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Back breaker Dolphins ride Smith's record day to victory against Colts
MIAMI -- It was in those first few delicious and delirious moments after he won the game and saved the day that Lamar Smith discovered his work still wasn't done Saturday afternoon at Pro Player Stadium. It wasn't enough that he survived an NFL-playoff record 40 carries, rolled up the second-best rushing day in the league's postseason history (209 yards), or scored the game-winning overtime touchdown for the Miami Dolphins. Out of nowhere came his improbable 41st carry of the day, an audible that arrived with virtually no warning. "I told Lamar, 'You carried us all, starting with me,'" Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt said. "So I jumped on his back and he carried me in [to the locker room]." The image was as unlikely as it was apt. Rarely has one player borne a bigger burden than the one Smith toted for the Dolphins in their resilient 23-17 conquest of Indianapolis. On a day in which the Dolphins didn't really follow their time-tested formula to victory, turning the ball over three times in the first half and falling behind 14-0, Smith's hell-on-wheels performance made him by default Miami's transportation of choice.
In an AFC wild-card game that was anything but wild, at least until late in the fourth quarter, Smith was only too happy to fill the role of the Dolphins' ace in the hole. "I told him he rode my back into the locker room, and outside on the field, too," said Smith, smiling at the thought. Let's take a step back and let Smith's tour de force performance sink in for a moment. In the history of the NFL, only one rusher has ever had a more productive playoff game, that being the Los Angeles Rams' Eric Dickerson (245 yards) at Dallas in a January 1986 divisional game. Smith smashed Miami's regular-season (197 yards by Mercury Morris in 1973) and playoff-game (145 yards by Larry Csonka in Super Bowl XIII in 1974) records for most rushing yards. And the league's mark for most carries in a postseason game fell, too, with Smith topping Tampa Bay's Ricky Bell in a 1979 divisional game and Washington's John Riggins in 1983 in Super Bowl XVII against Miami (both had 38). "That was unbelievable what Lamar did out there," Miami quarterback Jay Fiedler said. "Nothing he does surprises me anymore. He's one tough runner. You get him one-on-one on a safety and he's going to break some tackles." 
Smith did that and more. He broke a couple hundred thousand hearts in Indianapolis with his game-winning, 17-yard open-field run to the end zone, plowing over one final Colts tackler at the goal line. "I think what you saw out there today is really no different than what you saw in the preseason," Wannstedt said. "He breaks an awful lot of tackles and the guy has an awful lot of desire." Without Smith's other worldly desire, the Dolphins were done on this day. They needed every one of his yards and both of his touchdowns to negate the damage done by three Fiedler first-half interceptions, when the Colts raced to a 14-0 lead and looked poised to hand head coach Jim Mora his first NFL playoff victory in six tries. They needed Smith's resolve and they needed the spark that his 2-yard third-quarter touchdown provided, allowing the Dolphins to begin outscoring the Colts 23-3 after halftime. Smith was Miami's only offensive threat Saturday, and yet he was enough to help the Dolphins kill off an Indianapolis team overflowing with offensive weapons.
"We definitely had to overcome a lot of obstacles, being down 14-0 at the half," Smith said. "I think we proved ourselves once again, and come next week, we're going to have to do it again. That's just how this league is. "I knew we had a chance, but we've always been the underdog." Smith, of course, didn't just materialize in the Dolphins' offense for the first time Saturday, in the role of one-game wonder. He posted the second-best rushing season in Miami history this year, and the best in 22 years, running for 1,139 yards and 14 touchdowns after being acquired from New Orleans in the offseason. But nothing he had ever done prepared us for Saturday against the Colts, when he cemented his No. 1 status in ways a Dolphins running back has seldom managed. Before this year, Smith was best known as the Seattle rookie whose drunk driving accident in 1994 paralyzed a teammate and nearly ended his career in disgrace. Six years later, Smith's new teammates lined up to sing his praises, and take a stab at describing the game-saving roll that Smith inspired. Miami's 48-carry, 258-yard rushing day was the second best in the Dolphins' long playoff history, trailing only a 266-yard rushing performance in 1973 against Oakland, in the team's glory era. "[Lamar] runs so hard and effectively after he gets hit," Miami guard Mark Dixon said. "If he isn't the best in the league, it doesn't take long to call that roll. He is special." When he watched Smith on Sunday, Dolphins linebacker Robert Jones was struck by the resemblance to another Smith, the one the former Cowboy used to watch pound opposing playoff teams into submission. "He reminds me of Emmitt [Smith], with his style of running," Jones said. "The way he sees the holes. It's instinct." Miami guard Kevin Donnalley was reminded of Eddie George, the Tennessee franchise back who is as responsible for his team's success as any runner in the league. "They have very similar styles," Donnalley said. "Lamar made us look good today. He really got into the flow. When he scored that first touchdown to start that second half, it gave us that extra momentum. We knew we could come back against them." Smith rushed for 87 yards in the first half, on 16 carries. But it was his second half that will go down in Dolphins lore, when he chugged for 124 yards on 24 back-breaking attempts, and those two touchdowns. Next week, he'll no doubt be asked to reprise his Herculean role at Oakland (12-4), where Miami journeys for an AFC divisional game. "I'd didn't have any idea the game was going to end up like it did today, with me playing such a large roll," Smith said. "Once I got into a rhythm, we were able to keep the game close and realize we had a chance." They had more than a chance. They had a player ready and willing to carry an entire team on his back. And his head coach, to boot. Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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