Dolphins outlast the Bears

The Dolphins had a disastrous start to the season as they began 0-5. Over the past few weeks, Jimmy Johnson has finally gotten his squad to play up to their capabilities and they did it again Sunday as they beat the Chicago Bears, 30-24, Sunday afternoon at Pro Player Stadium.

The Dolphins have had trouble in the red zone this season. Instead of scoring touchdowns, they have been forced to kick field goals. In fact, they came into today’s game with a Red Zone TD percentage of 38%. Today, they went 2 for 4 as they scored on a 2-yd Karim Abdul-Jabbar run and a 10-yd Jaris McPhail run. They still kicked 3 field goals today, but their offensive production in the red zone is slowly getting better.

QB Dan Marino threw for 263 yards on 18 of 30 passing with a 69-yard TD pass to Lamar Thomas. He also threw his first interception of the season in this game. Marino also got help from his running game as the Dolphins racked up 125 yards on the ground including 88 from Jabbar.

The Dolphins scored 27 points in the first half of this game. That is more points than they have scored in any full game this season. They came into the game averaging 16 points per game, so they shattered that in the first half.

The Bears were down 27-10 at halftime but made a game of it when they scored two TDs in the third quarter. Raymont Harris scored on a run from a yard out and Darnell Autry scored from 3 yards out to cut the lead to 27-24.

The Dolphins (3-5) will try to make it four in a row when they travel to Buffalo, while the Bears (1-7) host the Redskins next Sunday.

1997 Game 115 Stats