier and Larry Izzo continued to be special teams demons with Hollier getting 2 special teams tackles and Izzo getting one.

Olindo Mare' was 2 for 2 in field goals, with his longest from 50 yards. His kickoffs were not as deep as they usually are, however.

Tom Hutton had his best game punting for the Dolphins so far. He put 6 of his 8 punts inside the opponents' 20 and 5 of those were not returnable. His longest punt was 58 yards.

INJURIES:

The Dolphins sustained no major injuries in this game.

My Comments:

This was an outstanding win for the Dolphins, who have broken the road playoff curse and gotten back their confidence that had been lacking at the end of the regular season.

There are a few areas the Dolphins could improve on before the Jacksonville game, but overall, they played as complete a game of football as they've played all season long on Sunday.

With the exception of the kickoff return, the big mistakes that have dogged the team since the middle of the season were missing against Seattle and that was the single biggest key to winning this game.

If the Dolphins continue to play this way for the rest of the playoffs, there is no reason they can't go all the way to Atlanta.

The only other thing I want to say about the game has to do with the playcalling. The choice to run 16 times and throw only 9 times in the first half not only built up the Dolphins running game, but it rested Dan Marino's arm.

I believe that this was a key to his successful 4th quarter performance against Seattle. At the end of the regular season, Dan had been playing badly at the end of football games, which was not like him at all. In the 4th quarter against the Jets, the Cowboys and even the Colts, his arm strength seemed to drop off.

The reason for this, I believe, had to do (at least in part) with his nerve injury in the middle of the season. If you read the reports of his recovery, you'll notice that the thing that was slowest to come back was his stamina. He was OK throwing the ball 20-25 times, but after that his arm strength would wear down.

In games where Dan threw a lot, that caused him to wear down by the 4th quarter. By not throwing the ball a lot in the first half against the Seahawks, the Dolphins preserved Dan's strength for the second half - when the Dolphins won the game.

It's not a very scientific theory, but I believe that it's another reason the Dolphins didn't pass much in the first half against Seattle.

Regardless of the reason, the game plan worked and so did Dan Marino. It was indeed a pleasure to see the Dolphins beat a feisty Seahawks team to win their first road playoff game since 1972.

Related Info:

• Phins.com: Game Page
• NFL.com: Miami vs Seattle Gamebook