From: chf0@roger.gte.com (Curtis Fennell)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: "Dolphins vs Falcons Observations"
Date: 13 Oct 92 18:51:33 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories

They have got to stop doing this to me!

I can't take this constant stress every week.  My family has a history
of heart problems, for god sake! I just can't take any more of these
come-from-behind, let's-wait-until-the-fourth-quarter-because-we've-
got-Marino victories.  It just ain't good for my health.

Now, don't get me wrong, here.  I'm ecstatic that the Dolphins are 5-0
for the first time since 1984 and remain the only undefeated team in
the NFL.  And I appreciate the fact that the Dolphins lost a lot of
these close games last year that they could have won.  So I'm not
disappointed in them, exactly.

It's just that .... well,.... why can't they play more games like the
Rams game?  You know, get out to an early lead, let the other team
have some points to look respectable and then coast to the win?  Why
can't they do that?  Why do they have to wait until the very end of
the game to pull it out?  I'm just too nervous a guy to be able to
take that, week in and week out....

But on to the game..

The Miami Dolphins dodged a big black bullet on Sunday when they
rallyed from behind in the fourth quarter for the third time this year
to beat the Atlanta Falcons 21-17.   Going into the game after the big
win in Buffalo, I was very concerned about a big letdown against the
Falcons, a team with a very dangerous offense and an opportunistic
big-play defense.  And with good reason, as it turned out.

The Dolphins came out sluggish, but did manage to put together the
first scoring drive of the game late in the first quarter.  I missed
the first half of the game,( because I was driving around town
harassing bartenders about why weren't they showing a decent game on
their TVs before I found a place that was showing the Dolphins ), but
it appears that the Dolphins were playing very uninspired football for
the most part.

The first scoring drive ran 75 yards in 11 plays and was finished by
Mark Higgs' 14 yard touchdown run.  After that, the Dolphins' offense
pretty much went to sleep, while Chris Miller pushed the Falcons up
and down the field using short passes to keep under Miami's effective
nickle defense, which was the same defense that they played against
Buffalo last week.  Unfortunately for the Dolphins, Miller showed more
patience against that defense than Kelly did, not making too many
mistakes until late in the game.

After the half, the Dolphins came back out still looking as if they
had taken sleeping pills and eaten a huge lunch.  Dan Marino actually
had a pretty good day, even though he didn't throw a touchdown pass,
going 20-40 for 250 yards.  And he would have gotten more, if his
receivers didn't look like they couldn't catch a cold in a snowstorm.

On the Dolphins' opening drive of the second half, I saw Dolphin
receivers (specifically Ferrel Edmunds, Bobby Humphrey and Mark Duper)
drop 3 passes in a row.  It was sad.

And while the Dolphin offense was sleeping, the Dolphin defense didn't
do much better. They allowed atlanta to move down the field, pretty
much at will, by giving up the short stuff while looking for the long
ball.  You have to give Chris Miller credit for taking his time and
not trying to force the ball, like Kelly did last week.  And you have
to give the Falcon defense credit for mixing up their blitzes in order
to try and get to Marino.  They only sacked Marino once, but they
broke up a lot of plays by disrupting the timing, forcing Marino to
throw early.

But having given the Falcons credit for playing well, let's be honest
here. They also made one too many mistakes against Miami, blowing
several opportunities to put the game away.  The first one was Chris
Miller's fumble when he missed a handoff on the Miami one yard line
early in the third quarter.  And the second mistake... well, we'll get
to that.

But Miller made up for his fumble by marching his team down the field
on atlanta's next possession, ending it with a beautiful 22 yard pass
to Andre Rison for the TD. This was the perfect pass, as Rison was
well covered by JB Brown.  At this point, the score was 17-7, in
favor of atlanta, the Fins looked pretty listless and I was ready for
their first loss of the season. 

So the Dolphins got the ball back and went a few yards downfield
before punting it back to atlanta.  At this point, Miami is behind by
10, Atlanta has been moving well, and Miami looks as if they're
already done.  So what happened?

Vestee Jackson happened, that's what.  He stepped in front of a Chris
Miller sideline pass, picked off the ball and raced untouched into the
endzone.  And that turned the whole game around. Suddenly, it was
17-14, atlanta, with over a quarter to play and the Dolphins were
motivated again.

And they started to play again. The defense rose up, stopped atlanta's
next drive and got the ball back for the offense.  And then Dan Marino
did it again. He marched the offense down the field, and put them into
scoring position before allowing Mark Higgs to bounce off the line,
and run around the right end for a 21-17 lead.

Atlanta wasn't done, however.  They got the ball back with about 5
minutes to play and proceeded to march down the field to Miami's 15
yard line where it looked as if they might punch it in and win after
all.  But Miami's defense didn't break and Miller couldn't quite put
the right touch on the ball - so after an incomplete pass on 4th down
at the Miami 15, the falcons turned the ball back over to Miami and
the game was over.

It was a tough test for Miami and hopefully a wakeup call for the
Dolphins who played, for the most part, as if they had already won the
SuperBowl.  They were exceedingly lucky to win this one, and while
luck is also a part of the game, most of the really good teams in the
NFL could have beaten the Dolphins on Sunday.  Fortunately, the
Dolphins weren't playing one of the really good teams.

GOOD THINGS FOR THE DOLPHINS:  Dan Marino.  Even though the Dolphins
sputtered on offense before they won, Dan had a decent game, taking
his time, not letting the defense force him into any turnovers and
taking charge when necessary.  Vestee Jackson also had a good game,
setting up the win with the interception return and leading the
defense in tackles with 7.  And overall, the team hung together just
enough to eek out the win.  It certainly wasn't pretty, but it was a
win.

Oh, and I should say that Mark Higgs had a pretty good game, even
though he only rushed for 58 total yards.  He did score the two
offensive touchdowns for the Dolphins and pretty much scored the
second one on his own by bouncing outside after the hole in the middle
closed up.

And the defense has yet to give up more than 17 points in a game this
year.  In fact, the defense has only given up 14.2 points/game so far
this year (remember that one of Clevelands' TD's was on a fumble
recovery). 

BAD THINGS FOR THE DOLPHINS:  They really suffered a letdown against
the falcons.  As far as I could see, the only people playing with any
fire on Miami were Marino, Keith Jackson, Vestee Jackson and Mark
Higgs.  Everyone else looked lethargic and uninterested.  Obviously,
it was a post-Buffalo letdown. They are lucky they weren't playing a
team with a little more talent and little bit more experience at
Quarterback, otherwise it could have ended up being a big defeat.   

Brian Cox didn't get any sacks this game, which is unfortunate,
because he was leading the AFC in sacks.  In fact, the whole pass rush
still looks a little anemic.  If they could get just one player who
was a significant pass rushing threat, they could really do some
damage on defense.  But so far, no one has really come forward to puts
significant pressure on the opposing QBs.

Still, a win is a win is a win - and I'll take it.  I just *wish* they
wouldn't make the games such nail-biters!  I'm getting too old for all
of this....

Curt
--
Curt "I always pick the Dolphins - even against Buffalo!"  Fennell
			DOLFAN in New England.             
'72 Dolphins - The perfect team in the perfect season - 17-0
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro