Momentum and blocking had washed pass rusher Cameron Wake past Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards. Shark-like, Wake swam back toward Edwards, dropped him and caused a fumble.

It mattered not that Buffalo recovered the ball. Four years after failing to make it even to training camp as a rookie free agent with the Giants, three years after his second season out of football, and two weeks after being deemed unworthy of the Dolphins' game roster, Wake had his first NFL sack.

``That's one you used to lay in bed, lay on your back and dream about,'' Wake said. ``Come around the corner, the quarterback's setting up, you just knock him down. It's something that I've been playing in my mind for years. For it to finally, actually happen -- it's hard to explain.''

What followed wasn't hard to explain. It wasn't that Wake was the Canadian Football League Defensive Player of the Year in 2007 and '08, and that Buffalo is the only NFL team that has played a home game in a CFL stadium, that 16-3 Dolphins victory last season. This is what happened -- the Dolphins had a big lead and a very good, young, hungry pass rusher against an offensive line down to its second-string tackles. With such an open buffet, Wake devoured the Bills for three sacks. He also had a part in a third-down, 4-yard stop on Buffalo running back Marshawn Lynch.

``He just stuck to the moves that he's got,'' said outside linebacker Joey Porter, who sat out Sunday's game with a hamstring injury. ``He's a great edge rusher and he showed that [Sunday]. He was coming round the corner. He's been waiting for this opportunity. Everybody's been waiting for him to blossom because he does it so much in practice. We've been waiting for him to bring it to the field.''

Since February, Wake has been trying to improve his run defense and special-teams play while assimilating himself to the outside-linebacker position. In the CFL, with only three downs, a wider field and 25-yard end zones, the traditional style of a running game generally gets thrown aside. Wake said he never lost confidence in his ability, as he had during the two seasons between being cut by the Giants and playing for the British Columbia Lions.

After the first two games, Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said Wake needed to improve his special-teams play and his play against the run to get into the lineup. What Wake also needed was a little opportunity-creating luck, which he got with some bad luck with Porter's injury.

Going into the San Diego game unsure how long their best pass rusher could play, and needing to wreak more pocket havoc than they did against Indianapolis, Sparano activated Wake and scratched Erik Walden, who was better on special teams. Charlie Anderson replaced Porter in the Dolphins' base defense, as he did Sunday.

Wake wound up playing more special teams plays than defensive snaps in San Diego, but showed he could hurry the passer in an NFL game.

Sunday erased any doubt, though Wake played mostly in nickel and dime coverage packages. When Wake yanked down Edwards for a second time on the last play from scrimmage of the first half, it put an exclamation point on a Dolphins-dominated half.

``I've been around a long time and he does things that amaze me,'' Dolphins longtime sackmaster Jason Taylor said. ``It's those young, fresh legs, good cartilage in his knees. Joey and I will always joke watching tape, see Cameron dip underneath somebody, kind of get pushed around, he'll spin around and pop off the ground. We always look at each other and say, `That's those good knees, the good cartilage.' He does things that Joey and I can't do right now. I think we have a few things that he can't do, either.''

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