OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins went into Sunday's game as underdogs, something that they have not been used to for most of this season. The reasons were simple enough despite the fact that Miami had a better record than Oakland - the Dolphins had not beaten anyone but Denver by more than 3 points and were not regarded as good enough to score on the Raider defense.

When they had ended the day with a 16-9 beating of the Raiders, they had served notice to the rest of the league that this team was finally becoming the kind of team that JJ had envisioned since taking over in 1996 - a hard-nosed, pounding team capable of running the football and controlling a game from beginning to end.

The game was a 1:05 PM game in Oakland. The weather was bright, clear and warm and the field was apparently dry, although it turned out to be very slippery. For the Dolphins, Autry Denson, Dan Marino, Yatil Green, Kenny Mixon, Anthony Harris, Kantroy Barber and Grey Ruegamer were inactive, while Scott Zolak was the emergency quarterback.

When the game started, Kevin Gogan was the starting right guard and Mark Dixon started at left guard. Also, Stanley Pritchett was the starting fullback although Rob Konrad did see some action.

The Dolphins started the game with the ball at their 20 and on first down, Cecil Collins rambled for 15 yards outside to the right. However, on the next play, he was stopped for a 5 yard loss and after an incompletion on 2nd down, Huard was sacked on 3rd down, forcing a punt from the 22.

The punt was low and short and the Raiders' Darrien Gordon got a good return all the way to the Miami 29. However, Kaufman was stuffed on first down and Gannon was sacked on second down by Darryl Gardner after Jason Taylor got a hand on him and forced him up in the pocket. After an incompletion on third down, the Raiders settled for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

Following the kickoff, the Dolphins started at their 26, but after 3 runs they faced 4th and 4 and punted. This time, though, the punt was 58 yards and Gordon was dropped at his own 19. The Raiders went 3 and out quickly and punted back to Miami, who started at their 40.

On first down, Huard threw deep to Martin who was open down the middle, but Huard slipped as he threw and the ball sailed. Martin tried to make a play on it, but misjudged it and it went over his head. However, the team settled down and a nice pass to Konrad, followed by a run by Collins got the team going. Huard then hit McDuffie, who wiggled his way down to the Raider 2 yard line. Unfortunately, after JJ Johnson was stopped for minus yardage and Huard slipped and fell trying to get the ball to a wide-open Troy Drayton in the endzone, the Dolphins ended up settling for a field goal and a 3-3 tie.

After this series, Huard went to the sideline and had the cleats on his shoes changed.

On the kickoff, Kaufman slipped and fell at the Raider 12. But the Raiders moved out to their 40, mostly on a pass to Tim Brown and a run by Kaufman. However, after a well deserved offensive pass interference penalty and a sack by Trace Armstrong, the Raiders were forced to punt.

The Dolphins, however, went 3 and out from their 43 on the next series and punted back to the Raiders as the 1st quarter ended.

After the punt, the Raiders started at their 14 and had one good run, but after that were shut down and punted from their 32. Nate Jacquet took the punt and made a terrific runback for 33 yards to the Raider 40, but Miami stalled again and ended up punted from the Raider 43 after moving backwards 3 yards in 3 plays.

The punt was downed at the Raider 9 by Ray Hill. After a 15 yard run by Kaufman on 1st down, the Raiders stalled at their 24 and on 3rd down, Gannon tried to hit Mickens over the middle, but Terrell Buckley was where Mickens was supposed to be. Unfortunately, Buckley ran backwards, trying to avoid tackles and make a big play and ended up getting tackled for a 15 yard loss.

The Dolphins started at their 49 after the pick, and Huard tossed a 20 yard pass to McDuffie to move them down to the Raider 31. After a couple of decent short pickups, the Dolphins had moved to the 18 and on 2nd and 8, Huard hit JJ Johnson with a quick pass in the flat. Johnson was uncovered and raced down the sideline, diving for the endzone, but was pushed out at the 1 yard line.

From the replay, I thought that he had succeeded in reaching the ball over the goal line, but the Dolphins now had a 1st and goal at the Raider 1. On the first play, Cecil Collins ran up behind Mark Dixon and dove over for the only touchdown of the day, giving the Dolphins a 10-3 lead.

Following the kickoff, the Raiders started at their 26, but went 3 and out. Lorenzo Bromell sacked Gannon on the final play of this series and Gannon left the field and went to the locker room to have his bandaged hand examined. Following the Raiders' punt, however, the Dolphins also went 3 and out and punted back to the Raiders.

Starting at their 30 with Bobby Hoying now in at quarterback for Gannon, they moved from their 30 to the 48, before they were stopped by the Dolphins and forced to punt once more.

With 1:50 remaining in the first half, Miami started at their 4 after the punt was downed by the Raiders. JJ Johnson ran 3 times for a total of 36 yards to the 40 and then the Dolphins decided to try and pass their way into position for a score. However, Huard was sacked twice in the next 3 plays and the first half ended with the score still 10-3.

After a touchback on the opening kickoff, the Raiders put together their best drive of the day. With Rich Gannon back at quarterback, they drove from their 20 to the Miami 16, mostly on the strength of a big 32 yard sideline completion to Tim Brown. However, Brown was penalized for an illegal block on one play that cost the Raiders 15 yards and even though they got most of that back, they ended up facing 4th and 4 at the Miami 16 and elected to take a field goal that cut the lead to 10-6.

When the Dolphins got the ball at their 20 after the kickoff, they put together a drive of their own on a pass to Martin and running by Collins. However, the biggest play of this drive was a 36 yard completion to Gadsden who fought his way down to the Raider 18. But Huard was sacked on 1st down at the 18 and couldn't recover, so Miami was forced to settle for a field goal from the 16 that increased their lead to 13-6.

On the ensuing kickoff, Dwight Hollier knocked the ball loose from Kaufman and Miami recovered at the Raider 28. But the Dolphins sputtered badly and when they faced 4th and 10 at the 28 after 3 plays that gained no yards, they tried another field goal. This time, however, Olindo Mare's kick sailed wide right and that left the Dolphins with a 13-6 lead.

Starting from their 36, Gannon completed a 30 yard pass to Tim Brown and after adding in a holding penalty, the Raider were at the Dolphins' 29. But 3 plays later they were still at the 29 after Jerry Wilson had knocked away a pass for Rickey Dudley on 3rd down and they kicked a field goal cutting the lead to 13-9.

On the kickoff, Brock Marion had a 37 yard return to the 45, but the Dolphins got no yards and after Huard was sacked and threw an incompletion on third down, the Dolphins punted back to the Raiders.

The Raiders started at their 30 and managed 1 first down before they were stuffed at their 46 and punted back to the Dolphins to open the 4th quarter.

With 14:43 left in the game, the Dolphins put together a long, time consuming drive that started at their 18. Some excellent running by JJ Johnson, a quarterback draw on third and 2 by Damon Huard and a 28 yard pass to Oronde Gadsden on 3rd and 13 moved the Dolphins down to the Raider 23, where the Dolphins faced 3rd and 1. It took two shots, but finally on 4th and 1, Huard squirmed over for a first down to the Raider 21.

Following 2 carries by Johnson for 9 yards and an incomplete pass, the Dolphins again faced 4th and 1 at the Raider 12. This time, however, the Dolphins tried to run Cecil Collins to gain the yard and he was swarmed in the backfield for a 1 yard loss.

The drive ultimately failed to produce any points, but it ran 7:44 off the clock and kept the Raider offense off the field. The Raiders took over at their 12 with 6:59 remaining in the game, but quickly threw two incompletions and were stuffed on 3rd and 10 when they tried to fool the Dolphins with a run. They punted from their 13 with 6:00 remaining.

Nate Jacquet took the punt and raced 25 yards from the Dolphins' 36 to the Raider 39 before being take down, giving the Dolphins excellent field position. After a short run by Collins and a pass to Tony Martin, the Dolphins were now down to the Raider 23. On 1st down, it appeared that Collins ripped off an 18 yard run to the Raider 5, but the Dolphins were called for holding and now faced 1st and 20 from the 33. They managed to get back to the 26, but this time they settled for a field goal on 4th down instead of going for it.

This score increased the lead to 16-9 and even if the Raiders scored a touchdown at this point in the game, the worst that would have happened would have been an overtime period.

On the subsequent kickoff, Olindo Mare' pulled an uncharacteristic blunder and knocked the ball out of bounds, giving the Raiders the ball at their 40 with 3:21 remaining. The Raiders took advantage of this with a pass to Tim Brown to the Miami 46 and then were able to add 8 yards on a pass interference call on Terrell Buckley.

However, with 1st and 10 at the Miami 38, Jerry Wilson was able to break up a pass to Rickey Dudley that forced a 2nd and 10. On 2nd down, Trace Armstrong broke inside of his man and sacked Gannon for a 7 yard loss. Now, on 3rd and 17 from the Miami 45, Jason Taylor used his speed to get outside of the tackle and grabbed Gannon from behind, taking him down for another 7 yard loss. This left the Raiders with a 4th and 24 at their 48 with 2 minutes left.

The Raiders, down by a touchdown and having 2 timeouts remaining, elected to punt and the ball was downed at the Miami 16.

At this point, the situation was that there was 1:49 remaining in the game. Miami needed one first down to run the clock out because the Raiders had 2 timeouts remaining. The Dolphins handed off to JJ Johnson, who picked up 7 yards outside on the left on 1st down and then got 2 more on 2nd down to give the Dolphins a 3rd and 1.

The Raiders were out of timeouts, but with 1:37 remaining in the game, if the Dolphins hadn't made the first down, they would have had to punt. But on 3rd and 1, Huard handed off to JJ Johnson, who crashed outside around Richmond Webb and ran over Eric Allen for 4 yards. This gave the Dolphins a first down at their 29 and the Raiders had no timeouts left. Huard then knelt down twice to end the game.

All in all, this was a much more convincing win than the one last week against the Eagles. There was no question after this game who the better team was. The Dolphins will still need to get Dan Marino back to make a successful playoff run, but they are getting better each week and working hard on their running game.

GOOD STUFF:

The defense played an excellent game. They gave up only 9 points to the Raiders on 3 field goals and didn't allow a touchdown. They pressured Rich Gannon consistently and stopped the highest ranked running game in the NFL. There isn't much more that the defense could have done.

The running game, while inconsistent, did come through at several crucial points in the game. The first time it paid off was at the end of the first half, when it got the team out of a deep hole. Then, in the 4th quarter, it helped the Dolphins to control the ball for over 12 minutes of the final 15.

And finally, when the Dolphins needed a first down on third and 1 to run out the clock, they got it from some tough running by JJ Johnson.

Special teams played well, especially on punt returns. Nate Jacquet had 2 big returns and his 25 yard punt runback in the 4th quarter was instrumental in getting the final field goal.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

The Dolphins are still having problems with stupid penalties and mistakes. While they improved some this week, they still have up a couple of crucial penalties that stalled drives or caused big plays to be nullified. SuperBowl teams don't make those kinds of mistakes.

The passing game was also fairly anemic, although there were a couple of big catches by Oronde Gadsden. Some of the problem was the slipping and sliding of Damon Huard early in the game and some of it was just outstanding coverage by the Raiders, but the passing game needs to improve if the Dolphins are going to beat the best teams in the league.

The short yardage performance also needs work. While the Dolphins are gradually getting better in that area, they are still, by no means, automatic in short yardage situations.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Damon Huard started his second game in place of Dan Marino and did a decent job. He completed 16 of 32 for 221 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions. However, his early mistakes cost the Dolphins at least one touchdown and while he had no interceptions, the Raiders did almost get 2 picks. He is also inclined to take the sack instead of trying to throw the ball away. He is steady and competent, but he has a lot to learn.

Cecil Collins started at running back and gained 49 yards on 15 carries. He had some nice gains, but also lost yardage several times. He also caught 2 passes for 16 yards. The Raiders were clearly keying on him in the backfield.

JJ Johnson had a breakout game, gaining 86 yards on 21 carries for a 4.1 ypc average. Most important was his third down conversion at the end of the game. He also had a nice reception and run that set up the only touchdown. Despite JJ Johnson's performance, it's highly unlikely that JJ will move him up to replace Collins as the starter.

Stanley Pritchett started the game at fullback and went on to catch 3 passes for 19 yards. He did some nice blocking, but also drew a holding call that nullified an 18 yard run by Cecil Collins at the end of the game.

Rob Konrad played some, did some nice blocking and caught an 11 yard pass.

Oronde Gadsden led receivers in catching 3 passes for 70 yards. On his longest catch, he bowled over several defensive backs and refused to go down. He also had a crucial 25 yard catch in the 4th quarter to extend the Dolphins time-crushing drive.

Tony Martin also caught 3 passes, albeit only for 34 yards. He did have a couple of clutch catches, but was hardly a big force in this game.

OJ McDuffie only caught 2 passes, but both were over 20 yards. He was there when needed and also made a crushing block to help spring Gadsden on his biggest reception.

Troy Drayton did not catch any passes, even though several were thrown his way. However, Huard had problems getting him the ball and he was wide open in the endzone at one point, only to have Huard badly underthrow the ball.

The offensive line had a mixed game, with Mark Dixon returning to the starting lineup. Ultimately, their contest with the Raiders' defensive line was a draw. They did give up 5 sacks, but at least 3 of those sacks can be attributed to Huards' inexperience and tentativeness in the pocket. Also, sometimes they broke holes for the running backs and other times were swarmed over.

On defense, Brock Marion led tacklers with 9 total tackles and ran back 3 kickoffs for a total of 72 yards. There were no big plays by Marion, but no terrible mistakes, either.

Second in tackles was Robert Jones, who had 5 stops. He was instrumental in helping to shut down the Raiders running game.

Zach Thomas tied Jones in tackles with 5 and knocked away a pass. And the pass he defensed was intended for Tim Brown.

Terrell Buckley had 4 tackles and the only interception of the game. It's too bad that he lost 15 yards on his attempted return. He also knocked down another pass.

Calvin Jackson had 3 tackles, including one particularly impressive stop on Napoleon Kaufman for no gain.

Trace Armstrong had 3 tackles, of which 2 were sacks, including a very crucial one at the end of the game. Armstrong seems to play his best football when the game is on the line.

Tim Bowens also had 2 tackles and did a fine job in the middle, putting pressure on Gannon and plugging the run.

Jason Taylor had 2 tackles, including a sack on 3rd down late in the game which sealed the Raiders' fate. He also knocked down 2 passes at the line of scrimmage.

Lorenzo Bromell had 1 tackle, which was a sack early in the game.

Darryl Gardener is also credited with just one tackle, but it too was a sack early in the game. However, he also helped to block the center of the field to stop the Raiders' running game.

Rich Owens and Jerry Wilson both had one tackle and Owens was unusually quiet in this game. Wilson, however, had 2 passes broken up and was continually matched with Rickey Dudley, who is one of the Raiders' better receivers. Dudley caught no passes in this game.

Hunter Goodwin provided blocking and is credited with a special teams tackle.

Dwight Hollier had a special teams tackle that forced a fumble on a kickoff return.

Larry Izzo led all special teams players with 3 tackles, as he usually does.

Neither Patrick Surtain nor Derrick Rodgers are credited with any tackles, but both broke up one pass each during the game.

Nate Jacquet returned 3 punts for 64 yards, averaging 21.3 yards per return. He is now officially the 2nd ranked punt returner in the NFL. And to think that he was cut just a couple of months ago.

Tom Hutton ended up averaging 40.8 yards per punt, which isn't too bad, but his first punt was terrible and allowed the Raiders the field position to make their first score.

Olindo Mare' had a poor game, but only if you compare it to other games he's had this year. He made 3 field goals, but actually missed one, which he hasn't done in 5 games. Also, he shanked his final kickoff out of bounds, which put the Raiders in good field position. Overall, though, he was instrumental in getting this win.

INJURIES:

OL John Bock may have torn his Anterior Cruciate Ligament during a field goal attempt in the game. Initially the injury was reported as a sprained knee, but further information says that he may have torn the ACL. If that's the case, he will probably be out the rest of the year.

My Comments:

As I've said many a time (and said even more frequently this year), as a rule, I hate close games.

Somehow, though, this game never seemed that close to me. Perhaps it was the way in which the Dolphins' defense just kept coming up with the plays when they needed it. Or perhaps it was the fact that the Dolphins were able to actually run the ball.

Whatever the reason, it was pretty clear who the better team was in this game, even without Dan Marino at the helm. The Raiders' entire offense was pretty much limited to Tim Brown and that's not enough to base an entire offense on.

So while the score was close, I was relatively relaxed and confident for most of the game.

Now, there's something I need to address about the Dolphins' running game and that is the running of Cecil Collins and JJ Johnson.

The reason I need to talk about this is that I know people will be asking me whether or not the Dolphins should promote JJ Johnson into the starting job ahead of Collins, based on his performance yesterday.

Of course not.

This is not to take anything away from JJ Johnson. He had a terrific game yesterday and I was very impressed with his running. Between him and Cecil, we have an excellent 1-2 punch. Or perhaps I should say a "2-1" punch.

But during the game yesterday, Johnson benefited from some gameplanning that the Raiders did to contain the Dolphins passing attack. Namely, the Raiders thought that the Dolphins would be more likely to pass when JJ Johnson was in the game and so they took out a linebacker and went to a nickel package when Johnson came in.

On the other hand, when Cecil Collins was in, they keyed on him and played the run almost exclusively.

So you see, the Raiders were stacking the deck against Collins and that had a lot to do with him getting stuffed as much as he did.

Still, at the end, JJ Johnson was in and got the crucial first down that allowed the Dolphins to run out the clock. So I think we'll be seeing a lot more of him in similar situations - but we'll still see Cecil as the starter.

Related Info:

• Phins.com: Dolphins vs Raiders Game Stats
• NFL.com: Gamebook
• Sun-Sentinel: Game 7 wrapup
• Miami Dolphins: Coaches Game Comments
• San Francisco Chronicle: Dolphins elude Raiders' reach
• San Francisco Chronicle: Shaw's defense has no reason to be ashamed
• San Francisco Chronicle: More than injury hurts Gannon
• San Francisco Chronicle: Gruden Admires the Way One Team Played
• MSan Francisco Chronicle: iami Inspired by Its Newest No. 1 Fan
• San Francisco Chronicle: Miami Defense Stuffs Raiders
• Palm Beach Post: Long and grinding road
• Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins at Oakland Raiders
• Palm Beach Post: Mare judges it wrong; kick sails wide right
• Palm Beach Post: Dolphins, amputee inspire each other
• Palm Beach Post: Jimmy lives (and dies) for fourth-and-1 plays
• CBS SportsLine: Dolphins 16, Raiders 9
• Miami Herald: Gadsden leads team with 70 yards receiving
• Miami Herald: No controversy for RB starting job
• Miami Herald: Inspired Dolphins move to 6-1
• Sun-Sentinel: Huard's points outweigh slips
• Sun-Sentinel: Brown receives attention -- Double-teams help slow WR
• Sun-Sentinel: Game seven - Dolphins 16, Raiders 9
• Sun-Sentinel: Just call him Wrong-way Buckley
• Sun-Sentinel: JJ says ...
• Sun-Sentinel: Tailback by committee is back, but who is the chairman?
• Dolphin Digest: Game Summary