Miami-Carolina: Dreams Do Come True—Dolphins Devour Panthers in 24-17 Win

Noted psychic Edgar Cayce once said, “Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.”

I dared to dream of a Miami Dolphins victory over the Carolina Panthers in my preview you can read here . I guess, according to Cayce, those dreams I wrote of were the answers to the questions surrounding the Dolphins' chances in the game against the Panthers and about the rest of their season.

Would Chad Henne play well? Would the offensive line hold up and protect him? Would the “Wildcat” formation be abandoned? Would Joey Porter’s return spark the defense to play well enough to stop Carolina’s prolific offensive weapons? Would Ricky Williams be able to shoulder the rushing load all by himself now that Ronnie Brown is out for the season?

And most importantly, would Miami win the game and reach the .500 mark?

Questions answered; dreams come true. The Dolphins ate the Panthers Thursday night in a 24-17 victory.

Henne played very well, nearly mirroring his performance of five days earlier against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (in which he finished 17-of-31 for 175 yards), this time completing 17 of his 29 passing attempts for 172 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions.

He was especially poised considering both his starting center, Jake Grove, and Grove’s backup, Joe Berger, went down with injuries, and he was left to take snaps from Nate Garner, a tackle who had been playing guard and was moved to center when Berger went down.

Garner had never taken a snap at center in his career prior to the game, and it showed, as Henne bobbled the exchange on the second snap with Garner at center. He recovered, though, and all was well—even if they did practice snaps on the sideline afterward as if it was a high school game on Friday.

Despite all the injuries to the offensive line, it held up exceedingly well, allowing Miami to rumble for 182 yards on the ground and protecting Henne enough that he never really felt a great deal of pressure, and was never sacked as Miami logged 201 yards through the air.

His opponent, Jake Delhomme, couldn’t say the same of his offensive line. Missing starting left tackle Jordan Gross, the Panthers’ quarterback felt the pressure all evening, taking four sacks and being harried on numerous other occasions as he completed 19 of his 42 attempts for 227 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

Miami linebacker Joey Porter’s return from a one-game benching by the coach spelled doom for Jake. In just the first Carolina series of the game, Porter flew by Gross’ replacement, Travelle Wharton, who normally plays left guard for the Panthers, to record the first of his two sacks of the game, forcing Carolina to settle for a 29-yard field goal with 9:31 left in the first quarter.

“That’s Joey,” Miami defensive end Jason Taylor said. “We thrive off his energy and his passion. He came out tonight and had one heck of a game. He deserved it. I’m happy for him. It’s no surprise. That’s what Joey is and who he is and how he plays. He had one heck of a game.”

Two other Dolphins defensive ends recorded sacks on the night against Delhomme, as Phillip Merling threw Jake down for a loss and Randy Starks had one to tie Taylor for the team lead at 5.5 sacks on the year.

It wasn’t the passing attack or the defense that stole the show last night, though. Both the Panthers and the Dolphins have been great running teams this year, and that didn’t change on Thursday night.

DeAngelo Williams rushed for a game-high 122 yards on 13 carries, his 9.4 yards per carry average showing why he’s one of the best running backs in the game. The other half of the Panthers' great rushing tandem, Jonathan Stewart, also contributed 43 yards on the ground on 12 carries.

Neither running back, though, was the star of the show last night. The spotlight was almost exclusively on the Dolphins’ Ricky Williams.

When Miami running back Ronnie Brown went down for the season with a foot injury in the game against the Buccaneers this past Sunday, most thought the Dolphins' running game would suffer serious damage. They also believed the “Wildcat” formation would have to be completely abandoned, and that Ricky Williams, at 32 years of age, simply couldn’t shoulder the load.

They were wrong. They apparently don’t dream like I do. I dreamed Miami’s rushing attack would be fine, that the Dolphins would continue to use the “Wildcat” when needed, and that Ricky Williams would rush for 120 yards.

Well, I missed that last one by a yard, as I also missed predicting the score by four points (I predicted a Miami victory over Carolina, 24-13). Ricky Williams rushed for 119 yards on 22 carries, running for two touchdowns, including a spectacular 46-yard touchdown dash with 3:55 left to play that sealed the win.

He also caught a touchdown, giving him three on the night, as he hauled in a Henne 14-yard touchdown toss with 3:57 left in the second quarter, giving Miami its first lead of the game, 7-3.

This was the first time in Williams' career he caught a touchdown pass in the same game he ran for one. He scored his second touchdown of the night just three minutes later on a one-yard run to the right, with 0:57 left on the clock in the half, giving the Dolphins a 14-3 halftime lead.

The Panthers didn’t just lay down quietly in this contest, though.

Even after Williams' third touchdown that gave the Dolphins a 24-14 lead with just under four minutes to play, the Panthers marched down the field and got a 48-yard field goal from John Kasay. After forcing the ‘Phins to punt on their next possession, they still had one last chance to tie the game.

On that final drive, Delhomme found Gary Barnidge for passes of 29 and 17 yards, but with the possibility of a tie game right there for him from Miami’s 26-yard line, his pass into the end zone was knocked down by Miami’s Tyrone Culver to end the game.

In the end, Miami suffered some possibly crippling injuries, as the aforementioned Grove left the game early in the third quarter with an ankle injury and nose tackle Jason Ferguson would leave the game with a knee injury early in the fourth. The status of both is still up in the air, and Miami can ill-afford to lose either of them for a significant amount of time.

Regardless of that, Miami (5-5) and its fans can still dream.

They can dream that the Jets (4-5) might find a way to beat the division-leading New England Patriots (6-3) this coming Sunday and put the Dolphins just a game away from taking the lead in the division with a win over the Patriots at Land Shark Stadium in two weeks.

First the ‘Phins will have to contend with a very tough (despite their 3-6 record) Buffalo Bills team on Thanksgiving weekend, and that will be no easy task, despite the problems the Bills are facing with their coaching carousel.

Yet, the dream remains. As Walt Disney once said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Ricky Williams and the Miami Dolphins showed last night they have courage in spades, so I’ll continue to dream of another miracle season from coach Tony Sparano and the boys from South Beach.

Quote taken from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel recap of the game.