Dolphins Are Once Glitzy, Twice Shy In Home Opener
Playmakers wanted. Now.
By JANIE CAMPBELL
Updated 1:30 PM EDT, Tue, Sep 22, 2009
They established a ground game and earned 239 yards the hard way.
They possessed the ball for over three-quarters of the game.
They rode the Wildcat 12 times for 107 yards on its birthday.
They converted 15 of 21 third-down attempts and never turned the ball over.
They led by three heading into the final three minutes.
Their orange carpet was trod by the feet of the famous.
But a superb effort that found the Dolphins running their offense to near perfection wasn't enough to compensate for Peyton Manning's maddening precision (or Miami's defensive backs, to whom we're no longer speaking), and Chad Pennington & company have started the season 0-2 after falling to the Colts 23-27.
Three minutes, and South Florida would be celebrating the return of a team they couldn't find on the field last week in Atlanta. After the Colts scored on their very first play from scrimmage -- an 80-yard touchdown pass to Dallas Clark -- the Dolphins responded by slowly and smartly grinding their way down the field and slinging Ronnie Brown in for his first of two touchdowns. And that's how it went, field goal for field goal, touchdown for touchdown, until the bitter end when Miami trailed by four and a 3-minute drill (it's real, and it's unremarkable) made it to the 30 and then deflated.
The difference? Manning was scoring in seconds on touchdown possessions, while Miami chewed up the clock. It was all well and good until the Dolphins couldn't do in 3:19 what the Colts had just done in only 32 seconds: score a go-ahead touchdown. There were clock management issues, to be sure, but what really hurts Miami is not having a go-to playmaker who steps up when it counts.
Instead, there's Ted Ginn, Jr., a first-round pick covered only by a rookie free agent, who couldn't hang on to the ball in the end zone with :27 left.
The Dolphins' 42 minutes of good play -- Jake Long is back, everyone -- just makes the loss that much more frustrating. The team finds itself two down and in the unenviable position of having to improve almost beyond its capacity if it is to win and keep winning. What more can a coach ask for than to limit a Hall of Fame quarterback to 15 minutes on the field?
"It's really disheartening," Miami coach Tony Sparano said. "That's exactly the formula to beat that team."
But at least one part of the game lived up to its billing: with Venus, Serena, Gloria, Emilio, J-Lo, Marc, and Jimmy on hand -- not to mention Ochocinco, Wade, T-Pain ("I want some nachos"), Helio, and Tiger -- the glitzy home opener had everything Stephen Ross was promising fans.
Too bad he never promised a win.
Janie Campbell wonders how many minority owners -- or bullet wounds -- Marvin Harrison would [allegedly] cost. Her work has appeared in irreverent sports sites around the Internet.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Sep 21, 2009 11:20 PM EDT
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