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[ Individual Performances | Injuries | Comments | Web Links ] The Dolphins squandered a golden opportunity to take a significant lead in the AFC East on Sunday as they lost their second game of the year to the Bills by the score of 23-3. The story of this game was pretty simple - Miami left their O and D in South Florida and went to Buffalo as the Lphins, unable to run, pass or stop the run or pass by the Buffalo offense. The game started at 1:00 PM EST in Buffalo in a strong wind of between 20 and 30 mph. That wind would play havoc with Damon Huard's passes all day. The temperature was in the 40s and it was cloudy at game time, but the clouds broke by the end of the game. It was chilly, but not terribly cold. The Dolphins started with Damon Huard at quarterback and Shawn Wooden at strong safety in place of Calvin Jackson. Otherwise, the roster was at full strength. Inactive for the game were Dan Marino, Autry Denson, Kantroy Barber, Anthony Harris, Grey Ruegamer, Yatil Green, and Antoine Simpson, with Jim Druckenmiller filling the role of the emergency quarterback. I could summarize the game for you, but a couple of brief examples of will tell you all you need to know about how the Dolphins played on Sunday. The Dolphins took the opening kickoff and on the first play, ran Collins for 3 yards. But on the 2nd play, Cecil was nailed for a 5 yard loss and on 3rd and 12, Huard threw behind OJ McDuffie right into the chest of Bills' safety Henry Jones. The ball bounced off of Jones and into the waiting arms of Bills' cornerback Antoine Winfield, who was tackled at the Miami 22, setting up the first Bills field goal. While this was the only turnover of the game - which is a little surprising considering the wind conditions - this was about as much offense as the Dolphins would be capable of generating all game long. In brief, the Dolphins' offense couldn't run and couldn't pass. Huard looked confused - his throws were low or behind receivers and even when he would put the ball on target, the receivers would drop the passes. Against Miami's defense, the Bills rushed for 84 yards in the first half and followed that up with 93 yards in the 2nd half. Antowuan Smith had 126 yards on 29 carries for a 4.3 yard per attempt average and didn't have any runs longer than 24 yards to pad his stats. Jonathan Linton added 7 runs for 28 yards. The reason the Bills were able to run so successfully was that the Bills offensive line was pushing the Dolphins' defensive line all over the field. That is very unusual for the Dolphins' defense, but the Bills certainly manhandled them on Sunday. The bottom line of this debacle for the Dolphins was, ultimately, that the Bills were ready to execute their game plan on Sunday and the Dolphins were not ready to play at all. The Dolphins, for unknown reasons, didn't show up to play on Sunday and, as a result, were humiliated by the Bills. Believe it or not, there were one or two good things that the Dolphins did on Sunday. First of all, Nate Jacquet had a terrific punt return for 25 yards that set up the Dolphins' only score of the afternoon. He is a very dangerous punt returner. Also, despite the success the Bills had on offense, the Dolphins did manage to do a fairly good job of containing Doug Flutie in the pocket. Flutie had 1 run of 10 yards, which was his longest. He ended the day with 7 runs for just 8 yards. And Dolphins' running back JJ Johnson did some nice things during the game, including runs of 17 and 14 yards and catching 3 passes. While it would appear that the Dolphins need work in almost every area after Sunday's game, the real failing of the team was in not preparing for the game properly. For reasons known only to the team, they were not mentally prepared to go into Buffalo and win. That is a sure recipe for disaster, no matter how talented your individual players are. I will not go over every individual performance in this game, because most of the Dolphins played awfully. But there are several players that I will mention: Damon Huard had his worst game as quarterback. He only completed 9 of 25 for 65 yards. I don't know if it was the wind, the cold, the pressure or the Bills defense that caused him so many problems, but he played terribly on Sunday. Tony Martin, Oronde Gadsden and OJ McDuffie all played poorly, with Martin doing the best of the three. Gadsden didn't catch a pass, but he did drop a couple. JJ Johnson was the best Dolphins' offensive player, accounting for 60% of the Dolphins offense by himself. He had a couple of decent runs when he had room and caught 3 passes. The offensive line was appallingly bad. While Huard was only sacked 3 times, he never had time to throw and except for 2 runs by Johnson, there was no place for the Dolphins to run most of the game. Zach Thomas led the defense in tackles, but most of them were downfield and not at the line of scrimmage. Partly, this was because Bowens and Gardener were getting pushed out of the way and partly it's because he didn't have his head in the game as much as he should have. Sam Madison had 4 tackles, but was roasted by Eric Moulds on Buffalo's only touchdown pass. Madison bit on the play-fake by Flutie and let Moulds run by him to get wide open. Nate Jacquet offered the only real bright spot of the game for the Dolphins - a very nice 25 yard twisting and turning punt return that set up the Dolphins only score. Olindo Mare' did what was asked of him, making his only field goal attempt and doing a pretty good job of kicking off in the wind. Cecil Collins broke his fibula, the non-weight-bearing bone in the leg. This is similar to the injury that sidelined Zach Thomas for a month in 1997. Collins should be back in a month, but may not be at full speed when he does return. James Brown also suffered a minor ankle sprain, but should be available to play against the Patriots. After a loss like this one, it's hard to know what to say about the team. If they had gone into Buffalo and played their hearts out and lost, I could understand that. But to go into Buffalo and fold like a house of cards? That, I'm having trouble understanding. In my preview, I said that if either team could get a running game going, that team would probably win the game. The Bills got their running game going very well and ran over the Dolphins without too much trouble. And they won the game. Sometimes, it's not so nice to be right. But the Buffalo game is over and even though the Dolphins have been swept by the Bills, the Dolphins are still in good shape for the rest of the season - provided they beat the Patriots on Sunday. Basically, the situation is this - the Dolphins are tied with the Colts for first place in the AFC East and in control of their own destiny. The Bills are now alone in third, with the Patriots and then Jets bringing up the rear. The Dolphins, right now, stand on the edge. If they bounce back from this loss, use it as a motivating tool and beat the Patriots on Sunday, they'll get some momentum going into the final 6 games of the year. They'll have swept the Patriots and own that tiebreaker and they'll stay ahead of the Bills. We're going to find out between now and next Monday how good this team really is. Not in their talent level - which rivals that of any team in the league - but in their hearts. If they dig down deep, come out fighting against the Patriots and beat them at home on Sunday, they'll be back in the race with a vengeance. If they blow it on Sunday against the Patriots, they'll be in very bad shape for the final 6 games. And they'll have let the opportunity to win the AFC East slip away. Now, having said that, a lot of people have written me and asked how I feel about the team at this point after the Buffalo loss. Oddly enough, I still feel pretty good about them. But I'm not ready, just yet, to pass judgment on them for the rest of the season. Ask me again next Monday. By then, I think we'll all know what kind of team we have.
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[email protected] DOLFAN in New England |
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