10:45 Mon 10-12-09 | by Andy Kent
New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan claimed his defense made Dolphins second-year quarterback Chad Henne look like Hall-of-Famer Dan Marino, but if you ask the players on Miami's side, Chad Henne looked like Chad Henne on the biggest stage of the regular season - Monday Night Football.
Henne engineered a memorable fourth-quarter comeback, culminated by Ronnie Brown's 2-yard touchdown run with six seconds remaining in the game, as the Dolphins knocked off the Jets in an another instant classic, 31-27, at Land Shark Stadium. Miami improved to 2-3 overall and 2-0 in the AFC East going into the bye week while the Jets dropped to 3-2 and 1-1 in the division.
Brown's score capped off a 13-play, 70-yard drive that ate up 5:06 of clock, with Henne converting two key third downs with clutch passes to Greg Camarillo both times. The first one went for 14 yards with the blitz coming on 3rd-and-5 after the two-minute warning and the second was a 12-yard throw low to where only Camarillo could catch it as he sprinted right on 3rd-and-10 from the 16. Three plays later Brown sealed the deal and all that was left was to watch Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez's Hail Mary at the gun fall harmlessly incomplete.
"I think first and foremost it was a hell of an education for the guy tonight," Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano said of Henne. "I think he had a couple of opportunities, certainly at the end there, to have to bring his team back and he handled it with poise. I thought he did a tremendous job managing the clock in all the situations there at the end."
An energetic crowd of 69,767 witnessed Miami's young quarterback come of age in a big way. Henne completed of 20-of-26 passes for 241 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and he was never sacked as he finished with an outstanding passer rating of 130.4. His marquee moment came with 10:10 remaining after New York had regained the lead, 20-17, when on first down from his own 47 out of the play-action fake Henne reared back and launched a 53-yard bomb to a streaking Ted Ginn, Jr. down the middle of the field. Ginn got behind top-notch Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis and caught the ball in stride and waltzed into the end zone.
That was the type of pass Henne and Ginn have talked about connecting on for a while and when it came to fruition both players couldn't have been happier.
"I think that helped us a lot," Henne said. "The offensive line gave us time and Teddy ran a great route. That boosts his confidence that we can get the ball down the field and make a big play there so all together it was a big play."
Miami ended the game the same way it started, with a clock-killing, efficient drive that had the Jets defense off balance the entire time with a creative mixture of the run, pass and "Wildcat" formation. After the opening kickoff Henne, Brown and running back Ricky Williams keyed a 12-play, 80-yard drive that chewed up 7:29, with Brown throwing a 21-yard pass to tight end Anthony Fasano on his first pass attempt of the year out of the "Wildcat."
Williams took a handoff from Brown on the very next play and swept left 18 yards to the New York 27 and Henne later connected with Davone Bess for 7 yards and with Ginn for 4 yards on a crossing route to give the Dolphins a first-and-goal at the 5. Three plays later Brown dove across the goal line to give Miami the early lead.
But the Jets weren't just going to roll over and allow Henne and company to keep the fiesta going on Hispanic Heritage Night as special teams coach Mike Westhoff called a gutsy fake punt on the ensuing drive. Punter Steve Weatherford sprinted 26 yards down the right sideline and then with the help of a pass interference call on Dolphins safety Yeremiah Bell, Sanchez tied the game with a 3-yard scoring pass to newly acquired Braylon Edwards in the back of the end zone.
Henne answered with a six-play, 62-yard drive to set up Dan Carpenter's 35-yard field goal with less than a minute to go in the first quarter. The two teams then traded punts and when it looked like Miami's defense had held again to force another punt, Westhoff struck again, this time calling for the direct snap to the up back, Brad Smith. He shook two tackles by Joey Porter and Randy Starks to run 12 yards for the first down and former Dolphins kicker Jay Feely connected from 40 yards to tie the game.
"To be honest with you and this is crazy, we showed the fake reel last night at a team meeting and we went through all of this stuff," Sparano said. "Now we had guys in position both times, and on the first one we had a guy there and he missed the tackle. You've got to make the tackle in that situation and on the second one we again missed two tackles, so it wasn't about assignment but more about execution."
Sanchez showed how far he has grown in five games as he managed to drive the Jets 31 yards on six plays in less than a minute with the first half winding down to get into field goal range. Feely hit from 43 yards with four seconds left to allow New York to take a 13-10 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Defense dominated the third quarter as both punters kept busy, but Henne, Brown and Williams found their rhythm again as they put together the longest drive the Jets have allowed and one that bled into the fourth quarter. The Dolphins drove 64 yards on 15 plays, with Brown accounting for 32 yards himself out of the "Wildcat" and Williams picking up 15 more, including 10 big yards on a 3rd-and-6 out of the "Wildcat". He hurdled Jets safety Jim Leonhard as he turned the corner to get the first down, and later followed fullback Lousaka Polite down to the 1 on the last play of the quarter. Two plays later Henne on the play-action rolled right and found Fasano in the back of the end zone for a 17-13 lead.
Camarillo has been one of Henne's biggest supporters all along and has been trying to tell anyone who would listen that this was a quarterback with loads of confidence and with the characteristics of a leader.
"I'm super proud of the guy. He played great," Camarillo said. "He led this team. He led our offense and I hope he can keep it up. We all have faith in him. The coaches have faith in him and now even the defense has faith in him, but he's a heckuva quarterback, a heckuva athlete and I'm excited to see what he does in the future."
Now so is all of South Florida.
Brown finished the night with 74 rushing yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns and Williams added 68 yards on 11 carries
INJURY UPDATE: Dolphins running back Patrick Cobbs left the game early in the fourth quarter with a knee injury and did not return. Sparano said he will be evaluated tomorrow. And Jason Taylor suffered a shoulder injury also in the fourth quarter but he did return.
DOLPHINS TIDBITS: Miami is now 3-0 in the orange jerseys. ... This win snapped a four game losing streak on Monday Night Football. Miami's last win was on Monday Night Football was a 10-7 victory at home vs. Cleveland (12/26/04).
TELEMUNDO INVOLVED WITH SUPER BOWL XLIV: With Hispanic Heritage Month on everyone's mind, Telemundo chose today to announce its partnership with the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee as it has become the exclusive Spanish-language television media sponsor in support of Super Bowl XLIV and Pro Bowl 2010, both of which are taking place at Dolphin Stadium.
Telemundo will have a presence at a number of different community events, including Super Kids/Super Sharing, NFL Yet's One World, Rebuilding Together, Habitat for Humanity, Play 60 Challenge, Super Learning and Emerging Business. The network reaches 93 percent of U.S. Hispanic viewers in 210 markets through its 15 owned-and-operated stations, 45 broadcast affiliates and 800 cable affiliates.
RUSHING
DOLPHINS: R. Brown 21-74, R. Williams 11-68, P. White 1-6, L. Polite 2-4, P. Cobbs 1-(1)
JETS: L. Washington 10-44, T. Jones 13-42, S. Weatherford 1-26, B. Smith 1-12, S. Greene 3-8, M. Sanchez 2-6
PASSING
DOLPHINS: C. Henne 20/26 241-2-0
JETS: M. Sanchez 12/24 172-1-0
RECEIVING
DOLPHINS: A. Fasano 4-38, R. Williams 3-70, G. Camarillo 3-33, D. Bess 3-18, R. Brown 3-14, T. Ginn 2-57, J. Haynos 1-17, B. Hartline 1-10, P. Cobbs 1-5
JETS: B. Edwards 5-64, D. Clowney 4-72, B. Smith 1-19, L. Washington 1-13, J. Cotchery 1-4.
