Phins Find Way Back To .500
The Miami Dolphins barely escaped last weekend with a victory. Facing the top running team in the NFL on 5 days rest, the Phins were going to have their hands full. While the team still couldn’t put the Panthers away when leading 14-3, they held on to a victory that brings them to .500 and keeps their hopes alive for a playoff spot.
Tonights hero was by far Ricky Williams who scored 3 times and busted his final score for over 40 yards when the game was down to 3 points. While Ricky was the Phins scoring monster, the offensive line played better than spectacular.
The Oline didn’t open gaping holes on the line, they didn’t open up the outside for Ricky sprints. What they did was play under a lot of adversity as the Phins lost center Jake Grove and back-up Joe Berger to injury. They lost Justin Smiley for a time and then 3rd teamer Nate Garner went down. The unit only kept Henne off his back giving up no sacks for the 2nd consecutive week.
The Phins ran their base offense for all but 3 plays one ending in a Ricky Williams score. Fans also got a look at 3rd team runner Lex Hilliard who opened his play with two 12 plus carries. While one was called back on a penalty, the 2nd went for a 3rd and 16 first down.
On the outside, Brian Hartline and Davone Bess impressed with their play while Ted Ginn made two nice catches on the sideline and got the ball out to the teams 40 twice on kick-off returns.
Defensively, the two young rooks played well on the corners and Vontae’ Davis gave up a score to Steve Smith when he overplayed the route in the endzone. Nate Jones however had two nice disruptions and picked another one off deep in Miami territory.
The team moves to .500 for the fist time this season and will take 10 days to prepare for a road trip to Buffalo before a head on collision with New England a week later in Miami in a game that could decide the division.
