OVERALL SUMMARY:

The Dolphins went into the Meadowlands in New Jersey today, expecting to be able to dominate the line of scrimmage with their offensive line and run the ball on the New York Jets. Instead of the offensive line dominating, they were dominated and the resultant lack of offense gave the Jets a 20-9 victory.

The game started in a light rain at the Meadowlands with the Jets kicking off to the Dolphins. On the Dolphins' first series, they went 3 and out with a dropped pass by Karim Abdul-Jabbar and a sack on Marino. The ensuing punt from the Dolphins' 14 was poor and the Jets started from their 44. Two nice runs by Martin gained 21 yards to the Dolphins' 35, but then Martin was stuffed and Testaverde was hurried into throwing the ball away, so the Jets decided to punt back to the Dolphins.

After Charles Jordan took the fair catch at the Miami 7, the Dolphins went 2 and out after 2 short runs and a dropped pass by OJ McDuffie on the screen. The Jets promptly returned the favor, going 3 and out themselves from their 45 and on the punt, the ball went into the endzone for a touchback.

Now starting from their 20, the Dolphins managed just 15 yards, mostly on short passes before they stalled again and had to punt back to the Jets, who, starting at their 24, also did nothing and punted back to the Dolphins. The ball went out of bounds at the Dolphins' 38.

John Avery finally got a little running going, when he bounced outside for 9 yards on first down and added 4 yards on 2nd down. Then an 18 yard pass over the middle to McDuffie moved the ball to the Jets' 31, but after Karim was tackled in the backfield for a 4 yard loss, the Dolphins stalled and couldn't get the first down. So, on 4th and 8 from the Jets' 29, Olindo Mare' hit a 46 yard field goal that gave Miami a 3-0 lead.

On the kickoff, Leon Johnson returned the ball to the Jets' 40 yard line and Bernie Parmalee had an illegal block below the waist penalty called on him, so the Jets started from the Dolphins' 45 yard line as the first quarter ended.

At this point in the game, both teams were fairly evenly matched, but the Dolphins' offensive line was not getting any push against the Jets' defensive front and not opening any holes. Their pass protection was satisfactory, but their run blocking was dismal. The defense was playing just about as well as they have all year.

To open the second quarter, a series of outside runs by Curtis Martin moved the ball down to the Dolphins' 10 yard line, but after Martin was stuffed twice at the 10, Testaverde threw a perfect fade pass to Keyshawn Johnson in the corner of the endzone and even though T-Buck had good position, he couldn't prevent the catch and a Jets touchdown. This made the score 7-3 in favor of the Jets.

The Dolphins started at their 30 after the kickoff, but promptly went 3 and out again, punting back to the Jets, who started at their 49 after another poor punt by Wilmsmeyer. After a couple of good runs by Martin and a pass to the tight end, the Jets had moved down to the Dolphins' 25, but Calvin Jackson prevented a touchdown by knocking the ball away from Keyshawn Johnson at the last second and Martin was stuffed on 2nd down, leaving the Jets with a 3rd and 9 at the Dolphins' 24. Jason Taylor got around Jumbo Elliott on this play, sacking Testaverde and forcing the fumble, which Shane Burton recovered.

The Dolphins started at their 27, but after 2 runs netted 5 yards and a 3rd down pass to McDuffie was overthrown, the Dolphins punted again. A penalty tacked on to the end of the punt pushed the Jets back to their 10, but they drove down the field on passes to Chrebet and Ward and a 15 yard run by Martin to the Dolphins' 44. At that point, the Jets tried to hit Chrebet, but Patrick Surtain appeared to come up with the interception. However, the officials instead ruled it pass interference on Surtain and gave the Jets a 1st down at the Dolphins' 21. Replay showed that it was a bad call, but the Jets were not able to move any further and a sack by Jason Taylor actually backed them up to the 30, where they were forced to settle for a field goal and a 10-3 lead.

There were now just 30 seconds left in the first half and the kickoff was returned to the Dolphins' 27 by Marion. The Dolphins tried two more plays before halftime, but gained only 12 yards and the final hail-Mary pass by Marino of the first half was intercepted.

At the half, it was pretty clear that two things were happening that the Dolphins couldn't allow to continue if they were to have any hope of winning the game. Curtis Martin was able to run against the Dolphins successfully in the first half, mostly to the outside and the Dolphins' offensive line was getting manhandled by the Jets' defensive front. The Dolphins did a much better job of containing Martin in the second half, but couldn't do anything about the Jets' defense.

In the first half, the Dolphins had just 30 yards rushing while the Jets had 83. The Dolphins did have 2 sacks on Testaverde, but the Jets also had 2 sacks on Marino and had blanketed the Dolphins' receivers.

In the second half, the Jets started with the ball and after a penalty on the kickoff, they started at their 16, but went 3 and out after Mixon grabbed Martin at the line of scrimmage and Byars slipped on a dump off pass from Testaverde. They punted to the Dolphins, who had excellent field position at the 46, but after Marino and Karim Abdul-Jabbar fumbled a handoff on first down, two passes went incomplete and the Dolphins punted again.

The Jets started at their 29, but this time the Dolphins were able to stop Martin and after single first down on a pass to Ward, the Jets couldn't get anything going and punted from their 42 to the Dolphins. Jordan had a pretty good 14 yard return, but after a 5 yard gain by Avery on first down was erased by a holding call on Webb and Marino was sacked on 2nd down, Marino tried to go deep to Lamar Thomas down the right sideline. However, the ball was slightly underthrown and picked off by the Jets' safety who came across the field and made a good play on the ball.

On the play, Lamar Thomas was knocked down by the defender downfield and that play might have been pass interference on the Jets, but the play was allowed to stand and the Jets took over on the Dolphins' 44. The Jets wasted no time hitting Keyshawn Johnson twice for 18 yards and then after Martin was stuffed for nothing and a scramble by Testaverde under pressure left the Jets with a 4th and 2 at the Dolphins' 23, they elected to go for it. On a perfectly executed dump pass to Keith Byars, they gained 16 yards down to the Dolphins' 6 and after the Dolphins stopped Martin at the line of scrimmage and T-Buck knocked down a pass in the endzone, the Jets scored on 3rd and goal with a delay draw up the middle to Martin that caught the Dolphins off guard.

That left the score 17-3 in favor of the Jets with about 3 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter. The Dolphins still didn't abandon their game plan at this point and after the kickoff, they decided to continue running the ball. From their 29, they handed off to Avery twice, who gained 7 yards, but on 3rd and 3 the blocking didn't account for a blitzing linebacker and Parmalee was stuffed for a 2 yard loss on a draw play that forced the Dolphins to punt once more.

The third quarter ended with the Jets starting at their own 30. A 10 yard run by Martin on a pitchout moved the ball up to the 40 as the 4th quarter opened, the Jets continued to drive with a short pass to their tight end and a longer pass to Keith Byars out of the backfield. That carried them down to the Dolphins' 28, but after Martin was stuff 3 times, the Jets lined up for a field goal from the Dolphins' 26. On the attempt, however, Shane Burton drove his man back from the line and got a hand up enough to block the field goal and give the Dolphins one more chance to get back in the game.

The Dolphins started at their 25 with 9:44 left in the game. At this point, they finally abandoned the running game and went with Marino in the shotgun on every play. The Dolphins now drove down the field in fits and starts, with Dan hitting Jordan for 10 yards and Oronde Gadsden drawing a questionable pass interference penalty on 3rd down to keep the drive alive. Marino hit Lamar Thomas for 12 yards and then hit Gadsden down the left sideline for 25 yards before he was pushed out of bounds.

This put the Dolphins at the Jets' 32 and after two incompletions, Marino hit Parmalee over the middle for 20 yards down to the 12. From there, Marino threw 3 incompletions, but now facing a 4th and 10 from the Jets' 12, he found Bernie Parmalee underneath and Parmalee got down to the 1 yard line, giving the Dolphins a 1st and goal from the one. After Karim was stuffed on first down, Marino found Troy Drayton all alone just over the goal line to his left and the Dolphins had their first - and only - touchdown of the day.

However, on the extra point, the Dolphins decided to try something tricky. Trailing 17-9, a two point conversion would have meant that they were down by only 6 points. So they snapped the ball directly to Olindo Mare' and he tried to run it in, but the Jets were more than prepared and tackled him at the 7 yard line, leaving the Dolphins down by 8 points.

With 5:42 remaining, the Jets started from their 26 after the kickoff and on first down, the Jets decided to pass and even though Testaverde was almost sacked in the backfield, he managed to shovel the ball to Curtis Martin for 12 yards. Then, the Jets got another first down on a 17 yard pass to Keith Byars down to the Dolphins' 45. More passes to Leon Johnson for 15 yards and Keith Byars for 11 yards allowed the Jets to move all the way down to the Dolphins' 12 and, more importantly, eat up most of the remaining clock.

However, from the Dolphins' 12, the Jets were finally stopped and ended up taking a field goal with 51 seconds remaining in the game. This made the score 20-9 in favor of the Jets and effectively ruled out any last-second Miami comeback.

The Jets' kicked off and Avery returned to the 27, but a holding penalty moved the ball back to the 17 and with just 48 seconds remaining, JJ put Damon Huard into the game and had Marino sit down. Huard got off three passes, but with time running out, his final pass was a deep bomb thrown up for grabs and it was picked off.

The game ended with a 20-9 Jets' victory, but more important than that was the fact that the Dolphins offense was able to do virtually nothing against the last-ranked defense in the NFL. The Dolphins' offensive line, in particular, was not aggressive enough to open the holes against the Jets' defensive front and this, more than any other single thing, caused the Dolphins to lose this game.

There was one other aspect of the game where the Dolphins were clearly overmatched and that was in the coaching department. The Dolphins were clearly not prepared to take on the dump passes to the backs out of the backfield. Keith Byars is a capable player, but he isn't fast and he was wide open a number of times during the game. The Dolphins never did do much to get coverage on him and it was his receiving that allowed the Jets to run out the clock at the end of the game.

Overall, this was a terribly disappointing outing for the Dolphins, especially with the offense struggling as much as it did. The Dolphins have to get this offense going more if they are going to seriously challenge for the division title this year.

GOOD STUFF:

There wasn't much that was good, but there were a few things. First of all, the coverage on the wide receivers by the secondary was excellent. Keyshawn Johnson ended the day with just 3 catches for 28 yards and Wayne Chrebet had 2 for 18 yards. The corners did their job pretty well today.

The pass rush could have been better, but it did put some pressure on Testaverde and Jason Taylor came up with 2 sacks.

The run defense was lousy in the first half, but they adjusted in the second half and held Martin to 18 carries for 29 yards in the second half and pretty much shut down the Jets' rushing.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

The foremost thing that was poor was the offensive line play. They did not get off the ball, get on their blocks and drive. This offensive line looked like last year's offensive line more than the one that played the first 3 games of this season. They just didn't seem to have much fire today.

Also, the coverage of Keith Byars as the fullback out of the backfield was putrid. Byars ended the day with 6 catches for 71 yards, which is terrible. This is more the fault of the defensive coaching staff than it is of the defense - he was too open most of the day for that to have been the results of just momentary lapses.

The wide receivers are not getting open. Whether it's just talent or the desire to keep working toward getting open, they weren't able to shake the defensive backs at all. Plus, there are still too many dropped passes.

The special teams did not have their best day today. The coverage was adequate but not great and the punts, in particular, continue to be inconsistent and even short in some situations.

The lack of offense today really showed in the time of possession. By the end of the game, the Jets had held the ball for 37 minutes to the Dolphins' 23. If the Dolphins are going to play ball-control, then they have to control the clock as well.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:

Dan Marino had a bad day today, although it was mostly not his fault. He ended the game with 13 completions on 31 attempts for 121 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. The problem was that most of his receivers were not getting open and he had no one to throw to. There were also a number of drops, although not as many as I've seen in the past.

Karim Abdul-Jabbar was stuffed repeatedly today, gaining just 16 yards on 9 carries for an amazing 1.6 ypc average. Of course, he had nowhere to run to for most of the day. He did catch 2 passes for 18 yards, but he also dropped an easy one.

John Avery ran 4 times for 20 yards and looked better than Karim today. However, his kickoff returns were not up to his usual standards, averaging only about 15.7 yards per return. He also caught one pass for 3 yards.

Bernie Parmalee was more involved today than he has been, and while he rushed just once for -2 yards, he caught 3 passes for 37 yards, including 2 crucial passes on the touchdown drive.

Stanley Pritchett caught one pass for 5 yards and didn't drop one today.

Oronde Gadsden once again led all wide receivers with 2 catches for 30 yards, including 1 catch for 25 yards on the touchdown drive.

Ed Perry also had 2 catches for 18 yards.

OJ McDuffie ended the day with just one catch for 19 yards, even though Dan was throwing his way repeatedly. OJ dropped at least one and perhaps as many as 3 passes that he should have caught.

Lamar Thomas caught only 1 pass for 11 yards, but was being mugged downfield.

Charles Jordan caught only 1 pass for 9 yards, but was not bad returning punts. At least he held on to the ball on punt returns today, returning one for 13 yards.

Troy Drayton only caught one pass today, but it was the touchdown pass in the 4th quarter. Another pass was thrown his way, but he was tangled up with the defenders and the ball never got near him.

The offensive line was pretty offensive today, especially in run blocking. The Dolphins ended the day with 15 rushing attempts for 34 yards. They were better in pass blocking, but still allowed Marino to be sacked three times, which is way too many. Mostly, though, they really seemed to lack that aggressiveness which has carried them through the first 3 games.

On defense, Brock Marion led the team in tackles with 11 total and did a good job on pass defense. However, it's not a particularly good sign when your free safety has the most tackles.

Robert Jones had 10 total tackles and was in on a number of plays as the Jets were concentrating on limiting the play of Zach Thomas.

Zach had 9 total tackles, and made a couple of nice stops in the game, but was not as much of a factor as he was last week.

Darryl Gardener and Tim Bowens both had pretty good games in the middle. The Jets were successful running the ball to the outside in the first half, but not up the middle. Gardener had 7 total tackles and Bowens had 5 and both put pressure on Testaverde.

Calvin Jackson had 6 total tackles from his strong safety spot and also knocked a pass away from Keyshawn Johnson in the endzone that prevented a touchdown.

Terrell Buckley had 5 total tackles and registered a pass defensed, but the only passing touchdown was scored against him. There wasn't much he could do about that one, though - except try to grow 5 inches taller. However, the pass he knocked down was also in the endzone.

Sam Madison had 4 total tackles and made some nice plays in the backfield of the Jets on running downs, forcing Martin inside. He didn't have any interceptions or passes defensed, but he did a nice job in coverage.

Kenny Mixon ended up with 4 total tackles also and while he has some trouble in the first half with runs around his end, he got better in the second half as he learned.

Danny Stubbs got some playing time and had 4 total tackles.

Trace Armstrong didn't get any sacks today, but had 3 tackles.

Jason Taylor had the Dolphins' only two sacks today and one of those resulted in a forced fumble that Shane Burton recovered.

Shane Burton had a good game himself, recovering a fumble, getting 3 tackles and blocking a field goal attempt.

Patrick Surtain was robbed of an interception by the referees and had a single tackle.

Jerry Wilson had four tackles today, including one during regular plays and 3 on special teams.

Klaus Wilmsmeyer was very inconsistent punting the ball today, averaging 41.4 yards per punt and shanking a couple to give the Jets excellent field position.

Olindo Mare' had a good day, kicking the ball deep and making a 46 yard field goal. He didn't make the 2 point conversion attempt, but that wasn't his fault.

INJURIES:

Jason Taylor had to go off the field and have his wrist x-rayed and taped today, but he came back to the game later and didn't seem to have much problem with it. There is no word on what the injury was.

Jerry Wilson suffered a concussion on one play and was taken off the field.

Neither of these injuries are that serious and my estimate is that both will be playing again next week.

My Comments:

Football games are won in the trenches and if you don't control the line of scrimmage, you aren't going to win many games. Today, the Dolphins did not control the offensive line of scrimmage and they lost because of that.

Personally, I'm surprised that the offensive line played as poorly as they did. The Jets' defensive line is not nearly as good as the Steelers' or even the Bills' and yet the Dolphins' offensive line was pushed around like they were a completely different unit than had played the last two games.

On offense, the failure seemed to be more from a lack of aggressiveness on the line than from anything else. They did not attack and control the line of scrimmage and that's a recipe for disaster.

Perhaps they have been reading how great they are and had come to believe it. Maybe this will knock them back to reality.

Up until now, I was not that concerned about the lack of a star wide receiver, but I am now. That really showed up today when Dan was asked to drive the team down the field. He did his job, but the wide receivers that the team has just couldn't get open.

Perhaps Horace Copeland can add a little spark to this receiving unit. Something had better spark them, or they're in for a long year.

On defense, however, I have to blame the coaches for what problems they had, especially at the end of the game. They apparently had no defensive plans or schemes for dealing with Keith Byars and his receiving out of the backfield and that is what killed the defense during the last drive.

Of course, the fact that the defense was on the field about twice as long as they should have been also had an effect on them, but that wasn't the real problem. The worst aspect of the defense today was the fact that they let Keith Byars catch so many passes for all those yards.

So, now the team must get ready for the Monday night game against the Jaguars, who are a very tough opponent. That is not an enviable position to be in and they would have been much better off if they not lost today.

On the other hand, at least we don't have to worry about them being overconfident going into Monday night's game.

Related Info:

• NFL.com: Gamebook
• CBS Sportsline: Jets 20, Dolphins 9
• Dolphins Endzone: From the Game