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Posted on Tuesday, 09.22.09

IN MY OPINION

Miami Dolphins gave Peyton Manning all he could handle

Miami Dolphins defenders Jason Taylor and Phillip Merling press Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning into the ground during the second quarter on Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 at Land Shark Stadium.

JOE RIMKUS JR. / STAFF PHOTO

Dolphins vs. Colts | Mon., Sept. 21, 2009
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WEB VOTE What went wrong for the Dolphins on Monday against the Colts?

By EDWIN POPE

epope@MiamiHerald.com

OK, the Dolphins overall don't look so hot an awful lot of the time, at least these baby steps into the new season. The offense is dink and dunk except when a few of Chad Pennington's few long shots roll right off receivers' fingers. The defense, God bless it, seems to be the unit that rolls up its sleeves and does the heavy lifting when things are on the line.

But it was Mr. D. that got rocked this time, when the Indianapolis Colts came back to win the Monday Night Football deal 27-23 on Peyton Manning's 48-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon.

Maybe we should try looking at it this way:

Indianapolis is considered a very, very good team, and the Dolphins took the Colts' best shots and came back for more.

Yes, they lost, and yes, they lost at home.

Yes, Manning. Given half a chance, he still must drool every time he looks at some of those wide open spaces the Dolphins secondary offers him, but they gave him all he could handle until he unleashed that bull's eye to Garcon at the end.

And, yes, yes, yes, Dan Carpenter is one Dolphin the Colts would just as soon never ever see again.

His 45-yard field goal with 3:50 left seemed to have finished off Indianapolis 23-20.

Not even close.

And half of South Florida is still looking at each other and asking, How good is this team?

I say, ``Pretty good.'' But obviously not real good at 0-2.

Manning hooking up with Dallas Clark for an 80-yard touchdown play on the game's very first snap suggested a cargo of Indy-style entertainment was on the way to follow Jennifer Lopez and Jimmy Buffett.

It really wasn't. Not for the first half, anyway.

Manning-Clark set off some vibes. But only vibes. The teams spent most of the first half fiddling and fooling around and settling for field goals. It seemed perfectly right and fitting that Carpenter's 44-yard field goal, his second big kick, should be matched by Adam Vinatieri's 48-yarder, his second as well.

So they adjourned for halftime in a 13-13 tie that pretty well reflected how short the game had fallen from advance advertising.

That intermission score reflected fiercer defenses than either team showed. Your uncoordinated correspondent here would be the last to suggest any absence of manly striking out there, but a lot of arm-tackling got interspersed with the big collisions.

Both Manning and Chad Pennington were missing by inches, and balls skidded off the fingertips of both Anthony Fasano and Ted Ginn on the Dolphins side. They were not necessarily passes that should have been caught, but there's something to the theory that any time a receiver touches a ball, he should catch it.

Maybe, then, it is fair to say of this first half: The passing was as bad as the catching, and as good. Maybe, too, the sweltering 84-degree setting took something away from both teams. That would particularly apply to Colts unused to this kind of sweating.

In any case, any screen-watcher who nodded off for the evening at halftime was entitled.

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