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Colts have edge over Dolphins
Posted: Thursday December 02, 1999 01:46 PM
Can the Miami Dolphins beat the up-and-coming Indianapolis Colts twice in one season? I don't think so. I see the Colts winning the rematch at Pro Player Stadium, which would give them some breathing room atop the AFC East and keep them on the heels of the Jacksonville Jaguars for the home-field advantage in the playoffs. On October 10, Dan Marino engineered one of his classic comebacks and the Dolphins beat the Colts 34-31 in Indianapolis, with the winning score a touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden with 27 seconds remaining. A lot has changed since then. A neck problem has sapped Marino's arm strength, and the 9-2 Colts have gained more confidence with each win. After returning from a five-week layoff, Marino showed a lot of rust in the Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys. The Colts have younger, fresher legs, and a good enough defense to shut down Miami, and the Colts have too much offensive firepower for the Dolphins to handle. To get into position to win, the Dolphins will need a game plan similar to the one used by Bill Parcells and the New York Jets, who lost to the Colts 13-6 in Week 12. They intercepted a couple of Peyton Manning's passes and were in position to tie the score late, but a pass from Ray Lucas went off the hands of Wayne Chrebet in the end zone. The Jets ran the ball with Curtis Martin. Using his home-field advantage, Jimmy Johnson needs to establish a running game behind Cecil Collins and J.J. Johnson, and try to keep the ball away from the Colts. If you give Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James enough opportunities, they are going to score on you. The 8-3 Miami Dolphins seem to have two defenses: The one that gives up an average of 22 points per game on the road; and the one that allows only 13.8 at Pro Player Stadium. For the Dolphins' sake, the Pro Player defense had better be the one that shows up Sunday.
Biting the bullet on KordellThe Pittsburgh Steelers need to face the fact that Kordell Stewart is never going to be a pro-style, drop-back quarterback. I've never seen a quarterback diminish more over a consistent period of time. He's gone downhill progressively since the opening game against Cleveland, which Pittsburgh won 43-0. Against the Bengals last week, he couldn't come close with his passes. As I've said before, they're trying to drive a square peg into a round hole. They've got to design an offense that accentuates his abilities, or they are forever stuck with the kind of performances he's had recently. He needs to use play action, the option game, and more plays have to be designed with him as a runner instead of a thrower. In short, run a collegiate offense. Ron Meyer, a former NFL head coach, is a pro football analyst with CNN/SI and appears weekly on CNN's NFL Preview. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
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