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Dolphins News: Dolphins Out-Stubborn Chiefs 17-14
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Dolphins News: Dolphins Out-Stubborn Chiefs 17-14
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*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Oct 05, 1997: -- Dolphins Out-Stubborn Chiefs 17-14 --

The Dolphins played toe-to-toe with the Chiefs this afternoon in Miami and when all was said and done, they managed to make one mistake less than the Chiefs and come away with a 17-14 victory.

The game started with the Dolphins and the Chiefs both moving the ball only sporadically and each defense playing well. However, after a penalty on a punt return gave the Dolphins a first down at the Kansas City 45, two nice passes to OJ McDuffie moved the ball down to the Chiefs 10 and Abdul-Jabbar ran behind Jeff Buckey straight up the middle for a touchdown and a 7-0 Dolphin lead.

In the second quarter, the Chiefs used two back-to-back drives to score two unanswered touchdowns and take the lead 14-7. The first drive ended in a pass to Rison when Terrell Buckley slipped and fell in coverage. The second was a straight pass to the tight end, who had gotten behind the coverage of Shawn Wooden. In both cases, a coverage mistake left the receivers wide open to give the Chiefs a 14-7 lead.

The Dolphins came right back, however, and two 27+ yard passes to Drayton paced a drive that ended with a 7 yard dump pass to Parmalee after a Marino rollout fooled the coverage. Parmalee took it the last 5 yards himself, getting knocked head over heels into the endzone. The first half ended with the score tied 14-14.

In the second half, the Dolphin defense played much tougher, surrendering only 19 rushing yards and 74 passing yards while holding the Chiefs scoreless. The offense played a little more consistently, but was unable to put together any touchdown drives. However, they did control the ball for 18:06 of the second half and put Mare in position for two field goals. Mare missed a 42 yard attempt, but made a 26 yarder in the 4th quarter to put the Dolphins ahead for good.

The game ended on a final drive by Kansas City, but a heads-up play by Anthony Harris prevented Marcus Allen from getting converting a 4th down attempt late in the game and the Dolphins hung on to win 17-14.

Dan Marino was 19 of 31 for 259 yards, 1 touchdown and no interceptions. Abdul-Jabbar ended up with just 38 rushing yards on 17 attempts, but had an 11 yard touchdown run in the first half on 3rd and 1. McDuffie lead receivers with 5 catches for 86 yards and Drayton was right behind him with 4 catches for 80. Bernie Parmalee caught Marino's only touchdown pass of the day and Lamar Thomas put in a nice appearance, catching 3 passes for 43 yards, but more importantly not dropping any.

On defense, Shawn Wooden and Derrick Rodgers lead the team with 8 tackles a piece, followed closely by Zach Thomas with 7. Tim Bowens and Shane Burton each had a sack and Rodgers and Anthony Harris were each credited with a pass defensed.

Oddly enough, there were no turnovers in this game by either team, but crucial penalties played an important role in this game for both teams.

My Comments:

The Dolphins had to have this game and they won it. They played toe-to-toe with a tough team and came out ahead, although again it could have gone the other way with just one or two plays.

However, I think that it's fair to say that the Dolphins deserved to win today. They tackled well, played good pass coverage for most of the game, got some good pressure on Grbac and were able to stop the run, especially late in the game. They had very few gross mistakes, although Barnett and Jordan both continue to drop easy catches.

The running game showed signs of life, especially up the middle, but was also non-existent in too many instances. There seemed to be a number of missed blocks that were either screwups on Drayton and/or Parmalee's parts or were the result of players being unaccounted for in the blocking schemes.

Overall, though, I think it was a good win and even though it wasn't domination, it was what the team needed and the produced it when then had to.

Oh, and one other comment - if this doesn't put to rest the "Marino will be benched/traded/cut" rumors, then there isn't anything in the world that will. Marino had an outstanding day, even rolling out of the pocket and showed more mobility, arm strength and touch than he has all year.

Dan Marino IS the Dolphins quarterback.

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Curt Fennell, curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
     
   

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Curt Fennell
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DOLFAN in New England