Archives for January 7, 2002

‘The remnant of a big home crowd howled, coach Dave Wannstedt jogged off the field into a grinning hug from old Hurricanes quarterback Jim Kelly, and Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga waited inside the winners’ dressing room, beaming, squeezing every sweaty player’s fingers in a pistoning handshake. Everybody felt great.’

‘But in three of the past four meetings, Moulds has been held to 12 catches for 164 yards and no touchdowns.’

‘Quarterback Jay Fiedler finished the season with a rating of 80.3, the highest for a Dolphins quarterback since Dan Marino’s 80.7 in 1997.’

‘[Pat] Williams played approximately a half-dozen downs on a sore knee. After Ruddy blocked him low a couple of times, Williams called it a game. That essentially took out Buffalo’s best defensive player, who the Dolphins believed should have made the Pro Bowl.’

‘Fiedler only attempted 16 passes, completing nine for 110 yards. But with a 27-point victory and the offense not committing a turnover, Wannstedt doesn’t mind the unimpressive aerial numbers.’

‘He rushed for a season-best 158 yards and on a season-high 30 carries, and he was running aggressively, slamming into the holes and carrying defenders while grinding out the tough yards.’

‘Linebackers Tommy Hendricks and Scott Galyon and free safety Arturo Freeman, members of the "JIC Club," have proven in the past two weeks that they are ready when the Dolphins need them. "We tagged it the `Just In Case Club,’" Galyon said, "and we prepare ourselves to be ready when the team needs us. You never know when your time will come, but you can’t let your teammates down."’

‘Five punts, five balls down inside the 20-yard line for Matt Turk, whose value has grown enormously as the offense has turned increasingly more docile in the second half of the season.’

‘The list of injured players increased for the Dolphins after Sunday’s 34-7 victory over Buffalo, and that could be troublesome for a team that had nine starters on last week’s injury report.’

‘The good news: They start with a home game Sunday. The bad news: They start against the Ravens or Jets. Pick your poison.’

‘"But that team from New York is 8-0 against us lately! And they’re 7-1 on the road this year! And they came back from 17-0 to beat us this season! And there was the Monday Night Meltdown last year! They’re a Stephen King character in a green uniform!"’

‘"Nine of our last 12 games have been competitive," Williams said. "We were extremely competitive [today] until that penalty. When we pressed to get back into the game, our younger players committed some turnovers, negating some significant big-play opportunities. We’ve got a lot to do in the offseason, but we’ve come a long ways also."’

‘Bills running back Shawn Bryson was coming off back-to-back 100-yard rushing games, and the Dolphins held him to 16 yards on 12 carries.’

‘It was easy to say this was only the 3-12 Bills, but this club had beaten the Jets 14-9 last week and this was a game the Dolphins needed to clinch a home game in the playoffs.’

‘”We win by being a team every week,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got our half a dozen or so dominate guys, but that’s what’s encouraging about this group going into the playoffs. We’ve won a lot of games by having a lot of different people stepping up and doing different things.”‘