OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins started off this game as flat offensively as I've ever seen them. They couldn't run and they couldn't pass the ball for most of the first half. Fortunately for the Dolphins, the defense played much better than the offense and the Bills were also about as flat as they could be offensively. However, starting with the last two minutes of the first half, the Dolphins offense came back to life and with the defense continuing their domination, the Dolphins took charge of the second half and delivered a 13-7 victory in Joe Robbie Stadium.

Consider this little statistic - the Dolphins and the Bills each punted 5 times in the first half. I don't think that there were 10 total punts in all of the game last week, but this week, it was a different story. In the entire first quarter, there was a total of 3 first downs made by both teams. In my preview, I said that this would probably be a low scoring, defensive struggle. I didn't know how right I was.

The game started with the Dolphins kicking off to Bills and the Bills returning to the 25. However, on the kickoff Shawn Wooden suffered a severe knee injury, possibly with ligament damage that kept him out of the rest of the game. The Bills started from their own 22 and after two short runs faced a 3rd and 5 from their 27. However, as Rob Johnson was looking to his right, center Dusty Zeigler snapped the ball and it went right by him. He managed to get back to the ball and fall on it, but Zach Thomas was right there and touched him down.

After the punt, the Dolphins started at their 43, but 2 runs for 3 yards and an incomplete pass to McDuffie forced the Dolphins to punt back to the Bills. Starting at their 20, the Bills got one first down on a nice run by Antowain Smith, but after two false starts and a sack by Jason Taylor, the Bills punted the ball back to the Dolphins.

Again, the Dolphins went 3 and out, with the only decent play being a 14 yard pass to Perry. That didn't result in a first down because of a false start penalty on James Brown and the Dolphins punted back to the Bills. The Bills started the next series with a 12 yard run by Antowain Smith, but then they were stuffed twice trying to run and Johnson was sacked again, this time by Lorenzo Bromell, who played in passing downs for most of the game.

After the punt, the Dolphins appeared to finally get something going as Karim took the ball on a handoff and after being shutdown to the right, raced back to the left for an apparent 40 yard gain. However, the play was called back by a holding penalty on Ed Perry and after 3 short plays, the Dolphins punted back to the Bills, who promptly went 3 and out themselves after Zach Thomas sacked Rob Johnson on 3rd down.

The first quarter ended with 3 total first downs converted and one of them was from a penalty. The Dolphins had 3 sacks defensively on the Bills, but had run for about 0 net yards and completed 2 passes offensively. There were 7 punts - 4 by the Bills and 3 by the Dolphins in the first quarter alone.

The Dolphins opened the second quarter by going 3 and out and punting to the Bills, who promptly also went 3 and out and punted back to the Dolphins. The Dolphins got a brief offensive flurry on the next series with a single pass completion to OJ McDuffie for 16 yards and their first first down of the game. However, they were stopped again when Marino was sacked and punted - again.

At this point, the Bills, starting at their own 32, put together a drive mostly based on 2 passes to Eric Moulds, to the Dolphins 29. Facing a 4th and 1 from the Dolphins' 29, they elected to go for the first down. With everyone thinking they would run, they used a play fake and rolled Rob Johnson out to the right. While Johnson bought time by scrambling in the backfield, Eric Moulds got open in the back of the endzone. Johnson lobbed a high pass to Moulds, who made a nice leaping catch for a touchdown, giving the Bills a 7-0 lead. Terrell Buckley was supposed to have coverage on the play, but he got separated from Moulds in the endzone and was beaten for the touchdown.

Following a touchback on the kickoff, the Dolphins started at their 20 and Avery got 5 yards running on first down, but a sack on second down left the Dolphins with a 3rd and 14. However, Dan hit OJ McDuffie for a 19 yard pass to the 35. Two short plays again left the Dolphins with a 3rd down and 10 from their 35 as the 2 minute warning sounded for the first half.

On third and 10, Marino hit Lamar Thomas on an 18 yard comeback route down the left sideline for a first down. Then Marino again went back to his left for Oronde Gadsden, who added another 22 yards down the sideline to the Bills 25. After the Dolphins gained 7 yards on a wide receiver screen to the 18, Marino found Lamar Thomas crossing in the middle of the field and hit him in full stride. Thomas ran untouched to the endzone for a touchdown with 1:06 remaining in the first half, giving the Dolphins a 7-7 tie. The Bills got the ball back one more time in the first half, but a sack by Trace Armstrong ended the Bills' last drive.

At the end of the first half, the Dolphins had amassed a grand total of 12 yards rushing on 7 carries. They had gotten 129 passing yards and a touchdown, but most of those yards were on the one series at the end of the half. The Bills had also gotten pretty constant pressure on Marino and had sacked him twice.

On defense, the Dolphins had sacked Rob Johnson 4 times, but had given up 54 rushing yards on 17 carries - a 3.2 ypc average. The stats were a little misleading, because 27 of those yards were on two carries by Antowain Smith and that left 27 yards on 15 other carries, many of those for negative yardage. It was not a pretty first half, unless you love defense.

The Dolphins started the second half with a 41 yard kickoff return by John Avery, but then went 3 and out - again - and punted to the Bills. The Bills started at their 20 and put together a modest drive based mainly on the scrambling ability of Rob Johnson and a 24 yard pass completion to Quinn Early, but it ended when Jason Taylor sacked Rob Johnson on 3rd and 14 at the Dolphins' 44.

The Dolphins started at their own 4 yard line following the Bills downing the ball and finally, on this drive, the Dolphins' running game arrived. I don't know if it was the heat or just some renewed determination, but the Dolphins ran a 10 play, 80 yard drive, with 9 of the plays being running plays. Between John Avery and Karim Abdul-Jabbar, the Dolphins gained 65 yards on the ground including a 26 yard run by Karim and a 21 yard run by Avery.

However, at the Buffalo 16, the drive stalled on 3rd down when a quick pass to Lamar Thomas was batted away and the Dolphins settled for a field goal and a 10-7 lead. However, the important thing about this drive was that it rammed the ball down the Bills' throats and chewed up 5:45 on the clock, allowing the defense to rest.

 After Mare' made a short kickoff to the 10, the Bills started at their 28. On first down, Robert Jones came on a blitz and sacked Rob Johnson. Pressure on Johnson on 2nd down forced him to scramble for 6 yards and he was sacked again on third down, this time by Trace Armstrong. On the punt, the Bills were penalized for holding and punted again, but Terrell Buckley ran backwards trying to make a big play and ended up losing yardage on the return.

The Dolphins went 3 and out on the next series, which carried them through the end of the 3rd quarter and into the 4th, when somebody missed a block on Bruce Smith and he decked Karim for a 4 yard loss. On the punt, Bills' punt returned Kevin Williams dropped the fair catch, but managed to dive on it at the Bills' 9. After Antowain Smith was stuffed on first down, Rob Johnson tried to hit Eric Moulds, but Patrick Surtain had him blanketed in coverage and Armstrong hit Johnson right as he released the ball.

The ball was still pretty well thrown, but Surtain was in perfect position and went up and took the ball away from Moulds for his first NFL interception. After adding in the 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty on the Bills, the Dolphins started at the Buffalo 16. However, after gaining 6 yards on first down, the Dolphins couldn't get any more and ended up settling for a field goal and a 13-7 lead.

Mare's kickoff was short and taken by Sam Gash at the Buffalo 24, returning it to the 39. The Bills started a drive and got a 23 yard run by Thurman Thomas that put them to the Miami 43, but a false start and a holding penalty on two successive plays moved them back to the Bills 48 and when Jerry Wilson knocked a pass away from Eric Moulds on 3rd down, the Bills punted to McDuffie, who made a fair catch at the Dolphins' 19.

Now, with 8:32 left in the game, the Dolphins put together a long drive that would chew up most of the rest of the game clock. It was the kind of drive that the team had hoped to have in the 4th quarter of many games recently and hadn't been able to put together. It was mostly based on running the ball, but a 3rd down catch by Gadsden, where he stretched to make the first down, was also an important play. And there was an offsides on Bruce Smith on third down that also helped the drive.

But mostly, this drive was carried by 9 running plays by Avery and Karim. In fact, the drive was stopped by a holding penalty on Ed Perry on 4th and 2 where Karim looked like he had made the first down, but it was called back. However, the Dolphins chewed up almost 7 minutes off the clock on this drive against a Bills defense that knew exactly what they were going to do.

With under 2 minutes in the game, the Dolphins were forced to punt the ball from the Bills' 46 and the ball bounced at the 5 and went into the endzone. The Bills now had 1:53 left and started at their 20. On first down, Moulds caught a 12 yard pass, but was stopped before he could get out of bounds. The Bills only had one timeout remaining at this point and Lorenzo Bromell sacked Johnson on the next play. With the clock running, the coverage was good enough that Johnson decided to scramble and was tackled at the 36. After a false start, Johnson hit Kevin Williams for 12 more yards, but again he was tackled in bounds and the Bills were forced to spend their last timeout with just 3 seconds left on the clock. Johnson's last pass of the game didn't come close to anyone and the Dolphins won the game 13-7.

This week, the Dolphins played poorly in the first half and much better in the second half. The offensive line was pushed around in the first half, but pulled it together in the 2nd half. The Dolphins' running game gained 12 yards in the first half and 104 in the second. The passing game was

On defense, the Dolphins were much more consistent, only giving up 187 total yards and getting 8 sacks on Rob Johnson. They did give up 110 yards rushing, but that's a little misleading, because 42 of those yards were from Rob Johnson scrambling. Antowain Smith and Thurman Thomas combined for just 68 yards on 21 carries, for a 3.2 yard per carry average. And in fact, Antowain Smith had 33 yards rushing in the first half, but ended the game with 34 yards. That means that in the 2nd half, he had 4 carries for 1 yard.

GOOD STUFF:

It was only effective in the second half, but the running game came alive at the best time. The Dolphins ended the day with 116 rushing yards and a 4.3 yard per carry average against one of the better run defenses around.

The defense was outstanding for most of the game and with the exception of the one touchdown pass, they really shut down the Bills' offense. Particularly impressive was the 8 sacks. It's hard to remember the last time the Dolphins' defense had that many sacks. And 5 different players contributed to the sack total.

The pass defense was better than last week, with more pressure on the quarterback and better coverage downfield. The run defense was not quite as effective as it was against the Colts, but still the Bills never could mount a consistent running game.

Special teams did a good job on kick coverage, not allowing any long returns. The Dolphins' kick returns were not game breaking, but Avery did have a 41 yard kickoff return and even though Buckley had one punt return for negative yardage, he also had a couple of good returns.

Antowain Smith was held to 34 yards on 13 carries for a 2.6 yard per carry average and Andre Reed caught just 2 passes for 9 yards.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

The biggest failure the team had today was in the first half. The offense couldn't do almost anything right in the first half and it could have cost them dearly.

And the passing game still needs a lot of work. For some reason, OJ McDuffie is having more trouble holding on to Dan's passes than he did last year. Dan also needs to be more willing to throw the ball to Gadsden when Gadsden looks covered. And where was Troy Drayton?

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Dan Marino was 14 of 26 for 159 yards with 1 touchdown and no interceptions. Of course, one of those incompletions was the weekly required drop by Karim Abdul-Jabbar and OJ McDuffie dropped at least one and Stanley Pritchett dropped the only ball thrown his way.

Karim Abdul-Jabbar had just 9 yards on 5 carries in the first half, but by the end of the game, he had 18 carries for 75 yards and 4.2 yards per carry. He had a 26 yard carry, but did drop the one pass that was thrown his way.

John Avery had 9 carries for 41 yards and a 4.6 yard per carry average. He also had one kickoff return for 41 yards.

OJ McDuffie caught 5 passes for 60 yards, but had at least one drop and probably should have caught another.

Lamar Thomas had 3 catches for 42 yards and a touchdown on a nice crossing route.

Ed Perry had 4 catches for 26 yards, but was called for holding at least twice in situations that nullified important gains by Karim.

Oronde Gadsden had only 2 catches for 31 yards, but both were important. The first was a 22 yard gain at the end of the first half on the touchdown drive. The second was on the long drive in the fourth quarter on 3rd down, where he muscled his way to a first down.

The offensive line was dismal in the first half, allowing 2 sacks and constant pressure on Marino and not opening holes for the runners. In the second half, they opened enough holes to allow Karim and Avery to get 104 yards and Dan wasn't sacked. Someone opened a can of whup-ass at halftime.

Zach Thomas led the defense with 10 total tackles, including a sack. So what else is new? The longest gain made against him was 6 yards.

Jason Taylor was second in tackles with 7 total, including 2 sacks. 6 of the tackles that Taylor was in on were made for a gain of 1 yard or less.

Robert Jones was next in tackles, with 5 total, including a sack on a nicely timed blitz.

Derrick Rodgers was third in tackles with 5 total, although they were all assists.

Brock Marion had a better game this week with 4 solo tackles and stopped Antowain Smith on one play for a 4 yard loss.

Sam Madison had 3 solo tackles and knocked a ball out of a receivers' hands on one play. He also had good coverage for most of the game.

Lorenzo Bromell played in the middle on passing downs and while he only had 3 total tackles, two of them were sacks.

Darryl Gardener, Kenny Mixon and Tim Bowens all had 3 tackles each and all had some good stops for short yardage on running plays. They also managed to get some decent pressure up the middle on passing downs.

Trace Armstrong had only 2 solo tackles in the game, but they were both sacks. Trace spent most of the afternoon putting good pressure on Rob Johnson.

Shane Burton had 2 tackles and got pressure on Johnson also.

Terrell Buckley was beaten on the one touchdown pass and had one tackle. He also returned 3 punts for a total of 35 yards, which is not too bad, but could have been better.

Calvin Jackson played most of the game in place of the injured Shawn Wooden at strong safety and only had one assisted tackle.

Patrick Surtain got the only interception of the game, with perfect coverage on Eric Moulds. He also had a tackle to go along with that.

And Jerry Wilson got a tackle and a pass defensed when he knocked away the ball at the last second.

Olindo Mare' made both of his field goals and put two kickoffs into the endzone, but also had two short kickoffs, which is unusual.

Klaus Wilmsmeyer averaged 44.8 yards per punt and shanked one badly. He did put a couple down inside the 10, but the coverage guys couldn't down them.

INJURIES:

Shawn Wooden had a fairly severe knee injury on the first play of the game and they suspect ligament damage. If that's true, his season could be over. The extent of his injury won't be completely known until the MRI is done tomorrow.

Also. Bernie Parmalee had a knee injury on special teams coverage, but his didn't look as serious. However, he didn't play the rest of the game.

My Comments:

A win over the Bills is always a good win. That makes 2 wins over AFC East opponents this year who have given the Dolphins fits in the recent past.

But what really makes this win special is not the score or that it was the Bills, but that they took control with their offensive and defensive lines in the second half. That is not something that the Dolphins have done well in recent years and it is something that they must do consistently to become a championship football team.

Last year, after two games, the Dolphins were 2-0, but in both of those games, I didn't have the feeling that they had deserved to win. This year, I've been feeling as if the Dolphins are the better team and that they have deserved to win these games.

I think it's the line play that has got me the most excited. If they can keep up this level of play on both lines, they are going to be a very good team this year. Of course, it would be nice if they could do it more consistently, but that will come.

Obviously, there are still some problems with the passing game. Whether it's the lack of a deep threat or the new offense or something else, the team needs to work on that because the passing game is what gives you the biggest plays on offense. While it's important to pound the ball with the running game, if you can't come up with the big play, you end up with a game like the one we had today.

But overall, I can't complain with the way the team is performing. JJ has said that they're going to run the ball and they are running the ball. The defense is much improved and getting 8 sacks against any team, much less the Bills, is a terrific achievement. This is a much improved football team.

Related Info:

• NFL.com: GameBook
• Sun-Sentinel: Miami defense buffaloes Bills
• Sun-Sentinel: Bagging the QB
• Palm Beach Post: Article
• ESPN.com: Buffalo/Miami recap