Miami 24, Carolina 17

For the second straight week, Miami tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Last week it was Chad Henne's interception on the wrong side of the field, and this week it was the defense softening up in the 4th quarter, letting Carolina get close enough to try and tie the game with a TD pass. But like last week, Miami walked away with a victory.

The story this week was the loss of Ronnie Brown to the IR list. Would the run game suffer? Would the offense as a whole? Apparently not. It looks like some mandatory time off and a vacation in Canada has left Ricky Williams with some gas in his tank. Sitting out most of 04, 06, and 07 for various reasons, Ricky still runs with authority in his 30s, something a lot of NFL backs can't do. His 138 yards, 119 on the ground, and 3 total TDs served notice to the rest of the league: Miami may be down, but they certainly aren't out.

For the most part, the defense played well. Joey Porter rebounded from his benching last week to notch two sacks in a game for the first time this season, and until the 4th quarter Carolina was not having much luck with the passing game. And for what it's worth, Chad Henne played turnover-free ball this week, avoiding putting the defense in bad spots.

It was a solid road win, putting the Dolphins at .500 for the first time all season, and ahead of the imploding and probably overrated Jets, at least until Sunday. Four winnable games, a rematch with the Pats, and a season-ending matchup against a Pittsburgh team that should be resting players for the postseason means that after this win, the playoffs are still very much a possibility. In fact, an 11-5 finish and a division title are still on the table. The pressure is now on New England to stop giving games away.

Brownout

OK, so Ronnie Brown isn't playing against the Panthers this week. What does thie mean for Miami? Well, it means that they need to be at the top of their game to win.

Brown is out, so the Wildcat will be affected. It might mean we see more of Pat White running the formation, which hasn't been spectacular to this point. What it really means is that the passing game needs to step up. The line will have to protect Henne, and the coaches will have to devise some offensive schemes to get their WRs some openings. These aren't speed guys, except for Sir Dropsalot of Buckeye, and that means an efficient, short-to-mid range passing game will be the key.

Henne showed a lot leading Miami right down the field against Tampa right after potentially blowing the game with a bad INT. If he can translate that momentum into this week against the Panthers, Miami should be alright.

Ricky Williams has basically been Stud Jr. in the backfield, nearly as effective a runner as Ronnie Brown on the stat sheet. Last week he showed that he can at least take the reins for the short term, a promising sign if they are going to be without Brown for another game or two beyond Thursday.

If the defense can get enough pressure on Delhomme, forcing him to regress back to Bad Jake, and contain Carolina's running game, a decent proposition given that Miami has a top 10 run defense, then there is no reason to assume that Brown's absense will create an insurmountable obstacle to victory.

Oh, and Coach? It's crunch time. QB pressure will mean a lot in this one. Joey's learned his lesson, let's all get back to business.