Dolphins Win Thriller over Falcons to Stay Unbeaten
The Miami Dolphins are starting to make people believe. In the third week of the season Miami is 3-0 after winning a thriller over the Atlanta Falcons 27-23. Ryan Tannehill led the Fins on an impressive last minute drive and completed a touchdown pass to Dion Sims with :38 left on the clock. If hat wasn’t enough, both of Miami’s first two victims went on the road and won. The Cleveland Browns, who the Dolphins beat on the road in the opener, went on the road to beat the Minnesota Vikings 31-27 and the Indianapolis Colts stunned the San Francisco 49ers 27-7 at Candlestick Park.
Miami trailed the favored Falcons for most of Sunday’s game, but never let the visitors get too far out of reach. The Falcons led 10-0 after the first quarter before Lamar Miller broke open for a 49 yard run. That led to a Miami touchdown to cut the lead to 10-7. The Falcons then stretched the lead back to 10 at 20-10Â but the Dolphins tied the game back thanks to a big hit on a punt return that the Falcons Harry Douglas fumbled deep in Atlanta territory. From there, Tannehill hit Brian Hartline for the game tying score.
The Falcons then stormed back on a long run from Jason Snelling that led to the go-ahead field goal, but Tannehill calmly led the team down the field for the game winner. Tannehill ended the day 24-35 for 236 yards and two touchdowns. His counterpart, Matt Ryan lost the battle of the Ryans, going 23-38 for 231 yards and two touchdowns. Both had one interception, Ryan’s was on the game’s last play by Jimmy Wilson to seal it.
Miami is trying to snap a streak of four straight losing seasons. They will get an extra day off to get ready for a Monday Night Football showdown with the 3-0 New Orleans Saints next week. Stay with us for our pick on that game later in the week when the NFL Lines come out.
Miami is tied for the AFC East lead with the New England Patriots who walloped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-3. The Pats played their best game of the season on offense with Tom Brady going 25-36 for 225 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots young receiving corps played much better than the first two games. The defense has very good all year having given up only 34 points in three games thus far. Josh Freeman was only 19 of 41 on the day for the Bucs.
The New York Jets won a thriller over the Buffalo Bills 27-20 on a long touchdown catch and run by Santonio Holmes midway through the fourth quarter and just a few plays after the Bills had tied the game on a touchdown catch by Stevie Johnson and a successful two-point conversion. Both rookie quarterbacks, Geno Smith of the Jets and E. J. Manuel of the Bills played well in the first of what should be many head-to-head match-ups between these two.
Right now, the Jets are 2-1 and only three points shy if being unbeaten after losing in week two to the Patriots. The Bills are 1-2 and those two losses are by a total of nine points. Right now, a case could be made that the AFC East is the best division in football, or at least the most competitive. The AFC East has a perfect record so far against teams from outside the division.
