Dolphins Vs Bills: Dolfan Diaries, A Disappointing Victory.

A day I've been waiting for since January, the Dolphins charge back onto the field. 

And of course being that I fell asleep during the 9am SportsCenter thanks to me being woken up at 4:30am by the annoying noise of my fan, I wake up just in time to see Dan Carpenter boom the kickoff.

Watching the game on TV, it looks like a typical Buffalo day. Grey, cloudy, bad winds. Of course I'm holding my breath on my prediction now, as weather is the great equalizer in football.

But it wasn't too bad, it didn't rain, and it didn't look to be that windy. But the Dolphins D on the other hand brought out the worst conditions for the Buffalo Offense.

Now one thing I know about Buffalo is that the team has issues at quarterback, offensive line, and defensive line, which is why the C.J. Spiller pick makes so much sense.

What doesn't is starting off in the no-huddle shotgun. Pass to Jackson, dropped. Pass to Spiller, batted down. Third down and 10, Edwards still in the gun, but Karlos Dansby fires out like a cannon. Bills time of possession: 46 seconds. Of course, start with three consecutive pass plays when your strength is the running game.

Punt goes to the Dolphins, starting at the Dolphins 49. Seven quick Ronnie Brown yards later, now in Bills territory. A no-gain run, followed by Marshall's first catch as a Dolphin. Up the middle, 13 yards. Looking good so far. 

Then Henne slips like he fell on a banana peel, or like he just walked on a rug placed on a freshly polished floor.

But does this kid have moxie or what? He follows that up with a dump pass to Ronnie, who takes it 16 yards. As long as Ronnie is healthy and Henne makes smart decisions, this Dolphins offense will be good. Of course if they showed more imagination it would be better.

After a three yard run by Polite, we see our first glimpse of the Wildcat. Now here's my deal with the wildcat: There's no reason to be using it against the Bills. None. Zero. Nada. To add to that, with the Brandon Marshall addition, they should think of more imaginative ways to use it. (I'm hoping they are at least, like say for a Sunday Night game in week three or the MNF game in week four.)

After using the Wildcat twice for a combined six yards, Henne is back under center, this time a screen pass to Marshall. The Beast gets dropped. Field Goal time, and in typical Carpenter fashion, its good. 

3-0 Dolphins, time of possession 5:08.

Bills get the ball back, however this time they actually get a first down. Except for field position, a six and out is as good as a three and out right?

Sadly the Dolphins follow that up with a five and out. Bills get the ball back.

Three and out. By the way, I bought into the Spiller hype and started him on my fantasy team over Steven Jackson. That along with my stupid Berrian over Driver decision was the difference between and win and a loss. Which tells me that this year my fantasy team is going to be (oooh, what's this promo) $#*! My Dad Says Coming this Fall to CBS! 

Nice pass by Henne to Polite. Then they follow that up with another 10 yard pass to Marshall, and the end of Quarter number one.

Dolphins 3 Bills 0.

The Dolphins drive continues. Ronnie doing some running, looking great while running it. Henne on the other hand isn't as sharp with his passes, but then Ricky gets a chance to carry the rock for a good three yards. Henne then throws a good pass, however the illegal shift negates that. 

But again Henne shows some resiliency, this time by completing a 21 yard pass to Fasano. See this is where Brandon Marshall helps the phins, not so much with his playmaking ability, but the fact that Fasano, Hartline and Bess will get more open looks. 

Ronnie follows that up by running in there for a touchdown. 

Dolphins 10 Bills 0, time of possession: 5:09.

Bills finally have a good drive. Well, good for them at least. I'm a huge believer in if you start at your own 40 then you should score a touchdown or at least hit a field goal that's within 30 yards, not settle for a 50 yard field goal. I like Lindell but has he ever kicked a truly memorable field goal? I honestly think that good kickers should be on good teams. Bad teams shouldn't be getting free points because they have an outstanding kicker, no need to punish defenses for that.

Dolphins 10 Bills 3, time of posession: 4:04.

Now we have a good drive going. It starts with a nice 17 yard pass from Henne to Fasano. It continues with Ricky pounding the ball in for four yards a pop. Then comes what I like to call the:

TURNING POINT PLAY OF THE GAME:

Now prior to this play, Henne was playing pretty well: 10/16 101 yards 0 touchdowns 0 picks. The play went like this, Henne dropping back to pass, deep to Marshall. If Henne throws the ball another five yards, Marshall is in for a 54 yard touchdown, Henne's numbers would be 11/17 155 yards 1 touchdown 0 picks, and the Dolphins would be up 17-3 with about five minutes left in the first half, and with the cushion and confidence they'd probably be willing to take more chances. If this play was completed, the Dolphins would've won by at least 20.

But it wasn't. Instead it was a typical Dolphins clock-killing drive where they'd have to settle for a field goal. Only Carpenter missed it. A quick Bills drive later and we're into halftime.

Dolphins 10 Bills 3.

Second Half:

Good news: Dolphins get the ball first in the second half. Now for the bad news: its a three and out. Thanks in part to the newly found swagger of the Bills defense, swagger that wouldn't be there had that Henne to Marshall touchdown pass went the way us dolfans wanted it to go.

Then the Bills go three and out. Honestly I'm clocking out right now, the game went from looking like a Dolphins blowout to becoming the typical Parcells-Ireland-Sporano regime trademark win the game by boring everyone-even the fans-to death. The Dolphins proceed to go six and out, followed by another Bills three and out. Same old thing, only difference is the Dolphins bring back the wildcat, while the Bills bring out there version of the wildcat. But same results. 

Overall the third quarter is very uneventful. I fell asleep about 10 or 11 times. That's why I limited it to a short paragraph and a long paragraph, for you, the reader.

Dolphins 10 Bills 3 end of third quarter.

Fourth Quarter.

We start with another Bills 3 and out, I start looking at a British Public Information Film called "Protect and Survive" which is about how to survive a Nuclear war, or the end of the world. Why you may ask? Well I see that the Texans aren't just beating the Colts, they're destroying them, so the information might be a little bit helpful since the end is coming near.

(Looking at the score of the Titans-Raiders game though affirms that we're going to be ok...for this week.)

Meanwhile the Dolphins have the ball back and finally put together a decent drive. With the way the Bills offense is playing, a touchdown seals the deal on the victory. We fast forward as we get to fourth and two at the Buffalo 25 with 9:40 left in the game. Now, I share one philosophy with ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook: fourth and five or less anywhere past your 45 yard line, always go for it. Why? Well by doing that you're playing the averages. The Dolphins today averaged four yards per play, meaning even if they hit HALF their average, they get the first down and can kill more clock. If say they run down each play to the end of the play clock and Buffalo only uses a time out once and it takes them six plays to score a touchdown, then that's a good three to four minutes they use, meaning the Bills would be down 17-3 with less than six minutes left to score two touchdowns. If they fail to convert, then the Bills would get the ball at the Dolphins 25, and as good as the Dolphins Defense has been, they'd have to work pretty hard.

Instead here comes Dan Carpenter. The kick is good. But the game is about to get interesting.

Dolphins 13 Bills 3, 9:32 left in the game.

Of course now the Bills are more energized. They come out in the no huddle and somehow, it works. Edwards to Nelson for 9 yards. Edwards to Evans for another 16. The Bills show signs of offensive life. Every pass seems to be more than ten yards. But then they find some trouble and the Dolphins defense bears down: 3rd and 2 at the Dolphins 22, Edwards drops back to pass and is sacked by Koa Misi for a loss of 9. Now the Bills face fourth and 11. They have to go for it, and they do.

And they convert, thanks to blown coverage. Roscoe Parish just waltzes in for the touchdown. Ugh, now I'm replaying that Henne to Marshall drop that should have been a touchdown, because if that play converts, this play doesn't even happen. For the first time in the 2010 season, I'm scared, because I know that if the phins give the same chances to every team they play than they did to the Bills on this day, its going to be a long year. 

Dolphins 13 Bills 10, 5:13 left in the game.

The Dolphins now go into their "five minute offense" which means that they will just take their sweet ass time moseying down the field to kill clock. What really helps them out here is that the Bills seem to have no idea what a time out is. Seriously, on this drive they didn't use a single one. And the Dolphins ended up getting some yardage, but in the end had to punt, which leads to:

The Most Important Play Of The Game That Actually Happened.

Now I don't usually talk about punts unless their important. I normally don't like punts and would advise against them but in some cases you do need to use it. Fourth and six at your own 49 against a team with offensive momentum is one of those cases. But you must get it inside the 20. Brandon Fields did that, and a whole lot more. It rolled all the way to the one inch line, which caused the Bills to go 3 and out, which lead to a great gambling moment.

Here it is. The Dolphins were three point favorites. They were leading by three with the Bills having to punt out of their own end zone with 1:32 left, meaning odds are the Dolphins weren't going to be taking chances and trying to score more once they got the ball, they were just going to burn some clock, MEANING that we were looking at a push, which is fun for no one. Then the snap went into the end zone over the punter. Its a move that I like to use when down by less than five because while you concede two points, you also get a good 20-30 yards of field position. I've never seen a team lose when they use that strategy. Then again, I'm used to seeing true coaching geniuses like Don Shula and Bill Belichick use it, and mind you, neither of them did it with less than 2 minutes left, that's a play that makes sense with more than 2:30 left and all three of your time outs. 

Alas, for everyone who took the Dolphins this week, that safety won them the bet as the Dolphins covered.

Not much happened after that, as it ended with the Dolphins coming away with a disappointing victory, 15-10. 

Like I stated earlier, they could have won this game 27-3 had it not been for one huge non-play, the Henne to Marshall drop, which brings us to what we learned from this game.

We learned from this game that the Dolphins still need some time to develop chemistry on offense. Henne needs to continue to work on completing the long passes and develop more confidence in his arm, he checked down a bit too much for my liking when there were open receivers a good 10 yards further that could have resulted in big plays. At the same time, the Dolphins offense needs to show more imagination and show that they have full confidence in Henne, who seemed to play more to keep his job, not to be great at it.

Chad, leave that for Mark Sanchez. Go out there, show off that arm of yours, and make this Dolphins offense a great one, the onus is on you to do this.

As for the defense, lets hope they keep it up.

Now for the Bills, I only have two words for Bills fans: I'm sorry.

Thanks for reading. You can follow me on twitter, @thomasgalicia. I'll have a new Dolfan Diaries picks post up on Friday afternoon, and on Tuesday afternoon be on the look out for my review of Dolphins vs. Vikings. Until then, go through my archives and peruse some of my recent or past articles, and have a great week and Go Dolphins!