OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins arrived in Denver on Sunday night for the first game of the regular season with the goal of avenging their playoff loss to the Broncos last January and of establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the NFL. To do this, it would be necessary to defeat last year's SuperBowl champions on their home turf in a place that is notoriously tough to play.

The Dolphins came away from Mile-High stadium having accomplished both objectives with a thorough drubbing of the Denver Broncos by the score of 38 to 21. It was a game in which the Dolphins started off slowly in the first quarter, but stepped up their play in the second quarter to the point where they dominated in almost every facet of the game.

Even though the stats do not conclusively show the Dolphins' dominance, they controlled the game completely from the start of the second quarter to the end of the game. It's not clear why the Dolphins were so wound up at the beginning of the game, but after they settled down, they were in control of their destiny from then on.

The game started at 7:00 PM local time in Denver and at gametime it was in the low 60s and dry. The Dolphins had RB Cecil Collins, LB Anthony Harris, FB Stanley Pritchett, C Grey Ruegamer, WR Larry Shannon, DE Dimitrius Underwood and DT Antoine Simpson inactive for the game, while QB Jim Druckenmiller was the emergency quarterback on the sidelines.

The Broncos took the opening kickoff and marched straight down the field, mostly on short passes from Brian Griese to his receivers. He moved the team to the Denver 39 and from there, drilled Ed McCaffery on a deep pass right down the center of the Miami defense for 61 yards and a touchdown. On the play, McCaffery just ran straight up the field and Brock Marion and Shawn Wooden let McCaffery run between them. Once he had 2 steps on Marion, Griese hit him perfectly in stride, which gave the Broncos a 7-0 lead.

On the second play of this first Broncos' series, Rod Smith caught a short pass that was jarred loose at the Bronco 30. The referees ruled that Smith had never had possession of the ball and that the pass was incomplete. JJ challenged the call and the replay seemed to indicate that Smith had made the catch and fumbled, but the officials did not overturn the call and so it stood.

Following Denver's first touchdown, both teams had short series in which they went 3 and out (or 4 and out for the Dolphins) and then Miami managed to drive to the Denver 44 before having to punt again. During this period, the Dolphins dropped an interception, had several stupid penalties (offsides; illegal use of hands) and T-Buck muffed a punt return. This is in addition to the blown coverage on the Denver touchdown.

I was not feeling particularly hopeful at the end of the first quarter. Denver had gotten the ball back at their 20 and were working on another drive assisted by Miami penalties. About the only thing good for Miami in the first quarter was that they shut down Terrell Davis.

The second quarter opened with Denver driving down to the Miami 24, but after Daryl Gardener stuffed Terrell Davis for a loss on third and 1, the Broncos were forced to try a field goal on 4th and 3 from the Miami 26. On the attempt, Lorenzo Bromell pushed hard up the center and got his hands up enough to deflect the ball, which sailed into T-Buck's hands. Buckley raced around the right side of the Denver offense and managed to return the blocked kick to the Denver 36.

From there, it just too two plays for Marino to fire a bullet to OJ McDuffie at the Denver 1 and Karim dived over for a touchdown which tied the score at 7-7.

After the ensuing kickoff, Denver completed one pass to McCaffery before being stuffed and having to punt.

Starting at their 20, the Dolphins put JJ Johnson in the game and he ran effectively during this series. Between JJ Johnson, Rob Konrad and a 40 yard pass to Tony Martin, the Dolphins found themselves at the Denver 12, where Marino dumped a short pass to Konrad in the flat. Fortunately, Denver's John Mobley was out of position and Konrad trotted into the endzone untouched for a 14-7 lead.

Denver got the ball back, but stalled deep in their end and when their punt was partially blocked by Greg Jeffries, the Dolphins got the ball back at the Denver 43 with 1:37 remaining in the half. A pass to Martin and a nice run by KAJ moved the Dolphins to the 10, but a pretty ridiculous intentional grounding call on Dan Marino moved the Dolphins back to the 20 and they settled for a field goal and a 17-7 lead at halftime.

At this point in the game, I was now feeling better, although not completely satisfied. The Dolphin defense, on their first couple of series, did not blitz extensively. However, when it became apparent that they weren't going to get to Brian Griese without blitzing, the Dolphins turned up the heat and began putting pressure on him.

To open the 2nd half, the Dolphins drove straight down the field from their 35 on passes to Martin and Konrad and running by KAJ to the Denver 1. From there, it took 3 attempts, but JJ Johnson finally plunged over for a touchdown and a commanding 24-7 lead.

The Broncos came right back and put together a long, sustained drive themselves, mostly using short passes, to drive down to the Dolphins' 11, where Griese once again found Ed McCaffery in the endzone and cut the Dolphins' lead to 24-14.

The Dolphins went 3 and out on their next series and it looked as if the momentum might have shifted back to the Broncos. Starting at their 18, the Broncos drove down to the Miami 40, but were stopped short on 3rd and 10. Now facing a 4th and 1 at the Miami 40, the Broncos were down by 10 points in the beginning of the 4th quarter and so elected to go for it on 4th down.

The next play turned out to be critical to the game. Griese took the ball and rolled to his right on 4th down, but Zach Thomas blitzed cleanly right into Griese's face and took him down hard for the first sack of the game by either team. The ball went over to the Dolphins on downs and that ended the Bronco's final chances to stage a comeback.

The Dolphins took the ball and drove down the field one more time, finally finishing the drive with a 4 yard touchdown pass to OJ McDuffie on a quick slant. That boosted the Dolphins' lead to 31-14 with 9:30 left to play in the game.

The Broncos didn't give up, but did seem to be moving without a lot of urgency at this point and they drove most of the length of the field to the Miami 23, but with just under 6 minutes remaining, Jason Elam missed a 41 yard field goal wide to the left.

Miami then tried to run out the clock, but a 10 yard holding penalty on Ed Perry moved them back enough so that they couldn't progress and were forced to punt.

Taking over at their 24 with 4 minutes remaining, Griese dropped back to pass, but Rich Owens got to him from the left side and after knocking the ball out of Griese's hands, a mad scramble ensued between about 4 Dolphins' players. Eventually, Jason Taylor came up with the loose ball and ran it easily into the endzone to give the Dolphins a 38-14 lead.

The Broncos did drive the length of the field with just under 4 minutes remaining, but the Dolphins were not playing particularly aggressive defense and when Griese got his third TD pass of the day, there were only 33 seconds remaining on the clock. After OJ McDuffie recovered the onsides kickoff attempt, the Dolphins ran out the clock and walked away from an empty Mile High Stadium with a 38-21 victory and tremendous confidence going into the season.

GOOD STUFF:

The best part of the Dolphins' effort on Monday night was the fact that the entire team worked together. For a change, the offense, the defense and special teams all had a good night and played well. No one part of the team had to pull the other part out of the fire.

The next best aspect of their performance was that they went into a hostile stadium on the road against a high quality opponent and won. Last year, this was something the Dolphins had trouble with, but this year, they played excellent football in a very difficult environment.

The Dolphins' defense played well, as expected, but the Dolphins' offense was surprisingly effective after a lackluster pre-season. Newcomers Rob Konrad, Tony Martin, JJ Johnson and Kevin Gogan all made their presence felt on offense and contributed a consistency to the offense that hasn't been present since Don Shula left Miami.

The offensive line, in particular, handled a very difficult Denver defense in superb style. Marino was never sacked and rarely touched. The running game, while not overwhelming, was consistent and dangerous and the Dolphins converted a high percentage of 3rd and short situations that they would have failed at last year.

Special teams were truly special. With two blocked kicks, the Dolphins managed to turn the momentum of the game back in their favor. The blocked field goal in the 2nd quarter was a huge momentum shift that kept the game in hand. Instead of being down by 10 points, the Dolphins were able to come back and tie it up.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

The biggest disappointment of the game was the safety play of Brock Marion and Shawn Wooden early in the game. Their blown coverage of Ed McCaffery in the first quarter gave up the only big touchdown of the game.

In fact, when a single player makes 3 touchdowns in a game, as McCaffery did, that shows a problem in the defensive scheme in accounting for that player.

Overall, the team got off to a slow start. Fortunately, they were able to come back and perform well, but the high number of mistakes early in the game was something to be worked on.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Dan Marino proved that he can still play the game as well as anyone by completing 65% of his passes for 215 yards with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Even more impressive was the fact that his average completion went for 9.3 yards. This gave him an overall QB rating of 124.4.

Karim Abdul-Jabbar had a very good game, rushing for 60 yards on 16 carries and scoring a touchdown. He also caught a pass for 7 yards and showed outstanding quickness in hitting the holes.

JJ Johnson also did a fine job in backing up KAJ. Johnson ended with 45 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown. While his average was not terribly impressive, he did break tackles and push ahead hard in a manner the Dolphins haven't seen in a long time.

Rob Konrad got the start at fullback and did a great job. He had two carries for 7 yards, both resulting in first downs in short yardage situations. He also caught 3 passes for 26 yards and an easy touchdown. Most importantly, perhaps, Konrad did a good job blocking, both on running plays and while picking up the blitz. He may have worked himself into the starting job.

John Avery seemed to be pretty much non-existent for most of the game. He did have one nice kickoff return for 33 yards, but other than that, the only notable thing he did was to drop a pass on third down.

Tony Martin led the team in receiving, gaining 101 yards on 4 catches for a 25.3 yard per catch average, which is outstanding. If he had been able to keep his feet inbounds on one play, he would have had another 30 yards. He was fast, elusive and caught the ball well.

OJ McDuffie also had a fine night, catching 4 passes himself for 54 yards and a touchdown. His most impressive catch, though, was in the 2nd quarter when he caught a 28 yard rocket from Marino at the Denver 1 yard line despite being surrounded by Broncos.

Troy Drayton caught 2 passes for 21 yards and just barely missed a touchdown on a 3rd pass. More importantly, though, he didn't drop any passes and provided some outstanding blocking on running plays.

And Yatil Green caught his first pass in an NFL regular season game. It was only for 6 yards, but it was definitely a start.

The offensive line rotated Kevin Donnalley and Kevin Gogan at right guard, while Richmond Webb rotated with Brent Smith at left tackle. They did an outstanding job for most of the game, keeping Marino from getting sacked at all and opening holes for the running game.

On defense, Zach Thomas led the team in tackles with 10 and had one of only 2 sacks on the night. He was also consistently in Brian Griese's face on blitzes. In other words, it was just a typical Zach outing.

Second on the team in tackles was Calvin Jackson with 8, but more important than that was the coverage that Jackson provided on Shannon Sharpe. For much of the game, Jackson was in single coverage on Sharpe and knocked 2 passes right out of Sharpe's hands. He also knocked away a third pass from another receiver.

Third in tackles was Robert Jones, who was steady, if unspectacular.

Shawn Wooden had 5 tackles, but was roasted by McCaffery (along with Brock Marion) on the deep touchdown. Wooden played well, but was clearly outperformed by Calvin Jackson.

Brock Marion had 4 assists in tackles and knocked away two passes from receivers. However, one of those passes should have been intercepted and he blew the coverage against McCaffery in the long TD pass in the first quarter. A mixed outing for Marion.

Derrick Rodgers had 3 tackles and, like Robert Jones, was steady, if unspectacular.

Jason Taylor had 3 tackles, but was pretty quiet most of the night until the fourth quarter when he scooped up the fumble by Brian Griese and scooted into the endzone for a touchdown. He did get some heat on Griese, but was not a big factor in the game.

Lorenzo Bromell had 2 tackles, but his biggest play was in blocking the field goal of the Broncos in the 2nd quarter by rushing right up the middle. That set up the Dolphins first touchdown.

Terrell Buckley had a pretty quiet night, but he provided good coverage for most of the game. On the downside, he muffed a punt early in the game that was almost recovered by the Broncos. His best play of the night was on a cornerback blitz when he dragged down Terrell Davis for a 5 yard loss from behind.

Darryl Gardener only had 2 tackles and no sacks, but was an absolute rock in the middle and blew up a couple of running plays by destroying the blocking scheme and pushing his opponent back into the backfield.

Rich Owens had only 2 tackles, but one was a sack of Brian Griese that resulted in a fumble and a touchdown when Jason Taylor picked up the fumble. Owens also was putting some serious pressure on Griese much of the night.

Patrick Surtain had 2 tackles and no passes defensed or intercepted, but he seemed to be slowed down a bit by his groin injury. At least twice during the game he was very slow in getting up from hits and looked slow in coverage.

Kenny Mixon also had 2 tackles and no sacks, but was most impressive in not being fooled by the Denver play-fakes. At least 3 times during the course of the game, Griese faked the handoff to Davis only to turn around and see Kenny Mixon bearing down on him.

Trace Armstrong had just one tackle and no sacks, but put consistent pressure on Griese for most of the game. Also, for his one tackle, Armstrong had dropped back in zone coverage during a zone blitz on 3rd down. Griese managed to dump the ball to Shannon Sharpe, but Armstrong was right there in pass coverage and took Sharpe down well short of the first down. He looked like a great linebacker on that play.

Sam Madison had 1 tackle and 2 passes defensed, but also dropped an interception and had a couple of penalties. However, he routinely drew the toughest coverage assignments and was very effective.

Jerry Wilson had a tackle on regular defense and one on special teams. And Ray Hill knocked down a pass intended for Ed McCaffery.

Tim Bowens only recorded one tackle, but like Gardener, he seriously clogged the middle of the line and was instrumental in limiting the Denver offense in rushing.

Greg Jeffries had one tackle and partially blocked a punt, even though the punt wasn't part of the official stats.

Dwight Hollier had 2 special teams tackles, but his biggest contribution of the night was in recovering T-Buck's fumbled punt.

OJ Brigance had a special teams tackle.

Olindo Mare' hit his only field goal attempt and put all 7 of his kickoffs deep, of which only 4 were returnable.

Brent Bartholemew had a very good night. Of 4 punts, two were fair catches, one was a touchback and only one was returned for just 3 yards. His longest punt was about 47 yards, but his hangtime was terrific and he put 1 inside the 20.

INJURIES:

Kenny Mixon suffered an ankle sprain, but it's not considered serious and he should be back for Arizona. If he doesn't make it back against the Cardinals, Rich Owens will probably start in his place.

Patrick Surtain was banged up pretty good during the game, but he should also be OK for Sunday.

My Comments:

While this game scared me to death, both before and during the game, I have to admit that this game worked out about as well as I could have hoped. The Dolphins were clearly the better team in this game and won in a decisive fashion.

I had thought, initially, that the Dolphins would not be able to move the ball well on the Denver defense. Fortunately, I was wrong.

The addition of Tony Martin, Rob Konrad, Kevin Gogan and the return of Troy Drayton and Mark Dixon had a much bigger impact than I had imagined. And the addition of Dale Carter to Denver had a much smaller impact than I imagined.

Carter did get the task of covering Martin, but despite that, Martin caught 4 passes for 101 yards - that's just over 25 yards per catch.

The Dolphins both ran and passed pretty well against Denver and this was a pleasant surprise to me. The offense scored 31 points against a defense that limited them to 3 points in January.

The defense got off to a rough start, which seems to have become a Miami trademark this year, but after the first series, they got their act together and made life very difficult for the Broncos. The first series showed them that they had to blitz Griese in order to get pressure on him and they blitzed him all game long, with success.

No, there weren't a lot of sacks and there were no interceptions (although both Madison and Marion dropped easy picks), but that isn't all there is to pressure on the quarterback. The Dolphins did more than enough to disrupt the Denver passing game and that was their main goal.

And they stuffed Terrell Davis and the Denver running attack. It wasn't quite as dominating a performance as it was back in December, but it was more than good enough. The return of Bowens to the lineup helped keep those running lanes closed and allowed the Dolphins to gang up on Davis.

Overall, it was as complete a performance by the team as I've seen in many years. The only complaint I have is that the Dolphins slow start made me nervous for way too long (almost a whole hour!) and I wasn't enjoying the game until mid-way through the 2nd quarter.

From the game, I think that there are a couple of potential changes - or rather, non-changes - that JJ may make to the depth chart for Sunday against the Cardinals.

I think that Rob Konrad is too good to put on the bench, even if Pritchett is healthy. Visions of Daryl Johnston (who, like Konrad, went to Syracuse) will dance in JJ's head this week and Konrad (who even looks like Johnston - sort of) will keep the starting job this week and probably for the rest of the year.

I think that Calvin Jackson has put Shawn Wooden back into the number 2 spot at strong safety - maybe. I'm not as sure about this as I am about Konrad, because I don't know what JJ's thinking, but after comparing both player's performance against Denver, CJ had a much better game than Wooden.

I don't think we're going to see Cecil Collins against the Cardinals. I think that JJ will keep him on the bench to rest until the Buffalo game. After JJ Johnson and KAJ performed so well against the Broncos, there is no reason to risk Collins against the Cards. A lot will depend on how his leg heals, because I'm sure JJ wants to see how he can perform as soon as he can, but I think that JJ won't risk Collins.

But perhaps I should say that I hope JJ keeps Collins on the bench this week, because the Cardinals' game is one of the least important games this year and I don't see risking Collins in that game.

But who's to say - it may turn out that the Dolphins' running game is good enough with KAJ and JJJ. It certainly was against Denver.

Of course, adding Cecil makes the offense even more potent. And if Collins can return kicks - which he did some in the pre-season - perhaps John Avery can take some time off.

You see, if there was one player that I thought the Dolphins could have done without on Monday night - it was Avery. He had one decent kickoff runback, but was otherwise invisible.

Nearly every other player on the team contributed something to the victory (which is a great cause for optimism, by the way) except for Avery. It will be interesting to see what (if anything) happens to Avery this year. I wouldn't look for him to be around too much longer if he keeps being invisible.

All in all, the game was the best possible way for the Dolphins to start the regular season and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.

Related Info:

• NFL.com: Gamebook
• Phins.com: Stats Summary
• Sun-Sentinel: Griese handles a lot - but not the Dolphins
• Sun-Sentinel: Grading the Dolphins
• Sun-Sentinel: Marino expected to earn Player of Week honors
• Sun-Sentinel: J.J. Johnson shakes off injury
• Sun-Sentinel: Dolphins steal Elway's show
• Palm Beach Post: Dolphins are something special in the (thin) air
• PFW: Dolphins have another ring on their minds
• Miami Herald: Dolphins off to a super start
• Miami Herald: Dolphins beat Floyd in ratings
• Photo gallery: Miami Dolphins at Denver Broncos
• CBS Sportsline: Broncos dealt first regular-season home loss since 1995
• Miami Herald: Mile High magic
• ESPN.com: Marino supplies his own Mile High Magic
• ESPN.com: Miami Dolphins/Denver Broncos NFL recap
• Dolphins Endzone: From the Game