OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins won their second pre-season game against the Buccaneers on Thursday night by a 14-13 score with stifling defense, just enough offense, a little trickery and a little luck. While the goal of this game was still to evaluate individual players more than it was to win, the Dolphins did play hard right down to the end, when they scored the winning touchdown in the last 2 minutes of the game.

For the Dolphins, Jerris McPhail started at running back and Karim Abdul-Jabbar sat out the entire game. The Dolphins also played without Richmond Webb, Yatil Green, John Avery, Brock Marion, John Bock, or Anthony Harris. For their part, the Bucs played without offensive lineman Paul Gruber, linebacker Hardy Nickerson or fullback Mike Alstott.

The game opened with the Dolphins using their newly created onsides kickoff, when Olindo Mare' hit the ball downfield just 10 yards from the standard kick formation. At first, it appeared that the Dolphins had recovered, but an offsides penalty on Larry Izzo nullified the kickoff and the Dolphins kicked again.

And once again, the Dolphins tried the onsides kick and this time Brian Walker recovered the ball at the Dolphins' 39. From there, Marino put together a drive strangely reminiscent of the first drive against the Redskins last week. Once again, the Dolphins marched down the field on 10 plays, but this time, they stalled at the Tampa Bay 4 yard line when Jerris McPhail couldn't get 1 yard on 2 carries and they wound up settling for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

When the Dolphins kicked off to Bucs after their first field goal, they used the onsides kick for the third time. This time, however, the Bucs weren't fooled and even though the Dolphins might have come down with it, they didn't recover the ball.

So, the Bucs took over at the Dolphin 43. However, the Dolphins' defense was ready for them and stuffed them 3 times in a row, forcing the Bucs to punt.

At this point in the game, Dan Marino sat down and the Dolphins would not mount a sustained drive again until the final 2 minutes. Craig Erickson came in and tried to drive the offense, but he continued to throw high and long and while his stats were better than they were against the Redskins, he threw 2 interceptions and could not move the team down the field.

The running game did not produce either. At the end of the night, the Dolphins had just 96 rushing yards on 31 carries for a 3.1 yard per carry average. While the Bucs did have the 3rd best rushing defense in the league last year, and the offensive line play was improved, the backs did not seem to be taking advantage of the holes that the line was producing. And only Ray Nealy seemed capable of breaking tackles at all.

Erickson played the first series of the 3rd quarter, even though he was supposed to sit down at halftime. JJ was apparently trying to let him shake off the rust, but he couldn't manage to do that and did not look much like a pro quarterback at all.

Chad May took over the offense starting with the second series of the second half. He had his good moments and his bad ones, but he was not very productive, completing just 2 of 8 passes on the night and not moving the team very well at all. Of course, he didn't get much support from his teammates. All the players on the field at that point were either second or third string players and a couple of bad penalties, as well as some poor pass protection crushed the drives.

After Chad May had run three drives, Damon Huard came in and finished up the game, running the final two offensive drives for the Dolphins. On his first drive, he managed to move the team 27 yards before he and Nathan Strikwerda fumbled the snap and turned the ball over to the Bucs. However, on his second and the last Dolphins' offensive drive of the game, he and Oronde Gadsden marched the Dolphins 66 yards down the field for a touchdown that put the Dolphins one point behind the Bucs. The Dolphins went for two and made it, giving them a 14-13 victory.

In general, the Dolphins offense only looked good in the first and last drives. The rest of the time, they looked kind of sad. However, the first and last drives they ran were terrific and gave us an indication of what the Dolphins might be able to do this year.

The first string defense for the Dolphins was outstanding throughout the first half. They stuffed the run well, except for one possession of the first half where Warrick Dunn had some success and they smothered the pass. At the end of the game, all the Bucs quarterbacks put together could only complete 6 of 25 passes and Trent Dilfer, the Bucs' starter, ended up 1 of 12 for 10 yards.

The Dolphins showed a new pass rushing set this week, with a defensive pass rushing line of Trace Armstrong, Lorenzo Bromell, Darryl Gardener and Jason Taylor. This foursome would put tremendous pressure on Dilfer throughout the first half and while they only got one sack against the Bucs' first string, they constantly collapsed the pocket, pressured Dilfer and disrupted the offense.

The Bucs' first string had 7 possessions in the first half. On their first 3 possessions, they gained a total of -1 yards. Their 4th possession gained 18 yards and only on their 5th possession did they have a decent drive, spurred on by a couple of exciting runs by Warrick Dunn. However, that drive ended with T-Buck intercepted a Dilfer pass and their 6th and 7th drives of the first half netted a total of 6 yards.

All in all, when the first half ended, the Dolphins' first team defense had held the Bucs' offense to 68 total yards, of which 4 were passing yards. That's right - the Bucs ended the first half with a net total of 4 passing yards.

The Dolphins' second and third team defenses did not play as well, giving up a total of 171 yards, but still limited the Bucs to just 69 passing yards in the second half. They did give up one touchdown drive in the third quarter, but that was all the scoring they allowed.

Overall, the defense continued it's excellent level of play. The only thing that was a cause for concern was the difficulty they had tackling Warrick Dunn on that one drive in the second quarter.

The special teams had a very mixed night. Their play was either great or terrible. While the onsides kickoffs worked very well, they allowed two long punt returns by Yacquez Green, one of which would have been a touchdown if not for a holding penalty.

Kickoff coverage was better and didn't result in any big gains and kickoff returns were adequate. Besides the onsides kicks, the other big bright spot was when Larry Izzo recovered a muffed punt.

The bottom line of the game was that the Dolphins did not run the ball quite as well this week as they did last week. With Marino in there, it didn't matter, but Erickson could not move the team.

The defense was, if anything, even better than last week and continues to show that speed and pursuit that served it so well in the first game.

Overall, I'd have to call this game a partial success. It would have been nice to run the ball better, but against the third best rushing defense in the nation last year, they were guaranteed a difficult time.

GOOD STUFF:

The play of the offense under Dan Marino and the pass blocking of the offensive line was superb. The Bucs only had one sack all night and that was against the second team offensive line.

The pass rush of the first string was suffocating. Pass coverage was also terrific, with both Sam Madison and Terrell Buckley having fine nights. T-Buck looked especially good, taking one pass away from a receiver for an interception and knocking another down, saving a touchdown each time.

The run defense was generally good, but their inability to contain Warrick Dunn on one possession was a little disturbing.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

The run blocking was not as good as it was last week. While the Bucs have a better run defense, the Dolphins should have been able to run a little more than they did.

The punt coverage was poor against Yacquez Green. I'm sure that Mike Westhoff (Dolphins' special teams coach) was not happy with that and there will be a lot of work on that before the 49ers game.

While the run blocking was not as dominating as it was last week, there still appeared to be some holes that the running backs were missing. They need to work on hitting those holes with authority.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Marino was, once again, perfect. He was 5 of 5 for 48 yards, with no interceptions and no touchdowns. He looked unstoppable.

Jerris McPhail did not do himself any favors at the starting tailback spot. While his stats say that he rushed 11 times for 46 yards (a 4.2 ypc average), he only rushed 8 times for 23 yards (2.9 ypc) with the first string offense and he couldn't get 1 yard on two tries deep in Bucs territory on the first drive. A couple of times he found the hole, but either tripped or didn't drive hard through it. He did look better in the second half, going against the second team defense of the Bucs.

Ray Nealy, while his stats were not as good (10 carries for 28 yards), looked better while he actually broke some tackles. He also had the best kickoff return of the night for 32 yards.

Bernie Parmalee is still the same Bernie Parmalee. He carried 7 times for 22 yards and had once nice piece of punt coverage where he not only stopped the punt return for no gain, but also drew a penalty.

Stanley Pritchett and Jim Kitts did nothing from the fullback spot in terms of carrying or catching the ball. I didn't see much of their blocking.

The offensive line, as a whole, did a good job on pass protection against Warren Sapp and his teammates. Their run blocking was not as good as last week, but some holes were opened for the backs who seemed to have trouble exploiting them.

Charles Jordan and OJ McDuffie both looked pretty good, each catching a couple of important passes from Marino on the first drive. Both sat out most of the rest of the game.

Lamar Thomas, while catching two passes, committed a serious error when he allowed himself to be stripped of the ball in the first half.

Of course, the star of the night was Oronde Gadsden. He caught 4 passes for 82 yards ( a 20.5 yard per catch average ), accounting for all the yardage on the Dolphins' one touchdown drive and if that wasn't enough, he caught the 2 point conversion that put the Dolphins over the top.

A product primarily of the Arena league, he also played in NFL Europe with Damon Huard this year. During the game he caught everything that was thrown his way that was catchable and according to comments by JJ, he may have earned himself a roster spot.

Jamie Reader, Troy Drayton, Michael Timpson and Brian Manning all caught one pass each, but did little else.

On defense, Brian Walker was the tackle leader with 4 tackles, 1 assist, one special teams tackle and the onsides kickoff recovery.

Patrick Surtain was next with three tackles, but otherwise had a poor night, looking confused when he got beaten on a pass for the Bucs only touchdown and losing coverage several times against the Bucs second string receivers.

Jason Taylor was the only player on the first string who had a sack while playing with the first string, but OJ Brigance and Lorenzo Bromell each got sacks of their own while playing with the second string.

Bromell did move to defensive tackle for the first team on passing downs, however and provided a good push up the middle.

T-Buck (Terrell Buckley, for those who don't know) had a great night with an interception and a pass batted away from a receiver.

Sam Madison also had a fine evening and got an interception late in the game, but that was on a very poorly thrown ball that just sailed to him.

Dwight Hollier had the hit of the night when he decked Abdullah in the backfield and forced a fumble (later ruled an incomplete pass). Abdullah had to be carried off on a stretcher.

On a related note, it appears that Abdullah will be just fine. He as movement in all his limbs and no spinal damage. The current diagnosis is just a sprained neck - and a massive headache.

None of the other defensive players really made any big plays, but as a unit, they played some terrific football.

Olindo Mare' demonstrated his onsides kickoff three times and each time he caught it just right. He also made his two field goals of 22 and 39 yards without a problem.

Klaus Wilmsmeyer continues to punt well, making 5 kicks for a 48 yard per kick average, putting 2 inside the 20. His longest was 53 yards.

INJURIES:

There were no serious injuries to any Dolphins' players in this game.

My Comments:

I know it's hard to believe, but this was the first time in my life that I had attended a Dolphins game at Joe Robbie Stadium. I had been to my share of games at the Orange Bowl, but I had never been to JRS before.

Our seats were on the upper deck, courtesy of Stan, and while that sounds bad, the visibility was excellent and I was able to see most of what was going on from a birds eye view.

Most of the first half, when the offense was on the field, I kept my eye on Mark Dixon. I wanted to see how he stood up to the pass rush of Warren Sapp, Culpepper and the rest of the Bucs defensive line. I'm happy to report that I thought he did a good job overall.

On pass plays, he seemed to have no trouble standing his man up and keeping him off Marino (or Erickson). He was not dominated, pushed back or faked out by anyone. He got good contact and maintained his position, and used his leverage to keep his man in control.

On running plays, he didn't have quite as good a night. He was able to drive forward and engage Sapp, but he wasn't able to make much headway driving Warren back. On these plays, it was usually a draw. Warren Sapp was not in on the tackle in any of these cases, but he was not exactly cleared out of the way, either.

However, given his level of experience and the quality of the Bucs defensive line, I'd have to give Dixon a grade of "B" for his efforts. If he'd been able to move Sapp back and out of the way on some running plays, I'd have given him an 'A'.

The bottom line is that he played more than well enough to keep starting at left guard.

I also noticed that Brad Jackson has made the kickoff team, so he may have found a way to stay on the regular roster, despite the fact that he's a third string linebacker.

I think that the defense did miss Brock Marion last night, despite their outstanding play. When Warrick Dun ran up the middle for 12 yards and a first down, he ran right at the spot that Brock Marion would have been, had he been playing. I think that he might have been stopped short of the first if Marion had been in the game.

My observations about the running game center on the running backs themselves. It looked to me like the offensive line was opening some holes for the backs to run through, but none of the backs really exploited those holes. McPhail, in particular, seemed to be a little tentative going through the hole and on one run in the first half, tripped on nothing and fell forward when he could have gotten an extra couple of yards.

Based on what I saw, Ray Nealy was the only back that really broke some tackles and moved the defenders backwards. I believe that McPhail will be looking for a new team in September, while Nealy will end up as the 4th running back on the roster.

And I really want to see what Avery can do with some of those holes....

In the second half, I watched Patrick Surtain several times and didn't like what I saw. He may have been great in practice (although I didn't see it), but in the game he was turned around and faked out several times by the Bucs' second string. In fact, the Bucs' only touchdown was a pass where Surtain had single coverage and lost it.

Sorry, folks, but Patrick Surtain did not look very good against either of our pre-season opponents so far. He is certainly not ready to start. He may develop in the future, but right now, he's not a starter.

Fortunately, there is the bright spot of Oronde Gadsden to consider. I was watching Gadsden most of the night when he was on the field. He is very big (6'3" and 228 - according to JJ) and he runs his routes very well. He had about 7 or 8 passes thrown his way last night and he caught all the ones that were the least bit catchable.

He doesn't look particularly fast, but it's hard to tell with a guy that big. The big guys often don't look fast, but they cover as much ground as the little guys. However, on both his long catches down the sideline, he was at least 5 yards behind the cornerback.

It's way too soon to tell if he can really be a force on the team in the future, but he certainly was a force against the Bucs on Thursday night.

From what I understand, Gadsden has moved into the top 5 receivers on the depth chart. And since JJ will keep at least 5 receivers, Gadsden may have worked his way on to the regular roster.

Overall, this game could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. I'd have to say that I was pretty pleased with most of what I saw on Thursday and that I'm looking forward to the season.

Related Info:

• Sun-Sentinel: Drayton out to drop pounds, not passes
• Sun-Sentinel: Meaningless game was still a kick
• HeraldLink: Donnalley beats defenses to punch (and bite or kick)
• HeraldLink: Special teams extra special
• HeraldLink: Bucs' Dunn sharp; Sapp, Dilfer dull
• Sun-Sentinel: Five things to look for
• Sun-Sentinel: McPhail solid but not spectacular under spotlight
• Sun-Sentinel: Marino -- and little else
• Palm Beach Post: Dolphins Article 1
• Palm Beach Post: Dolphins Article 2
• Palm Beach Post: Dolphins Article 3
• ESPNet Sportszone: Miami/Tampa Bay Recap
• Sun-Sentinel: Dolphins-Bucs
• NFL.com: Dolphins vs Bucs Gamebook