Jay Fiedler played well, didn't make any serious mistakes (that is, he didn't turn the ball over) and threw one touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden on a perfectly timed slant that could have come from Dan Marino. He did a good job looking off the coverage downfield, finding the open man and scrambling to get himself out of trouble a couple of times.

Fiedler's stats weren't all that spectacular - he completed 15 of 24 for 134 yards with 1 touchdown - but 4 of his passes were dropped and he did what was needed to ensure the victory.

But the biggest star of the day on offense was Lamar Smith, who ran 27 times for 145 yards, which turns out to be a 5.4 yard per carry average. He had a lot of help from the offensive line, which did a fine job opening holes for him and protecting Fiedler. At the end of the day, Dolphins' running backs had totaled 181 rushing yards at a pace of 4.4 yards per carry.

The Dolphin defense was superb, with Sam Madison picking off John Kitna twice in the first half, Patrick Surtain getting a third pick and Brock Marion coming up with an interception just before halftime. And all these interceptions (along with a fumble recovery) happened in the first half.

The run defense was just as solid as we've come to expect, even though the stats don't show that as well. According to the stats, Ricky Watters ran 11 times for 59 yards, which is over a 5 ypc average. However, what the stats don't say is that Watters had one run of 36 yards on a draw that was called just when the Dolphins were blitzing and 10 other carries for 23 yards - a 2.3 ypc average.

In fact, the 36 yard draw play was the only decent offensive play the Seahawks managed all afternoon. Ricky Watters was the only player on Seattle's offense who looked the least bit dangerous. Their leading receiver from a year ago - Shawn Dawkins - didn't catch a single pass in this game.

The game started with the Dolphins taking the opening kickoff and driving down the field on the running of Lamar Smith to the Seattle 4, where Lamar bulled his way into the endzone. It was an unusual touchdown for the Dolphins on their first drive of the game.

Then came a series of turnovers, with Miami picking up 3 field goals off of Seattle miscues, until the end of the 2nd quarter, when Jay Fiedler hit Oronde Gadsden for a touchdown. This was Miami's last score, but it put the game well out of reach of the Seahawks.

In the second half, Miami played it very conservatively and didn't score any more points, although they came very close on a Lamar Smith 36 yard run to the Seattle 1 yard line. However, the ball was knocked out of Lamar's hands through the endzone and out-of-bounds. According to NFL rules, this was a touchback for Seattle and they got the ball, even though they didn't recover the fumble.

My opinion, before reviewing the game tape, is that this is about as good a performance as I could have expected from Miami on opening day. I was hoping for a good game, but I didn't really expect the level of domination that Miami exhibited over Seattle today.

Seattle was never in this game. From the opening drive to the end of the game, Miami dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage. Miami's offensive line opened good running lanes for Lamar Smith and protected Jay Fiedler well. Fiedler didn't make any big mistakes and Lamar Smith continued to run as he had through the pre-season.

There were a number of small mistakes made by Miami's offense, including several dropped passes by Tony Martin that he should have caught. Those dropped passes and Lamar Smith's fumble took two scores away that Miami could have had and then the magnitude of the victory would have been that much more impressive.

But it was impressive enough. The Dave Wannestedt era in Miami has opened with a bang and not a whimper. I will write a more detailed review tomorrow.