Williams Leads The Way In Miami’s 24-17 Win Over Carolina

11:40 PM Thu 11-19-09

CHARLOTTE,
N.C. – Facing a stiff challenge from a very similar opponent Thursday
night at Bank of America Stadium, the Miami Dolphins showed the resolve
that defined them a year ago and pulled out a gutsy 24-17 victory to
even their record at 5-5.

Miami entered the game with the knowledge that its leading rusher
and best offensive player, running back Ronnie Brown, was lost for the
season to a foot injury and it would also be without its starting tight
end, Anthony Fasano, and backup nose tackle, Paul Soliai. Not about to
feel sorry for themselves, the Dolphins filled in the holes and after
trudging through the first quarter clearly out of synch they found
their rhythm in the second quarter and took control of the game.

Ricky Williams had his second straight 20-carry game, something he
did with regularity when he led the league in rushing in 2002, and
gained 119 yards on the 22 carries taking over the starting role for
Brown. He salted the game away with a 46-yard touchdown run with 3:55
left in the game, his third touchdown of the night and ninth of the
season. It was the third time in his career he scored three touchdowns
in a game and he did it behind an offensive line that saw three of its
members go down in the game in different intervals and used three
different centers.

“It was unbelievable,” said Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano of his
team’s effort just four days after beating Tampa Bay at home. “One of
the things I think when you do make a turnaround like this this fast is
a little bit about what happened out there tonight. Just the injuries
were tremendous; affecting the special teams, affecting what was going
on. We had three centers working out there, I mean one of the guys that
played center in the game (Nate Garner), he legitimately never took a
snap at center in practice other than on the line period. Some of you
guys know how hard that is and it worked out that we were just down
there getting a field goal out of it. Again, my hats off to them. They
just kept grinding and every guy that came into that game contributed
in one way or another.”

Williams received a boost from second-year running back Lex Hilliard
on the first scoring drive as Hilliard had runs of 13 yards (negated by
a holding penalty) and 18 yards that converted a 3rd-and-16 to set up
Williams’ 14-yard touchdown reception. When Williams dove over the
pylon from a yard out to give Miami a 14-3 lead with less than a minute
to go in the first half it became the first time in his career that he
had a rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game.

Hilliard had 24 yards on four carries.

Outside linebacker Joey Porter and defensive end Randy Starks
spearheaded a physical defense that kept the Panthers out lf the end
zone until the last six minutes of the ballgame and put their
quarterback, Jake Delhomme, on his back numerous times. Porter, who
missed last week’s win over Tampa Bay, led the team with eight tackles
(seven for loss) and added two sacks while Starks had a sack and came
up with some big run-stuffing tackles.

Cornerback Nate Jones had a big interception on Carolina’s first
drive of the second smith after DeAngelo Williams had gotten the
Panthers all the way down to Miami’s 24. Even though Williams rushed
for over 100 yards (122 on 13 carries) and had a 50-yard run while
averaging over nine yards per carry, Miami’s defense stopped him when
they had to and also contained Jonathan Stewart. He was held to just 43
yards on 12 carries.

“Keeping that offense at bay and doing a good job all day really
made our job easier,” Williams said. “We struggled early in the game
but the defense kept it close and gave us an opportunity and gave us
time to get our act together and the defense played huge out there
tonight.”

Henne finished the night completing 17-of-29 passes for 172 yards
and one touchdown with no interceptions and Davone Bess caught six
passes for 63 yards to lead the team. Miami did not turn the ball over
at all and now has its second two-game winning streak of the season.
The next game is at Buffalo on Nov. 29.

The poise that Henne showed in crunch time generated praise once
again from Sparano and his teammates, especially about how he bought
extra time on a clutch third-down pass to Bess that kept the
game-clinching drive alive.

“He made some big play, none bigger than the throw to Bess at the
end there on that touchdown drive,” Sparano said. “You guys want to
talk about progress and how guys are getting better and all that stuff?
That’s the last option on that play. I mean that is absolutely number
three. He goes through his progression, he knows exactly where it is
and he comes back and he finds Bess, so there were a bunch of big plays
made out there tonight in this game and Chad certainly had his hand in
some of those.”

Bess, who also had a 22-yard punt return, credited Henne with keeping that play alive.

“It was pretty much a scramble drill,” he explained. “My route was
pretty much shut down with the coverage they were in and Coach always
tells us whenever you’re in a situation where your route is off and the
quarterback is scrambling around we go to the scramble drill and I
found him and we got on the same page and he threw it and I caught it.”

Outside linebacker Jason Taylor praised Porter for bringing energy
to the defense and setting the tone early with his four tackles and a
sack on the opening drive and also reiterated how much he is enjoying
seeing Henne “growing up right before our eyes.” He also enjoyed
watching the 32-year-old Williams run like he is 10 years younger, but
he didn’t want to ignore the team’s shortcomings against the run.

“We gave up too many rushing yards tonight and he’s (DeAngelo
Williams) a great back,” Taylor said. “They have two really good backs
and a great receiver out there, actually a couple of great receivers,
and we gave up too many rushing yards but sometimes you have to say all
is well that ends well and give those guys credit for being good
players. We made plays when we needed to. The offense went down and
scored when we needed them to there in the second half and what a game
by Ricky and Joey.”

But in the end it’s Miami’s Williams who gets the last word on the victory, with his touchdown run and with his own voice.

“Well you know Coach always talks about finishing and sometimes in
this league in physical games it’s difficult to finish,” he said. “I
think in the past we’ve prided ourselves on finishing games and we did
a good job tonight.”