NEWS: GameDay Live - MiamiDolphins.com

DOLPHINS vs. RAVENS

Dolphin Stadium


1/4/09	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	OT	F

DOLPHINS	3	0	0	6	0	9

RAVENS	3	10	7	7	0	27

SUMMARY

By Andy Kent
MiamiDolphins.com

POOR ENDING CAN'T DAMPEN REMARKABLE JOURNEY BY ANDY COHEN
GRITTY AND TOUGH JUST NOT ENOUGH BY ALAIN POUPART
NOTEBOOK
SCORING SUMMARY
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

A season's worth of protecting the ball better than just about every other team in the National Football League became a distant memory Sunday. In their first playoff game in seven years, the Dolphins turned the ball over five times to the Baltimore Ravens. As a result, Miami's feel-good season came to an end in a 27-9 loss in front of a record sellout crowd of 74,240 at Dolphin Stadium; with their 11-6 record still a dramatic improvement from last year's 1-15 finish.

Veteran quarterback Chad Pennington had his most uncharacteristic performance as he threw four interceptions, one of them that was returned 64 yards for a touchdown by Ravens Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed in the second quarter to break a 3-3 tie. He only had seven interceptions all year and Miami only had 13 turnovers in 16 games, tying the New York Giants for the fewest turnovers in a 16-game season. That play gave Baltimore all the momentum it would need to advance to the second round of the AFC Playoffs against the top-seeded Tennessee Titans next week and furthered its reputation as the league's best defense in forcing turnovers.

"Obviously, I'm very disappointed in the outcome here but you can't do those things and my team knows that," said Dolphins first-year Head Coach Tony Sparano, who missed out on being named the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year by one vote to Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons. "They know the things that you can do and that you can't do, how you win and lose in this league, and that's a way to lose. We turned the ball over and we did some things that were uncharacteristic of us today, but give a lot of credit to the Baltimore Ravens. They're a heck of a football team and a heck of a defense and I wish them all the luck in the world."

This first-round playoff game played out almost identical to the last postseason meeting between these two teams in 2002, when the Dolphins capitalized on a Ravens fumble on the opening kickoff and took an early 3-0 lead. This time it was a hit by second-year nose tackle Paul Soliai on Baltimore running back LeRon McClain, who lost the ball and had his fumble recovered by linebacker Joey Porter at the Miami 49 to end the Ravens' opening possession.

Pennington drove the Dolphins 50 yards down to the Ravens' 1, but running back Ronnie Brown was stopped on 3rd-and-goal and Miami had to settle for a 19-yard field goal from rookie kicker Dan Carpenter. Baltimore's Matt Stover answered with a 23-yard field goal after the Dolphins' defense tightened up in the red zone and prevented a touchdown drive by Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco.

"I think they got a little penetration as far as moving around and they did a great job getting up the field and creating a pile," Brown said of being stopped on that play. "We weren't able to get the ball in there, which was disappointing because we knew that was going to be a big point in the game and I think if we would have got seven points right there you never then know what would have happened."

After the two teams traded punts, Pennington made his first mistake when his throw to Ted Ginn, Jr. on second down sailed high and was picked off by Jim Leohnard and returned 20 yards to Miami's 45.

That turnover didn't cost the Dolphins as the defense forced a punt, but after Miami dug itself out of a hole backed up near its end zone and moved the ball out to its own 19, Pennington went for the home run ball deep to Ginn, who was double covered. He watched as Reed intercepted and then did what he has done so many times during his career by running it all the way into the end zone for a backbreaking score.

"Of the four interceptions, three of those I felt really good about, I mean I really did, and it just didn't go our way," said Pennington, who finished 25-of-38 for 252 yards and one touchdown but had an abysmal passer rating of 53.7. "I felt good about (the first one by Reed), I really did. I felt was Ed a little shallow and I felt Ted get on the inside of the receiver and I thought we were going to split them but that was a great play by Ed Reed, over the shoulder. Not too many safeties make that."

Stover added a 31-yard field goal that was set up by an impressive 31-yard pass from Flacco to Derrick Mason near the right sideline and Baltimore took a 13-3 lead into the half.

The Ravens defense kept up its opportunistic ways on the first drive of the second half as cornerback Fabian Washington picked off Pennington near midfield and ran it back 12 yards to the Miami 39. Flacco couldn't capitalize on that turnover, but after another nice punt by Scott Hoch, he was given his best field position of the day when running back Patrick Cobbs was stripped of the ball and Terrell Suggs recovered at the 19. McClain ran it in from the 8 four plays later to give Baltimore a commanding 20-3 lead midway through the third quarter.

Pennington's fourth interception ended his best drive of the day as he had moved the Dolphins all the way to the Ravens' 8 from his own 29. He tried to thread a pass over the middle to Cobbs and Reed stepped in front for the pick and returned it out to the 20. Miami's defense forced another three-and-out and after a big pass interference penalty on Baltimore kept the next drive alive, Pennington connected with rookie receiver Davone Bess on a 45-yard pass play that set up his 2-yard scoring pass to Brown, who made a one-handed grab in the left corner. Carpenter's kick was blocked, leaving the score at 20-9 early in the fourth quarter. The touchdown was Miami's first in the postseason since December 30, 2000 when the Dolphins beat the Indianapolis Colts, 23-17, in overtime of a first-round playoff game and gave the team a glimmer of hope.

"The way we've been playing all year and having been in those situations, here we are down 20-3 in the fourth quarter and we started a late rally," Porter said. "I'm thinking if we get that touchdown to get to 20-16, there's no question in my mind we were going to come back and win the game, I already seen it in my head and thought, 'Here we go again.' But playing against a good defense like that and seeing them make the plays they did, and then their offense pounded us on that last drive, their will was a little bit stronger than ours."

Miami's next best chance to close the gap stalled in Ravens territory and Flacco successfully drove his team down the field for one more touchdown, taking it in himself from two yards out with 3:53 left in the game to provide the final margin of victory as he capped off an 8-play, 74-yard drive.

Baltimore stopped Miami on its last possession and was able to run out the clock to snap the Dolphins' five-game winning streak and hand them just their second loss in the last 11 games. But the Dolphins and the fans at least could still revel in the fact that the franchise is heading in the right direction.

"No one expected us to be here. I don't even think the guys in this locker room expected us to be here until things got going and everybody bought in," said 11th-year veteran defensive end Vonnie Holliday, who was one of the defensive captains along with nose tackle Jason Ferguson. "So hats off to this team and these guys. ... This is a sour part of the season, no doubt about it, but there's so much to look forward to for this team. We're a young team and the expectations are huge for us now.

"What a learning experience this season has been; a growing experience for this team and it's been great to be a part of it. You look at this thing and we've got a lot of guys that can play football, a lot of young guys that can play football, and they got a taste of what it is to play big-time football in this league and to be a good team. That's only going to help this organization and this team grow."

INJURY UPDATE: Bess was the only injury reported in the press box after he left the game with an injured thumb in the second quarter, but he returned and finished with two catches for 54 yards on the afternoon.

RAW EMOTIONS ABOUND: This was the first time the players had to answer questions after a loss in six weeks, dating all the way back to New England's 48-28 victory at Dolphin Stadium in Week 12, and the sting of knowing there will be no game next week to prepare for made it tougher to look back on just how much was accomplished this year.

"It's kind of messed up because nobody planned to be in this situation right now," said Porter, who won a Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers three years ago. "They say you try to chew gum to stop you from smoking cigarettes, right? I'm chewing gum to stop me from crying right now. I'm trying to put my mind somewhere else. Everybody's so emotional right now. We weren't just happy to be here. We were planning to move on."

This was the first trip to the postseason for cornerback Andre Goodman, who spent his first four years with the Detroit Lions, and he had been one of the hottest corners in the league coming into this game with three interceptions in the last two games.

"When we get to the offseason I think we'll be able to find some joy in what we did this year, but not right now," he said. "Make no mistake about it, we're all disappointed. We expected to win. We thought we had a fair shot of winning, but the better team won today. From start to finish they played better than we did and I don't think the rookie quarterback made a mistake all day, so at the end of the day we got outplayed in our backyard and it showed."

Nobody took the loss harder than Pennington, who was the catalyst behind Miami's improbable turnaround and turned in the best regular season of his nine-year career. He earned NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors and finished tied for second in the NFL's MVP balloting behind Peyton Manning, but having seen how much hard work his teammates had put in all season and especially for this game, he found it difficult to be standing at a podium following a tough loss.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect for it to end this way. My whole vision was to move on to next week," he said. "I felt really good about our preparation this week. These guys in this locker room have worked extremely hard and this coaching staff has been amazing. I can't say enough about our staff and my teammates. They've been unbelievable and I'm disappointed for them because they worked extremely hard."

Sparano was hoping to be in work mode tomorrow as well getting ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers, so he wasn't ready to reflect on his success. He did manage to deliver a positive speech to his team.

"I told them that I'm proud of them and that they should walk out of here with their heads up," Sparano said. "I realize that nobody want to hear that right now but I need to make sure that I tell them that because I really am proud of what they've done. We didn't come here to be in second place, that's not the way we set out and it certainly wasn't our goal during the course of this thing. It's just the way it happens. Somebody wins, somebody loses, and unfortunately, we didn't win."

Stay tuned to MiamiDolphins.com for complete Dolphins coverage and don't forget to watch a special recap Monday the day after Sunday's first-round playoff game with Baltimore of the day's news and observations by Barry Buetel and Andy Kent on FINS-TV available on Aquavision.

SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER
MIA - Carpenter, 19 FG
DRIVE: 8 plays, 50 yards, 4:15.

BAL - Stover, 23 FG
DRIVE: 11 plays, 59 yards, 5:30.

2ND QUARTER
BAL - Reed, 64 interception return (Stover kick)

BAL - Stover, 31 FG
DRIVE: 7 plays, 46 yards, 1:21.

3RD QUARTER
BAL - McClain, 8 run (Stover kick)
DRIVE: 4 plays, 19 yards, 2:09.

4TH QUARTER
MIA - Brown, 2 pass from Pennington (kick failed)
DRIVE: 5 plays, 74 yards, 1:51.

BAL - Flacco, 5 run (Stover kick)
DRIVE: 8 plays, 71 yards, 3:44.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Miami: R. Brown 12-19, R. Williams 4-17, L. Polite 3-15, P. Cobbs 1-1, C. Pennington 1-0.
Baltimore: L. McClain 19-75, W. McGahee 7-62, J. Flacco 5-8, L. Neal 1-4, T. Smith 1-2.

PASSING
Miami: C. Pennington 25-38-4-252.
Baltimore: J. Flacco 9-23-0-135.

RECEIVING
Miami: P. Cobbs 4-55, D. Bess 2-54, R. Brown 6-43, T. Ginn 5-38, B. London 4-38, D. Martin 3-16, R. Williams 1-8.
Baltimore: D. Mason 4-71, T. Heap 1-31, M. Clayton 2-16, W. McGahee 1-9, L. Neal 1-8.

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