One year removed from a 1-15 season, Miami has planted itself squarely in a playoff race 11 weeks into the season.  Shows how much I know, seeing as I had us pegged for 5 wins and a top 10 draft pick.  Sometimes it's good to be wrong.  I'm loving what I'm seeing from this team.  Yeah, we would all like to see a blowout, and we all know our team is alot better than the Raiders, but these are the games we ALWAYS lost last season.  Now we've won 2 of them back-to-back.  The close games, when every play seems like it's make or break, good teams make those plays.  And we have players that continue to make those plays.  Some quick notes before we get to the real stuff..

• The Dolphins are 6-4 for the first time since 2003.  The last time we hit that mark?  We finished 10-6.  Good omen.
• Oakland was held under 200 total yards for the second straight game.  Kudos to our defense for holding them to 186 total offensive yards.
• Once again, the kick coverage let us down, and almost lost us the game.  On a boomer of a punt by Brandon Fields, who had a good game booting it, they gave Johnny Lee Higgins (who?) an alleyway that Jake Long could've hit.  93 yards later, Miami was behind in a game that should've already been decided.
• Sebastian Janikowski is a freak of nature.  He missed a 45 yard FG when he hit it off the TOP of the goal post.  Read that again.  It hit about 7/8th's of the way up.  From 45 yards.  That kick is good from 73.  Unbelievable.
• 2 Rushing TD's.  Neither by Ronnie or Ricky.  The FB Counter play to Cobbs was beautiful in it's simplicity.  I've seen that play run in youth leagues and high schools for years now.  It's another play that everybody says can't be run against NFL defense that Miami has used to success.  Add it to the Wildcat and the Jet Sweep, both of which we also saw against Oakland.
• Please read the Turd Sandwich part of this column.  Normally it's a funny way to wrap up, or a place to vent about something that went wrong.  In this edition, however, I'm writing about something with much more importance.  If you never read that part of the column again, at least give a look today.  Thank you.

Now here are my Balls, which were sorely missed last week..

5. Dan Carpenter - Congratulations to DC$ on his first true Game Winning FG.  From 38 yards, with his entire team counting on him, to thrust his team into a playoff race, and the whole stadium standing in anticipation..  DC$ hasn't seen pressure like this in his life.  And all he does is drill it down the pipe like it's a warm-up kick.  Dan, meet Ice Water, Ice Water, Dan.  Talk about a diamond in the rough.

4. Ronnie Brown - He was a part of the rushing attack that demolished Oakland throughout the game.  Ronnie picked up 101 yards on only 16 carries for an average of 6.3 yards per touch.  Along with Ricky, Brown wore down the Oakland D allowing Pennington to march downfield on a tired and beat up Raiders squad for the game winning field goal.  And I just can't get over how this guy finishes his runs.  Before he goes to the ground, somebody on defense takes a shot.  He runs like Marion Barber, just a vicious, angry runner.  I love it.  I think it epitomizes the attitude of this team.

3. Ted Ginn Jr. - In the passing game, Ted was the leading receiver in both catches and yards, but the numbers were rather unspectacular.  4 catches, 51 yards, a long of only 23, but that's not the whole story.  The Ted Ginn Jr. Big Play showed up yesterday.  In the first quarter, Miami set up from Oakland's 40, and ran the ball to the right side...  WAIT, no they didn't.  They gave the end around to Mach 19, and he broke through 2 tackles, hit 14th gear, and motored into the end zone for Miami's first score.  The explosion we've all been waiting for from him showed up in a big way.  And that's why he's here.  When he gets the ball in open space, the man is electric. 

2. Joey Porter and the Pass Rush - The pass rush was all over Russell in this game, sacking him 5 times, and getting his backup, Marques Tuiasososospopsopsoso, or something, once.  Vonnie Holliday had a 1.5, Roth got 1, Will Allen even got into the act on a Corner Blitz, blowing by the tight end and slinging Russell to the turf.  But Joey Porter gets special mention for 2 reasons.  One, he raised his season total to 14 sacks, adding 1.5 vs Oakland.  His solo sack came on the last drive, when Oakland was trying to get into FG range after DC$ put his through.  That effectively ended the game.  The other reason, was that I actually met him on Saturday, and he's a scary man.  His kid plays pee wee (7 & 8 year old) football in the same league that I coach, and his team played in the Super Bowl this past Saturday.  He's a giant.  I almost wet myself when he started getting pissed at the other team for running the score up.  Side note: Will Allen's kid also plays for that team, and he was there as well.  And they ran the Wildcat, with Porter's kid at QB, and Allen's doing the Jet.  Hilarious. 

And The Number 1 Gameball goes to...  The Run Blocking - They simply dominated the LOS all game long.  They paved the way for 222 total rushing yards on 35 rushes, an insane average of 6.3 per carry.  Both TD's were rushing TD's.  We used several high school-type plays that were succesful because of the blocking.  On Patrick Cobbs TD, Jake Long pulled to the right and blew the hole wide open on a simple fullback counter.  When you can run the ball on offense, you give yourself a chance to win, and that's what happened on Sunday.  So big ups to the OL for plowing the road and allowing Ronnie, Ricky, WildCobbs, and Mach 19 all kinds of room to run yesterday.

This Week's Turd Sandwich goes to...  A Bacterial Infection - Mikey Stolzenberg, a pee wee football player in the AYFL (the league I'm with), recently underwent emergency surgery to amputate his hands and feet.  He contracted a bacterial infection, and over the course of 2 months, doctors fought it and were able to save his life.  However, he is now in need of high-tech prosthetics, and he needs them replaced every few months as he grows.  This is an unbelievable expense for a boy just trying to regain his independence.  Please visit the site, and send along well-wishes, or donations if you can, to the family.  The league has raised a ton of money to help this boy, but it's still not nearly enough to cover all the costs of giving him a fairly normal life.  Click on his name to read the entire story.