Southern comfort

Miami restores its mojo with a housewarming divisional win

MIAMI -- I sat with Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga and his two prize coaches, head man Dave Wannstedt and offensive coordinator Norv Turner, for a few minutes after the Dolphins crushed the Patriots Sunday afternoon. We were in a lounge behind the Marlins' first-base dugout at Pro Player Stadium. And Wannstedt stuck the good-natured skewer -- but a skewer with some meaning -- in me. "Peter's down here to write about the Patriots," Wannstedt said to Huizenga. "He wrote us off. He doesn’t think we’re any good.”

I think I speak for most every writer when I say that we in the sportswriting business root for our stories. We do not root for teams or players, unless there is some everyman or historic reason to do so. I grew up rooting hard for the Giants, but I don’t find myself glued to some press-box TV at halftime of whatever game I’m covering that week and longing for the Giants highlights (highlight, more likely) these days. You cover a sport, you grow out of it.

1. Oakland (4-0). Thank God Billy Koch isn't Rich Gannon's backup.   2. Miami (4-1). All game long on Sunday, New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis tried formation after formation after formation. Nothing worked. Literally nothing. Which makes what the Chiefs did last week -- putting up a 48 spot on the Fish -- all the more amazing.  3. Denver (4-1). Remember when we all talked about how insane Mike Shanahan was for drafting a running back in the second round last April? Well, we've seen Clinton Portis, and I now realize we're all a bunch of Morty Seinfelds for laughing at Shanahan's pick.  4. San Francisco (3-1). There is something very weird about beating the hated Rams and having the entire Bay Area ignore the game for two baseball epics.  5. New England (3-2). What would worry me if I'm Bill Belichick is this: The Dolphins didn't even have to blitz. They tormented Tom Brady rushing their normal four for the most part.  6. Philadelphia (3-2). Everyone's entitled to a mulligan in this league, but I would remind Andy Reid now that his team has had two.  7. New Orleans (4-1). There must be something wrong with me. I can't get past that loss to the mighty Leos last week.  8. Tampa Bay (4-1). "For a talk-show host, Warren Sapp can really rush the passer."  9. Jacksonville (3-1). I caught a quarter of Eagles-Jags, and let me say this: Jacksonville's no flavor of the week. This is a good team.  10. Buffalo (2-3). The mail will stack up for having a three-loss team in the Top 12 (surely, I jest), but I don't know how you make a list of the top teams in this league and not include the Bills. They're a dangerous threat every week.  11. San Diego (4-1). Apparently, Marty Schottenheimer is Superman and Denver is kryptonite.  12. Kansas City (3-2). Today, I am going to start the Montclair, N.J., chapter of the Priest Holmes Fan Club.

Anyway, this week my Sports Illlustrated story was going to be Charlie Weis and Tom Brady and the pass-happy Patriots’ offense if New England won in Miami. I’d been to Foxboro during the week for interviews, and got pretty inside the story of Weis nearly dying in June after a stomach-stapling surgery went bad. So, yes, I wanted the Patriots to win. I wanted to write the story. Rooting for the Pats? Well, I guess so, but rooting for my story is more like it. If I’d hung around the Dolphins during the week chasing some angle, I’d have sat down Sunday at 1 p.m. hoping they’d win the game. But not because I like them any better.

We’re human. (I think.) It’s natural, once you get to know Troy Brown, to want him to succeed because of what he's overcome as an eighth-round pick. The same goes for Brady because he’s everything about sports that is good. But when I watch games -- Sunday’s game, let’s say -- I can have the same kind of feelings about Ricky Williams and Zach Thomas. They’re the two Dolphins players I know the best. And even if I were covering a team I didn’t know well -- Carolina, for instance -- I wouldn’t root, except for my space in the magazine. So this rooting thing ... I don’t get it. And I don’t do it.

Anyway, just thought I’d get that off my chest.

Now for some football. The Dolphins looked superb on Sunday. But can you tell how this Miami team, or the team in any uniform, will play week to week? I talked about that with Thomas, and he’s just like I am. He can’t figure out this league. He can barely figure out his own team, and really, that’s a struggle too.

Two weeks ago, New England beat Kansas City 41-38 in overtime. Last week, Kansas City walloped Miami 48-30, and it should have been worse. And Sunday, in the July-in-the-Everglades South Florida heat, Miami manhandled New England. It was 23-6 early in the fourth quarter, and Miami went into a pree-vent, and it ended up 26-13. But a 13-point game suggests some degree of closeness, and there was none here.

“Last week,” Thomas said at his locker after the game, “I felt ... well, vulnerable. Like we were figured out. We got blown up on everything we did. We stopped the run, but then Tony Gonzalez is so good that he was a mismatch on our corner. During the week [after the loss], the defensive guys talked. We said, ‘Let’s get our arrogance back.’ And today we came out and played.”

Then Thomas said what every player on every good team should say about the future, unless the future entails playing Cincinnati.

“We’ve got a tough Denver team on the road next week. We’ll see how good we are then.”

I will say this about Thomas’ team: Barring a spate of injuries, and assuming Jay Fiedler plays efficiently, which he’s done four out of five games this year, Miami will play in the AFC Championship Game this year. They’re too physical, too diverse on offense, to melt down after the Wild Card round the way they’ve done the past four years.

I do believe this is the first time in MMQB history that three rookies garner the big awards -- Patrick Ramsey, Phillip Buchanon and Bill Callahan.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Washington QB Patrick Ramsey. There's just something about this kid. He knew he had a chance to get into Sunday's game at Tennessee, but he couldn't have known his time would come after just three Danny Wuerffel passes (Wuerffel got hurt), and certainly not without the support of K.O.'d star running back Stephen Davis. But that was Ramsey's lot in life, and he responded like a champ. His 20-of-34 passing day, for 268 yards with two touchdowns and no picks, led the Redskins to a 31-14 win over the faltering (there should be a stronger word than that; perhaps "nosediving?") Tennessee Titans. Yes, Steve Spurrier did say after the game that the job was Ramsey's. For at least a few more minutes.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Oakland CB Phillip Buchanon. Two NFL starts at corner, two balls returned for touchdowns. In the Raiders' 48-31 win at Buffalo, the Bills, down 35-31 midway through the fourth quarter, were driving behind Drew Bledsoe (rust never sleeps) for the go-ahead points. Buchanon timed a Bledsoe throw perfectly, stepped in front of the pass, picked it off, and returned it 81 yards for the clinching play in Oakland's very big win. "He telegraphed it a little bit," Buchanon said. Whatever works.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Cleveland K Phil Dawson. Fifty-eight seconds left. Baltimore 26, rampaging Cleveland (back from a 23-0 deficit) 21. Cleveland lines up for the onside kick. Eight Browns line up wide right, tight to the sideline. Two Browns line up wide left. Dawson puts his right hand up. "Go!" he yells, and jogs to the ball, and pooches it. BUT HE POOCHES IT STRAIGHT AHEAD! WHAT IS HE DOING? OH NO, HE'S GOING TO TRY TO RECOVER IT HIMSELF! The Ravens, of course, are absolutely cowed and confused, and with the ball rolling forward and Dawson sprinting his kicker's sprint (which is to say, not very fast) straight ahead, and the stunned Ravens trying to recover, 13 yards from the point of the squib, Dawson dives on the ball and GOSH DARN IT, HE RECOVERS THE BALL! Too bad the Browns couldn't turn the drama into a win. Really, really smart play. Credit should go to a bright young special teams coach, Jerry Rosburg, for teaching the play so well.

COACH OF THE WEEK

Oakland head coach Bill Callahan. All I know is this: This team was supposed to have one of the best young coaches in the game, Jon Gruden, and it's true; he is. But Callahan just rolled up his sleeves. He didn't have any dolls named for him. He doesn't have the thirtysomething gum-popping chicks swooning for him. He just coaches, baby. And his Raiders are 4-0.

GOAT OF THE WEEK

Dallas QB Quincy Carter. With the game there to be won, and wideout Antonio Bryant flying open down the field -- wide open, I mean, with no Giants within eight yards -- Carter threw the ball three yards past his receiver. A 24-21 Cowboys win? Nope. A 21-17 Cowboys loss. "I've got to make that throw for this football team to be successful," Carter said after the game. No kidding.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I like the Colts, too. We have something in common. We both defected in the middle of the night. Colts, 27-16."
-- Nadia Comaneci, predicting the outcome of NFL games in the Friday edition of USA Today.

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK

"Fireman Makes Whore-ible Error."
-- Saturday's New York Post, detailing how an off-duty city firefighter was arrested Friday for drunken driving and soliciting a prostitute. The firefighter was caught in a sting operation called "Operation Losing Proposition."

Washington State has a 310-pound tackle named Sam Lightbody.

It's interesting, and quasi-aggravating, writing on airplanes. Invariably, when I'm in the middle of writing something really important, like the Montclair Field Hockey Note of the Week, I will get a tap on the shoulder. Like Saturday afternoon, on Delta headed from Newark to Fort Lauderdale.

Guy in the seat behind me: "You a writer?"

Me: "Yeah."

GITSBM: "I could tell. You were working on that computer. You type fast."

Me: "Oh. Right."

GITSBM: "Who you write for?"

Me: (Feeling of dread coming over me) "Sports Illustrated."

GITSBM: "Wow! What are you writing right now? Can I see it?"

Me: "Well, I'm still working on something. It's a column I do for our Web site Monday mornings."

GITSBM: "You got any printouts you could show me?"

Me: "Uh, no. I don't travel with printouts usually."

GITSBM: "Can you get the scores on that?"

Me: "Well, not right now. I'm not online. We're on a plane, and we need to have a phone line hooked up."

GITSBM: "Florida lost. You hear?"

Me: "No. Interesting."

GITSBM: "That Manning beat them. Ole Miss. You know?"

Me: "Oh, right."

GITSBM: "You know Sterling Sharpe?"

Me: "A little bit, yeah. Good guy. Really smart on football. Good on TV."

GITSBM: "I love his clothes. You ever see his clothes?"

Me: (Trying desperately to bury my head in my work) "Uh, yeah. On TV. Nice clothes."

GITSBM: "You'll never guess who else I really like."

Me: "Who?"

GITSBM: "Ditka. I love Ditka. Remember when he made that trade for Ricky Williams? What a trade. He should still be coaching. He inspires everybody."

Me: "Yeah. He was good at that."

He gave up for a while. Later, guy in the seat behind me poked me in the shoulder and asked if I was a Yankees fan. I said no. He said he was a White Sox fan.

Later, still another tap came. "You know Goldie?" No, I don't. "Oh. Hey. Looks like you've got a lot of e-mail there." Actually, no. There is no e-mail here. "Oh."

I dub thee Mr. Non Sequitur.

1. I think Keyshawn Johnson had his annual touchdown Sunday.

2. I think these are my quick-hit football thoughts of the weekend:

a. That Cleveland effort Sunday night? That's what I call a tremendous moral victory.

b. That Kelly Holcomb effort? That's what I call John Wayne.

c. Tom Coughlin is doing one heck of a job with the Jaguars. We all left that team for dead in August, and now it looks like it'll enter December contending for the AFC South title. Or having clinched it.

d. Memo to Sam Madison: You're not great enough to be that pissy after a game, pal.

e. News Flash! Bengals QB Akili Smith asks to be traded! I have learned exclusively that the Bengals offered Smith to Slippery Rock for a bag of footballs, and Slippery Rock laughed at them.

f. I have not met many classier, more hard-working and conversational football players than Zach Thomas.

g. How scary-good are the Raiders? In the 49-31 win at Buffalo, Charlie Garner had 94 rushing yards and a touchdown, and 83 receiving yards and a touchdown; Jerry Porter had 117 receiving yards and a touchdown; and, really, who thinks of Garner and Porter as the keys to any NFL team's offense?

i. Bledsoe has to average 203 passing a yards per game over the final 11 to have a 4,000-yard passing season. Locksville.

j. Arizona 3-2. Minnesota in the ALCS. Not sure which is more shocking.

k. Of all the adjectives I ever thought I could ascribe to the St. Louis Rams of 2002, "pathetic" is one I never thought I'd use.

l. I want higher football minds than mine (Jimmy Kimmel?) to explain how the Steelers can give up a 52-yard run and a 64-yard pass play in one game. How can this team be surrendering 26 points a game?

3. I think one of the three or four most interesting stories in football right now is how the Jaguars can be 3-1 right now with the turmoil and the cap trouble and the veteran unrest that they've had.

4. I think I'm not really sure how much importance to attach to the Johnnie Cochran-led report saying black coaches are not getting the opportunities of their white counterparts. But I will make these four points:

a. Good for Cochran if he pushes the process along and gets under the NFL's saddle a little bit. I think Paul Tagliabue is working hard to improve the NFL's record here, but the head coaching thing is brutally embarrassing.

b. There's not enough of a sample (five black coaches, 135 white ones since 1986) to make hard and fast judgments about the black coaches winning 1.1 more games per year than their white one. I mean, if Herman Edwards pulls a 3-13 this year -- which looks eminently possible -- all of a sudden that stat is down the tubes.

c. The key here is opportunity. And what really has to happen is an enforcement of Tagliabue's prescribed wish that at least one minority candidate is interviewed for every opening.

d. Cochran needs to win the battle in the court of public opinion. I'm not sure how he should do that, but I, unfortunately, listen to a lot of talk radio, and I heard precious little righteous indignation about this issue on the airwaves in the last five or six days. None, in fact.

5. I think these are my personal thoughts of the week:

a. I don't get the chance to see The Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm much during the season, unless I can figure out when, on one of my 10 digital cable HBO channels, they're on during the week.

b. Caught Bruce Springsteen on Saturday Night Live. Mr. Intenso, isn't he? I get choked up every time I hear You're Missing.

c. Coffeenerdness: Has anyone in Pro Player Stadium actually had the coffee there? Rather, has anyone had the coffee-flavored water? That's some grim java, folks.

d. The ESPN commercial with Dan Patrick and David Stern in line for the bathroom is the best sports commercial I've seen in a long time.

e. Montclair (N.J.) High Field Hockey Note of the Week: The Mountie Express, with your favorite link, junior Mary Beth King, rolls on. A 3-0 week advanced the MHS record to 9-0-0. Mary Beth slapped in the first of three goals in a 3-0 win over Ramsey (that's the place that had the crooked sporting goods store in Year Two of The Sopranos) to open the week. After the [Newark] Star-Ledger promoted the girls from 20th to 16th in the state poll on Wednesday, MHS ran into a tough River Dell team up in Bergen County. It was 0-0 at the half. Then, in the first five minutes of the second half, we banged home three quickies. Notable event of the day: River Dell scored the first goal of the season by a Montclair opponent in the final minute of the game ... after 479 scoreless minutes by our defense. And Saturday, always-tough Demarest came to Mountieville and scored early in the first half. First time this year we'd trailed. Two minutes later, though, right wing Adair Landy, a precocious sophomore, lined a low cross into the circle and senior Jess Giammella pulled the liner out of the air and re-directed it into the goal to tie it. Two second-half goals gave the Mounties their third three-goal game of the week. "Quality win," I told coach Mary Pat Mercuro, as if I know field hockey.

f. Montclair High Field Hockey Player of the Week: Carly Sargent, senior inner. My voting panel this week consists of Mary Beth King and her fellow link, co-captain Lyndsay Wilson, who's as good a player and a selfless captain as a high school sports team could ever have. So Friday I asked Mary to convene the player of the week cabinet, and she and Lyndsay came up with the popular and terminally unselfish Carly ("She's been through so much, and she's such a team player," Lyndsay said), whose playing time has been scarce after a good JV season last year. But her name was called in the first half of the Ramsey game, and she responded with her first goal of the year.

The MMQB interview with the tall and very blonde Sargent:

MMQB: "What was it like to score your first varsity goal this year?"

Sargent: "Totally awesome. Incredible. I was really surprised."

MMQB: "Some players would quit if they didn't get playing time. Why did you stick with it?"

Sargent: "First of all, I am not a quitter. I never will be. I enjoy being on the team. I love the girls. Mary Beth and Lyndsay would always tell me, 'Hang in there. Your chance will come.' But it's pretty hard when you sit for five straight games ... 60 minutes a game ... and everybody's name gets called but yours. I didn't know what I was doing wrong, but the coaches kept telling me to work hard in practice. So I did. And I got in there and took advantage of it."

MMQB: "You could tell how much your teammates respect you by how enthusiastic they were when you scored."

Sargent: "Everyone went crazy. It was awesome. The girls mean everything to me. Then I had a headline [in the Star-Ledger, which read 'King, Landy, Sargent Lead Montclair'], and my picture was in the Montclair Times. I was like, 'Wow! I have a headline!' All my teammates were so happy for me. There's nothing more I could ask for."

MMQB: "What's the moral of your story?"

Sargent: "I guess it's something like: Keep working hard. Good things will happen. Don't quit."

MMQB: "How far can this team go?"

Sargent: "Our team has a lot of potential. We have a saying on the team that I really like: 'Alone we're crap. Together we're awesome.' When we play together, we're really nasty."

MMQB: "What are your hobbies?"

Sargent: "Field hockey and community service. I like to travel too. This summer I went to France, England and Scotland."

MMQB: "And you have a big event coming up, don't you?"

Sargent: "That's right. It's a mother-daughter tea for breast cancer awareness. I'm doing it for my gold award for Girl Scouts. I'm really into the mother-daughter thing."

6. I think Florida still feels, to me, like a state where everyone got there 15 minutes ago.

7. I think I wonder how long it's going to take before the NFL world figures out Drew Bledsoe. It's amazing. The Raiders picked him three times, but that defense had been playing pretty well, and the Bills rolled up 479 yards on Oakland, 417 from Bledsoe's right arm. Bledsoe has played five very-good-to-excellent games, and his deep arm looks like Dan Fouts' in his prime.

8. I think there's been no more admirable, hard-working, gutty player in my time than Ed McCaffery.

9. I think the Yankees lost for one reason: the 10.38 ERA of their four starters. My other baseball musings:

a. No manager is classier in defeat than Joe Torre. And there is no classier player than Derek Jeter. This is coming from a guy who doesn't like the Yankees.

b. Call me a trendy dope, but I love that rally monkey.

c. I'll miss the A's in the playoffs. They're a team you just like to root for, with their quirky pitchers and under-appreciated shortstop.

d. Can anyone take the Giants seriously? Even if they win Monday night? They have not a single go-to pitcher.

e. America should adopt the Cardinals. They deserve it, with everything they've been through. Plus, their 24-ounce beers are a good value at the ballpark.

10. I think there couldn't be a better match than Dick Jauron and the Bengals. Fox reported the nugget on Sunday that Cincinnati would be interested in him, and if I'm the Bears, I listen to the Bengals' offer for compensation, assuming there will be one.

How do you pick Green Bay-Chicago? A month ago, I would have picked the Packers, because I loved their defense and knew they'd score enough. Now I hate their defense. It's full of leaks, and no front-seven player scares any quarterback. So I should love the Bears tonight. Wrong. Two of their top five defensive guys, defensive tackle/mountainous person Ted Washington and vastly underrated linebacker Warrick Holdman, are missing with injuries, and Drew Bledsoe took the Bills up and down the field last week on them. So I'm going with the Pack. Meekly. Like 20-17.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space -- no kidding -- on Monday mornings.

 

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