History of Pro Football in Buffalo

Bills Backers United

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1998

Week 2 September 13, 1998

Bills 7
Miami 13

Attendance: 73,097

MIAMI (AP) The Miami Dolphins compensated for a sputtering offense with a swarming pass rush to beat the Buffalo Bills.

Scoring Summary
	1	2	3	4	F
Bills	0	7	0	0	7
Miami	0	7	3	3	13
First Quarter Second Quarter BUF Moulds 28 pass from Johnson (Christie kick), 5:20. Drive 7 plays, 68 yards, 4:02. Key play: Johnson 19 pass to Moulds to Dolphins' 37. Buffalo, Miami 0 MIA Thomas 17 pass from Marino (Mare kick), :59. Drive 9 plays, 80 yards, 4:21. Key plays: Marino 19 pass to McDuffie on 3rd-and-14; Marino 18 pass to Thomas on 3rd-and-10; Marino 22 pass to Gadsden. Buffalo 7, Miami 7 Third Quarter MIA FG Mare 33, 3:29. Drive: 10 plays, 80 yards, 5:45. Key plays: Abdul-Jabbar 26 run; Marino 15 pass to McDuffie; Avery 21 run. Buffalo 7, Miami 10 Fourth Quarter MIA FG Mare 27, 12:29. Drive: 4 plays, 6 yards, 1:26. Key play: Surtain interception at Bills' 31 plus a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. Miami 13, Buffalo 7

Miami sacked Rob Johnson eight times, limited the Bills to 187 yards and won a defensive struggle 13-7 Sunday.

Trace Armstrong, Jason Taylor and rookie Lorenzo Bromell had two sacks apiece to lead the charge for the Dolphins. Their sack total was one shy of the team record set in 1973.

Miami remained alone atop the AFC East at 2-0. Buffalo fell to 0-2.

Dan Marino threw for the Dolphins' only touchdown, a 17-yarder to Lamar Thomas, and Olindo Mare kicked field goals of 33 and 27 yards. Buffalo's lone score came on a fourth-down, 28-yard pass from Johnson to Eric Moulds in the second period.

Miami's final stand came in the last two minutes. The Bills took possession at their own 20-yard line with 1:53 left, but time expired with an incompletion at the Buffalo 45.

The Dolphins' running game, which showed signs of improvement in the opener at Indianapolis, stalled against the Bills. It took the Dolphins five possessions and 17 minutes to get a first down, and on the next play, Marino was sacked by Bruce Smith.

Smith made seven tackles in his first game of the year. He sat out the opener and blamed a sore knee, but there was speculation that he's unhappy with his contract.

Marino finished 14-for-26 for 159 yards. He had five passes dropped.

Johnson, who was knocked out of the opening game at San Diego a week ago with a concussion, this time went the distance. He was 10-for-18 for 134 yards.

The first 10 possessions of the game ended with a punt before the Bills broke through. On fourth-and-1 at the Miami 28, Johnson scrambled out of the pocket and threw into the end zone to Moulds, who made the catch behind cornerback Terrell Buckley for the game's first score.

The Dolphins abandoned the run in the final five minutes of the first half and quickly tied the game. Marino went 6-for-6 for 86 yards in the drive, converting two third-and-long situations and then hitting Thomas for a touchdown with 59 seconds left.

Miami marched 80 yards with all but 15 coming on the ground to set up Mare's 33-yard field goal for a 10-7 lead late in the third period.

Johnson, under heavy pressure, threw an interception to rookie Patrick Surtain early in the fourth quarter the only turnover of the game. That set up Mare's 27-yard field goal for a 13-7 Miami lead.

Game Breakdown
	BUF	MIA
FIRST DOWNS Rushing Passing Penalty THIRD DOWN EFF FOURTH DOWN EFF TOTAL NET YARDS Total Plays Avg Gain NET YARDS RUSHING Rushes Avg per rush NET YARDS PASSING Sacked-Yds lost Gross-Yds passing Completed-Att. Had Intercepted Yards-Pass Play KICKOFFS-EndZone-TB PUNTS-Avg. Punts blocked FGs-PATs blocked TOTAL RETURN YARDAGE Punts Returns Kickoffs Returns Interceptions PENALTIES-Yds FUMBLES-Lost TIME OF POSSESSION	12 6 5 1 4-13 1-1 187 54 3.5 110 28 3.9 77 8-57 134 10-18 1 3.0 2-1-1 8-45.9 0 0-0 68 3-9 3-59 0-0 10-70 2-0 30:09	12 4 7 1 4-14 0-0 259 55 4.7 116 27 4.3 143 2-16 159 14-26 0 5.1 4-2-1 8-44.8 0 0-0 76 3-35 1-41 1-0 5-42 0-0 29:51
Individual Statistics: RUSHING BUFFALO, Johnson 6-42, A.Smith 13-34, Thomas 9-34. MIAMI, Abdul-Jabbar 18-75, Avery 9-41. PASSING BUFFALO, Johnson 10-18-1-134. MIAMI, Marino 14-26-0-159. RECEIVING BUFFALO, Moulds 5-79, Reed 2-15, Early 1-24, K.Williams 1-12, Gash 1-4. MIAMI, McDuffie 5-60, Perry 4-26, Thomas 3-42, Gadsden 2-31. PUNT RETURNS BUFFALO, K.Williams 3-9. MIAMI, Buckley 3-35. KICKOFF RETURNS BUFFALO, K.Williams 2-42, Gash 1-17. MIAMI, Avery 1-41. TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS BUFFALO, Jones 6-1-0, Smith 2-5-0, Washington 1-5-0, Northern 4-1-1, Rogers 4-1-0, Hansen 3-2-0, Schultz 1-4-0, Holcheck 1-3-0, Irvin 2-0-0, P.Williams 2-0-0, Jackson 1-0-0, Perry 1-0-0, Price 1-0-0, Smith 1-0-0, Cowart 0-1-0, Wiley 0-1-0. MIAMI, Thomas 7-3-1, Taylor 3-4-2, Jones 2-3-1, Rogers 0-5-0, Marion 4-0-0, Madison 3-0-0, Bromell 2-1-2, Gardener 2-1-0, Bowens 1-2-0, Mixon 1-2-0, Armstrong 2-0-2, Burton 1-1-0, Walker 1-1-0, Buckley 1-0-0, Surtain 1-0-0, Wilson 1-0-0, Jackson 0-1-0. INTERCEPTIONS BUFFALO, None. MIAMI, Surtain 1-0. MISSED FIELD GOALS None.

Bills Backers United is a combined effort between the Bills Backers International Chapters located in Willow Grove PA, Laurel MD, Phoenix AZ, and Virginia Beach VA.