05:35 Fri 11-20-09 | by Andy Kent
As exciting and impressive as the Dolphins' two wins over the New York Jets were earlier in the season, last night's 24-17 road victory over the Carolina Panthers on a short week and with the loss of running back Ronnie Brown for the year already weighing on their minds has to be the most impressive one so far.
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Head Coach Tony Sparano, still wiping some of the tiredness out of his eyes, was beaming with pride during his day-after press conference as he discussed all of the things that went right on the field in the midst of adverse conditions and mounting injuries throughout the game. When it was all said and done his team was sitting at 5-5 and back in the playoff hunt after beginning the season 0-3 and now has 10 days to rest before traveling to Buffalo to take on the Bills on November 29th.
"I think [the season] has changed a bunch," Sparano said. "It is something that I talked to the team about six days ago, and I don't normally do that. I'm kind of one game at a time, but this was a week's worth of work and we knew that there had to be an attention to detail and a real focus to be able to put one away (last Sunday's win over Tampa Bay) and get this next one. And to have the kind of focus that we needed to do that was critical.
"So we did talk about how we could change things in six days and I think it really is a heck of a thing because we could be sitting here today, we could be 3-7 right now. There's a lot of football left and there are some teams that have to play a lot of good people right now. There are some games going on this weekend that will be big deals. We'll just let guys sweat it and we'll get a chance to heal up a little bit here and get ourselves back out there ready to play another division game."
Veteran running back Ricky Williams answered the bell as expected with a gritty effort as he ran through tackles and displayed an impressive burst en route to 119 yards and two rushing touchdowns on 22 carries. He also caught two passes for 19 yards, including a 14-yarder for the game's first touchdown, but he was quick to give credit to an offensive line that had to use all seven linemen that were active, including an already banged up left guard in Justin Smiley.
The fact that Nate Garner, who started last week against the Bucs in place of Smiley and also started there last night, ended up lining up at right tackle, center and tight end during the game accentuated the importance of Miami's coaching staff keeping everybody ready and prepared for all situations. When veteran nose tackle Jason Ferguson left the game with a knee injury in the second half, Randy Starks and Tony McDaniel who had to fill the void because his backup, Paul Soliai, was inactive with an ankle injury.
"I think what they are doing in practice and I think how they are being coached [has attributed to the success]. I really do," said Sparano in reference to the solid play of Garner, running back Lex Hilliard, tight end Kory Sperry, McDaniel and others. "I think that the people here, they understand what we're trying to do. When I say the people I mean my coaching staff; they understand what we're trying to do here. One of the things I asked them the first time I ever met them is 'A', don't be surprised. You can't fall in love with your room, meaning our job here is to try to make this roster the best that we can make it, so your job is to develop young players and make sure that we're developing young players and if we have to keep changing pieces to get the right players in here, well so be it. Nate Garner wasn't on our team the first time we showed up here and we found Nate and we brought Joe Berge and those types of players in here. These guys have been willing to do some of that stuff. Tony McDaniel is another example, so they have been willing to do that stuff and our players have done a nice job of letting their coaches coach them."
Outside linebacker Matt Roth, who made the conversion last year from defensive end, was prepared to go back up into the defensive line last night if he was asked to. With Ferguson's status still up in the air according to Sparano, he could still be called upon. Ferguson and center Jake Grove (ankle) were two of the more serious injuries suffered in the game as Ferguson was taken off the field on a cart and Grove never got back on the field.
Garner actually was shaken up on a play, as was right tackle Vernon Carey, but both were able to continue to play. Lex Hilliard also filled in admirably as Williams' backup, ripping off two long, physical runs that caught the Panthers off guard (one of those runs was called back due to a holding call on Grove). He caught two passes for seven yards to go along with his 24 rushing yards on four carries and Sparano sees him providing a spark and a chance for Williams to get a breather during games down the road.
"That was really a good thing because both of those guys run the ball hard, but Lex dished it out, too," Sparano said. "I thought that was a really good thing to get Lex in that kind of situation. To get Lex going a little bit was a positive. The more we see Lex do the better off we will be there. That can help Ricky a little bit, too. We had Kory [Sheets active] yesterday, too. Kory is a guy who shows me good run talent out there on the field. We didn't get a chance to use him last night in that role; he played some special trams, but we probably at some point need to do that."
As they proved last night, the Dolphins will never be accused of being unprepared.
BIG NIGHT FOR RECEIVERS: Lost in the special play of Williams, Hilliard and the running game was a stellar night out of Miami's wide receivers as Davone Bess, Ted Ginn, Jr. and rookie Brian Hartline combined to catch 12 passes for 142 yards. They accounted for all but 30 of Chad Henne's passing yards and all but five of his completions.
"I thought all the receivers played well lat night," Sparano said. "At different times they all jumped up and made plays. Davone was really outstanding and I thought run after the catch with both he and Hartline helped us a lot. That's what we talked about, taking some short ones and making them a little bit bigger and it helped us. Teddy's catches weren't for a lot yards last night, they weren't those kind of plays, but they were big plays during the course of the game; acrobatic catches. One on their sideline was really a hard catch and the one on our sideline was probably one of the most difficult catches."
Ginn finished with four catches for 32 yards and a long of 16 yards while Bess led the team with catches for 63 yards. Hartline caught two passes for 47 yards, including a 36-yarder on the first touchdown drive. They are growing more comfortable with Henne and Henne is growing more comfortable with them, which is important heading into these final six games as the passing game could become a bigger part of the offense at the expense of the "Wildcat," which lost some of its impact with Brown's injury.
BROWN HAS SURGERY: Sparano confirmed that Brown underwent successful surgery on his right foot this morning up in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is why he made the trip with the team on Wednesday. As far as how ready Brown will be for the 2010 season, Sparano didn’t feel comfortable looking that far ahead.
"Surgery went well," he said. "I don’t have a crystal ball."
This is the second time in the past three years Brown has had to have season-ending surgery. Midway through the 2007 season he had to have his right knee surgically repaired after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.
